From: Tim Patterson
Date: 1/24/00
Time: 6:50:17 PM
Remote Name: 155.247.168.59
Tim Patterson Writing Assignment 2 When historians say that Europeans conquered the Native Americans, what is meant is that the Europeans took control of the land and forced the peoples to submit to their will. There are four distinct factors that contribute to the Europeans ability to conquer the Native Americans: ethnocentricity, religion, disease and technology. The European and the Native American cultures both had very different senses of what was right and wrong. The Native Americans held all their land in common, and no sense of property. The Europeans on the other hand held land as property of the Christian God and therefore worth fighting for. The Native Americans weren’t accustomed to wearing dress and the Europeans were. These differences are what created a lot of the problems in Euro-Native relations. The Europeans hence viewed the Native Americans as savages and less than human. The Native Americans viewed the Europeans as different, but not as less then human. This point of view morally allowed the Europeans to violently force the Natives off their land. A second factor which contributed to the European conquering of the New World is religion. The European monarchs were all strong believers in Christianity and saw it their duty to ‘Christianize’ the rest of the world. The Native Americans on the other hand had their own religions and most didn’t take to kindly to the Gospel. Many converted, but others really didn’t take is seriously. The Pope gave the European nations the power to use force against those who wouldn’t willing convert. The Native Americans on the other hand didn’t practice such an aggressive religion and chose to peacefully follow their own. When they wouldn’t cooperate the Europeans reacted violently with war. One of the most dominant factors which led to the destruction of the Native American culture was disease. The Europeans brought over many diseases which the Native Americans were not prepared for and Small Pox and measles claimed the lives of many Natives. The only way the Native Americans could defend themselves from disease was either to flee the coast and go further into the country or trade for medicine with the English. The Natives became heavily dependent on the Europeans for trade and when necessary the Europeans would stop trade to weaken the Natives. When war broke out, the Natives had no supplies or technology and were easily defeated. For these reasons the Europeans conquered the Natives and took their land and destroyed their culture.