FE - Europeans and the Indigenous People: Colliding Worlds (Lesson)

Europeans and the Indigenous People: Colliding Worlds

As the Europeans were exploring the world, at the same time the Europeans at home were increasingly aware of the vast array of goods that were available in Asia. Europeans had been trading over the very long routes of the Silk Road for centuries, but the new maritime technologies in development made travel faster and the goods from Asia less expensive. The Europeans searched for faster, easier routes to Asia, and explorers like Christopher Columbus began to look westward.

What they didn’t expect to find were the vast continents of the Americas between Europe and the Orient!

The Portuguese began trading in Africa and searching for gold because of the development of the versatile caravels which allowed them to sail north along the west coast of Africa---an impossible task before the advances in sailing vessels.

As a result of their trading in Africa, the Portuguese began acquiring Africans to enslave to work on their sugar plantations in the Azores and Canary Islands. Their trade networks in Africa expanded and other Europeans began to search for ways to exploit Africa and to find faster routes to the Orient.

The African slave trade developed into a profitable international enterprise that changed the Atlantic World forever.

The Spaniards soon surpassed the Portuguese as explorers and colonizers. The Spaniards subjugated indigenous people in Mesoamerica and South America and justified their conquests by labeling their activities as “civilizing” the indigenous people and asserting their superiority over the native people. Many of the people who survived the conquerors died of the many diseases the Spaniards unknowingly carried from Europe.

The Spaniards established their own governmental bureaucracy in the New World—they established institutions like the Catholic Church to convert the Native Americans to Christianity and implemented Spain’s legal code while they also established the encomienda system which utilized the Indians as their labor force.

After Columbus, many other Spaniards arrived. They were followed by Europeans from other nations including Portugal, France, the Netherlands, and eventually England. Europeans came for a variety of reasons: to find trade routes, to gain riches such as gold, to convert the American Indians to Christianity, and some for adventure.

In general, the Dutch and French were more interested in the fur trade and business ventures. Their record is far from perfect; however, overall, they had a more peaceful relationship with the American Indians. They sought to trade with them as opposed to directly conquering territory and subjugating the native tribes. The center of Dutch settlement became known as New Netherland (today New York) and the French established New France (today Canada) with its largest settlement being Quebec City.

American Indian culture was forever changed by the arrival of the Europeans. Entire people groups were decimated by disease. Interaction with the Europeans also provided Native Americans with guns and alcohol which often had destructive results by increasing conflict between tribes as well as with the Europeans themselves.

It is important to remember that many of the American Indian groups were hostile to each other and conflict continued among these people groups. In many cases, alliances with European powers contributed to new conflicts.  

One example of American Indian resistance to European colonization was the Pueblo Revolt, also known as Pope’s Rebellion, in 1680. The Pueblo Indians of the American Southwest (near Santa Fe, New Mexico) rebelled against their Spanish colonizers and drove them out for a time. Twelve years later the Spaniards were able to retake the territory. However, in the years following the Pueblo Revolt, there was a move toward more acceptance of indigenous culture by the Spaniards.

 

 

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