He is viewed upon as a hero by Americans for these reasons, and has even received a day dedicated to him. He is also credited for beginning the colonization of America, which he indisputably deserves recognition for. However, when one looks into colonization more, he or she can realize that it was not that good of an era due to the problems faced against the Native Americans, which will be mentioned later. When Columbus arrived in the west, he brought many items from the east that introduced a negative side of cultural diffusion. These "new" items provided a "culture shock" to the natives and many did not know how to deal with the changes.
Distorted History In Jane Tompkins’ essay, “‘Indians’: Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History,” she describes the problems she encountered during her historical research in search of finding the “truth” of what truly transpired between Native Americans and European settlers. Through several primary and secondary sources, Tompkins’ recognizes each source she acquired contained biased accounts. Initially, she concludes that the two dissimilar cultures, Native Americans and European settlers, caused the historian’s perspective to be different from other historians, which inevitably made finding the actual fact of what really happened impossible to detect. Although Tompkins originally concluded that facts are difficult to discover due to the clashing perspectives of historians corrupted by cultural upbringings, she finds that instead “perspectivism” distorted history. Tompkins eventually alters her conclusion that historians should be aware of the problems of perspectivism and base their assessment through finding reasons and evidence to support and make the judgment of facts determined by their position in history.
They showed us how to farm, showed how to hunt effectively, introduced medicine, showed the Invaders where gold was, amongst other incredibly influential tasks. Zelinsky goes on to discredit the Indians as if they are non-factors. In the text we read, “…Had the European colonists found an utterly unpopulated continent, contemporary American life would not have differed in any major respect from its actual pattern.” In my opinion I do not understand how Zelinsky can just discredit the existence of the Indians. I find it impossible to think that early North America would be the same without the contact with Indians. I share the shame viewpoint that DeVoto expresses.
The history of First Nation’s involvement in the battle between European nations in the colonizing of British North America is usually presented as one of irrelevance and unimportance; a Eurocentric point of view. However, that view is a misconception. First Nations did play a pivotal role in the battle between the French and English, even though they were never recognized for doing so. The fur trade was an important economic activity for both the French and British in the early part of North American history and First Nations played a key role in the fur trade. First Nations were also key forces in the military struggle between the French and British.
Populated by diverse groups of immigrants, the new world was a place that the Europeans could strip off their old lifestyle and be reborn. Only when the Europeans started to venture West, could this “perennial rebirth” take place (531). Traveling into an unknown land, the Europeans were caught off guard by the harsh environment. Turner stated that the environment was “too strong” for the Europeans to handle using the old world methods (532). By adapting and using the “Indian clearings and [following] the Indian trails,” they overcame the wilderness before long (532).
In colonial times, the earliest interactions between the Native Americans and the European settlers lead to different relationships between the two groups. But more often than not, the relationship wound up being negative, especially for the Native Americans. Two areas with negative relationships were the American southwest, controlled by the Spanish, and the Chesapeake Bay area, controlled by the English. In the southwest, as the settlers came into contact with the Native Americans, they became convinced that their every aspect was superior to the Native Americans. The main reason the Spaniards even bothered to interact with the Native Americans was to achieve their main goal in America, to find gold and other valuables.
Before the Europeans colonized the Americas, there were people that lived on the land. The Native Americans that inhabited these lands were not warned of the Europeans’ arrival, nor did they know that there were civilizations past the rocky shores of the Americas. To the colonists, the Americas were undiscovered lands that they intended to call their own. However, the Native Americans proved to be an obstacle in their plan. The Europeans looked down on the Native Americans and referred to them as “savages” because their society did not match their own.
ON CANNIBALS (1580) The discovery of so many new lands in the Renaissance had less impact on most Europeans than one might suppose. They were largely absorbed in recovering (and competing with) their own classical past and engaging in violent theological and political disputes among themselves. Yet some Europeans were profoundly shaken by the new discoveries into realizing that much of the world thought and lived very differently from what was then known as “Christendom.” No writer was more strongly moved to view his own society from a new perspective in the light of reports brought back of the habits of the natives of the “New World” than Michel de Montaigne. He began a long tradition of using non-European peoples as a basis for engaging in a critique of his own culture, undoubtedly in the process romanticizing what Jean-Jacques Rousseau would later call “the noble savage.” It is a theme which still appeals to many Westerners. What reason does Montaigne give for judging cannibalistic Native Americans to be preferable to Europeans?
By reading this book, I had hoped to find more information on the Aztecs to better argue my points on why I do not see them in the same light that most do. I accomplished this, but at the same time found out some disturbing facts that even surprised me; which is a rare feat in itself. The book summarizes parts of the Aztecs culture in every chapter. Von Hagen paints a masterful picture of the culture with ease. While he does this, it is apparent that he holds the Aztec culture in great regard.
Many of the Native Americans suffered from disease, starvation and death because of the forced relocation to the west. A change in climate and environment did not assist with the relocation of this society that had first existed on the American soil. This tragic incident is most remembered as the “The Trail of Tears”. Furthermore, the lack of compensation, by the government, to the Native Americans destroyed, the already diminishing, numbers of their eastern tribes. Many Americans opposed the removal of the Native Americans and argued that they too had been civilized and should be allowed to remain on the homelands, specifically Davey Crocket.