The French’s trip to Cape Fear in 1524 is what led to the report back to France about the New World. The French were only looking for a means of extra income. The Indians and the French mixed well together as they both solely wanted to trade. The Indians benefited from the French products such as Iron. The French possessed a high interest in the furs that the Indians had made.
Main Points The Hurons were very important to the early French settlers. They were not only a great source of fur trade to French, but also French missionaries lived with them and expanded their religious practices to convert the First Nations people to Christianity. They fought alongside the French to protect themselves and French against Iroquois. For economic incentive and settlement, French didn’t bother to learned native people’s culture. The European colonizers were not happy with the Indians’ customs but could not avoid liking their sagacity in economic and political issues The Huron assumed a dominant position in these trading relationships and the Jesuits record that when the Algonquians had dealings with them, they did so in the Huron language since the latter did not bother to learn Algonkia-1As trade with the French increased, the Huron began to appreciate French goods and to want more of them.
Economic factors were a chief motivation for colonization to European countries. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany believed conquering primitive areas would help build up industry and agriculture. He also thought it could help build up a fleet of ships and is quoted “Our future lies upon the water.” (doc 1). Other leaders such as Jules Ferry of France saw these places as shelters, ports for defense, and provisioning (doc3). John Hobson, an English economist, saw imperialism as inevitable, for powers of production outpace consumption resulting in more profit for the mother country (doc 2).
This might have been seen as being selfish to other countries, which is why other nations eventually started taxing goods from France. Minimizing imports was not the only measure France took to keep their money. They also built a large navy to protect against smugglers. The actions taken because of Colbert’s Mercantil system made France very wealthy, and eventually was adopted in all parts of the world to create wealth. The surpluses of money that Mercantilism creates still finance wars all around the globe in the 21st Century, and it is amazing that Colbert invented it back in the 17th Century.
The wars meant it had expense and disrupt in trade. Example of this was the west coast ports depended on trade from West Indies and American colonies which was disrupted during the war time. This affected France because due to the lack of trade and industries got disrupted and the workers income was affected by this. These problems were multiplied because the end of the war was followed by economic depression. The political impact of France was the main factor that spread ideas.
The main reason for the natives’ enslavement was simply because Spain and Portugal viewed them as inferior and easily dominated them. The ways in which Spain and Portugal obtained their wealth were quite different. Spain having landed in a mineral rich environment saw immediate reward for their exploration and began shipping back the vast amounts of gold and silver they found. The ships that carried the gold and silver to Spain where called the Treasure Fleet; though other names were used such as: Silver Fleet, Plate Fleet, and West Indies Fleet. So great was the amount of silver the colonists shipped back that it caused inflation in Spain and hurt its economy.
The French colonies in the East brought a peaceful cooperation with the Indians. France engaged the Indians in their desire to expand the fur trade and likewise, the Indians found a new global market as they contributed greatly to the fur trade. However, in the West the Spanish entered the new territories with the intention of controlling the region and the local Indians by forcing them into unfree labor and a persistent drive to convert their religious beliefs to Catholicism. The Pueblo Indians rose up in a major rebellion in 1680 led by Pope`. The Pueblo Indians united and attached the missions, killing hundreds of the missionaries and driving them from their native lands.
These pioneers shared the same goals of Columbus, greed. They would go out and load ships with slaves, merchandise, spices and just about everything else that they could find to satisfy their needs. Beginning the of excerpt, “God, glory, and gold--not necessarily in that order--took post-Renaissance Europeans to parts of the globe they had never before seen” (1). This quote is a perfect example of religion also taking part in greedy necessities. During these arrival of European explorers, they began a new era of disease within the villages and caused the death of hundreds and hundreds of Natives.
Spanish missionaries and conquistadors sought to convert the people of the New World and establish dominance overseas. To do this, they needed the labor of African slaves, leading to another mass migration. This migration helped explode the population of the New World since so many people came to the Americas with the promise of cheap land and easy living. Migration was a heavy factor in the changes to the Native American population for this migration. The people of the Old World brought their diseases with them, which took advantage of the Native Americans inexistent antibodies toward illnesses like smallpox- which brought about massive and catastrophic population decreases for the Native Americans, about 80-90%.
Shamans, conjurers, medicine men, or anyone who had claimed special power lost respect and authority because their traditional therapies were not effective in curing the infectious diseases. The disaster also distorted their spirituality. Some tribes believed that only extensive hunting of animals could stop the diseases (Kraut 19). It led to the development of the fur trade that brought more attention of Europeans to the New World. Fertile lands of the New World abundantly multiplied many Europeans fauna and flora.