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.
You may ask are the Aztecs a powerful empire? I do believe the Aztecs were a powerful empire. Actually, they were a very powerful empire, but just ended up dying because of some of their beliefs, mistakes, and some Spaniard coincidences. First, the Aztecs lost to the Spaniards because they thought the Spaniards were their gods. Hernando Cortes and his crew had some of the attributes of their god, red hair, beard, all that, and ended up thinking their gods were returning to them.
The British showed discrimination throughout history towards the Irish, for they treated them in an extremely mean manner. The English colonizers thought of them as sluggish people, who were criminals, and formed a two-tiered social structure; in addition they were prevented from purchasing land, bear office and could not marry other colonizers (Takaki 27). Altjough race was not the deciding factor for this discrimination, the English showed they felt superior to another group. The Irish were thought to be savages and this same type of thoughts was then directed toward Indians, for the first English colonizers in the New World found that the Indians reminded them of the Irish (29). However, with the Indians, race played a factor because they were of dark complexion unlike the Irish and the English wondered if they were different kinds of savages.
The language barrier created confusion and conflict for the Europeans and Native Americans in 1492 when these two groups met for the first time. Neither group of people was familiar with the other group, nor were they able to speak or understand the language of the other group. Almost immediately, this created uncertainty and distrust between the Indians and the Europeans. Even though the Native Americans wanted to be allies, the Europeans felt the Native Americans to be inferior and naïve. Therefore, the Europeans decided to make the Native Americans slaves in order to create a cheap labor force.
Europeans survived in the Americas solely because of their relations with the Indians. Europeans would accrue great profits from trade with the Indians. The Indians, however, would suffer because of their contact with the Europeans. Whenever Indians would encounter their European counterparts, their dealings would almost ultimately result in violence and spread of disease. Based on the above, it is evident that only Europeans benefited from contact in North America.
In The Broken Spears, Miguel Leon recounts several reasons as to why the Spaniards had an advantage over the Aztecs when conquering them. Some of the most important information in The Broken Spears had to do with both the advantages and exploitations the Spaniards used over the Aztecs. For instance, the Aztecs thought the Spaniards were gods and must succumb to their demands simply through the way the Spaniards looked. Their clothing and physical features led the Aztecs to believe that they were god like and thus showered them with various gifts. This was a major advantage for the Spaniards because it basically implied that the Spanish had control over the Aztecs.
They were a more isolated human, so when the Europeans came and took over there immune systems were not at all prepared to face and fight back al;l the diseases that came there way. The European diseases were communicable and that therefore caused these illnesses to move faster and to cause death tolls to rise even faster than ever before. In some cases Indians were infected severely before even coming into direct association with the Europeans. The one disease that really got the Indians by the neck was smallpox. This disease killed tens of thousands of Indians in the New World.
They would give them items such as alcohol, guns, textiles, metal tools, and pots in return for the elite furs. As the demand for furs rose, they began to corrupt the nature of animals that the Indians followed. Unknowingly the French also killed many natives through illness; the goods that the French offered to the natives carried diseases and led to the death of many Indians because of their lack of immunity. The relationship between the Spanish colonists and the Indians was a callous one and only benefited the Spanish. In the 1500s, the Spanish arrived in the New World with the intent to convert natives to Catholicism, trade, and discover riches.
Racism "Racism breeds racism in reverse." These words so candidly written by Mary Crow Dog, a Lakota Sioux, describe the reverse effect indian boarding schools had upon their pupils. These old Indian boarding schools were intended to push Native Americans into accepting a new way of life as a white man. In lieu of attempting to live peacefully along side the Natives, the white settlers felt they had to force the Indian population to become "civilized". The word civilized, as defined by Websters, means to have an advanced or humane culture, society, etc.. White men did not see the Indian culture as advanced or humane and therefore began forcing white man's way of life upon the Native American Tribes.
Apess begins his story talking about the conditions of the reservation that Indians are living in and having to deal with, and blames the white men for these conditions. This is due to them “supposedly” being the masters or overseers’ of the reservations. He talks about how the white men could care less if the Indians lived or died. That the white men would take a lot of the Indians vegetation and taking their timber which is of most value to the Indians or any other items for free and then selling it to get a profit for themselves off of it. He feels that with no education the Indians are feel they cannot take care of themselves or their land.