Before the settlers, the Natives had a culture of their own.
They had their own set of beliefs and throughout time, it expanded with the
arrival of the settlers. This process of expantion ocurred due to the blending
of their culture and the settlers’. Trade existed way before the arrival of
these individuals to foreign lands. Trading of foods and goods between people
living in nearby lands took place before colonization.
The
Natives adapted rapidly to any environment they were in. They adapted quickly
because no matter what was in their way, they had a kinship network. Nowadays is more known as a clan. A kinship
network is were every single person being blood related or by marriage, is
taken into account as part of the family.
Native
Americans had a very particular way of seeing the land. According to them, the
land belonged to no one and could not belong to someone either. They had this
belief of people being able to share the land in certain way with authorization
of others. This particular way of viewing land caused the Native Americans to
have violent disagreements with Europeans. They clashed because they didn’t
shared the same views of land use.
One of
the mayor impacts the Europeans had with the Natives was the transmission of
certain diseases. These diseases were fatal to them because they had absolutely
no immunity towards them. Smallpox and measles were among the diseases that
were transmitted to the Native Americans. The Europeans were clueless about
being the ones causing the decline in the Native American population. Instead,
they believed that it was a sign from God meaning that they were meant to
conquer their lands. Conquering those lands was of much importance to the
Europeans for three reasons. They needed the land, for trading, and to
Christianize the Native Americans.
Europeans
in order to work more efficiently turned to West Africa looking for slaves.
Both of these countries had low interaction. Every now and then they traded
African godos in Exchange for gold until they realized that they could take
advantage of trading the West Africans themselves. Slavery was seen as an
opportunity of jobs to the West Africans. The term of slavery was nothing new
to the Africans because it already existed in their country before the
Europeans tok part of the slave trade. The only difference was that in Africa,
slavery was because of lineage and to the Europeans it was because African
people were seen as inferior.
After
the clash among the Europeans, Africans and Americans, the Spanish were on the
top of the list for invading the Americas. The conquistadores abolished much of
the culture they found in the Americas. They invaded those lands for glory,
God, and wealth. However, all they really cared was the wealth. They didn’t
destroyed completely the Native American culture, instead they used the encomienda system. This system made the
Natives work for the Spanish in farms, ranches, or mines in order for them to
blend with their societies.
The
Spanish had numerous colonies by the
1550s. The colonies are areas settled by immigrants who continue to be the
subjects of their parent country. People in the colonies were representatives
of their country in other lands.
The
Native Americans were usually disorganized in matters of showing resistance
towards the conquerors. However, in New Mexico the Pueblo people revolted
against the Spanish and expelled them in the Revolt of 1680.
The
English speaking people formed a body of colonies on the Atlantic coast of
North America by the late 1600s and early 1700s. These colonies played an
important role because of two reasons, they were suppliers of foods and goods
and they were avid buyers of English goods. These acivities fitted perfectly
with a new European theory called mercantilism
which supposedly made a nation’s wealth and power increase.
The
economy and the politics of the colonists served the interests of Great Britain
very well. The British realized that the
most salutary, or beneficial, policy was to neglect their colonies. Thus, later
historians would call British colonial policy the salutary neglect during the early 1700s.
There
were many controversies between many countries in the epoch of colonization. In
the end the side who had more power won but, there were a variety of
resistances involved from each side so in the end, every one won. They all won
because after a long period of fighting and clashes, they all went to separate
ways and thanks to that, the world is what it is nowadays.
