The New World

Author: Kiraberly Heck
Professor Clark
HST 114

In 1492 Christopher Colurabus headed across the Atlantic Ocean in order to find a trade route to India. When Colurabus finally reached land, he believed that he was somewhere near the Asian mainland. Where he had actually landed, was the Americas. Colurabus found, in America, that there were already people living and working the land. Later after exploring, Colurabus returned to Spain and told the monarchs of Castile and Aragon about what he had seen. How "rich for planting and sowing, for breeding cattle of every kind, for building towns and villages" (Out Of Many,32). Colurabus had paved the way for others to travel to the New World.
The Europeans called this place, where people were already living, a New World. To them it was a New World because they had never lived there before. The Europeans also felt American land was virgin. Virgin Land is defined as "land never touched by man" (Franklin). The land was touched by the Indians, but to the Europeans they were simply savages.
The Indians were very mislead by the European explorers. When the Europeans landed in the Americas, the Indians were very helpful and giving. They brought their calabashes full of water to the Europeans (Documents Set,13). The Indians were unaware of the hostile environment that was to lie ahead. "The first stages of the Spanish invasion of America included frightful violence. Armies led by conquistadors marched across the Caribbean island, plundering villages, slaughtering men, and capturing women" (Out Of Many,33). This was just the beginning of encomienda, an early form of slavery. Indians later made poor slaves, because they were unreliable. Indians did everything to get out of slavery "many took poison, others hanged themselves"(Out Of Many,33). That is why the African slave trade was started. African slaves were not living in the Americas, until they were shipped in 1441. Both were considered savages though. "I had never seen among any people such instance of brutal cruelty; and this not only shown towarRAB us blacks, but also to some of the whites themselves"(Documents Set,45).
As societies and communities were forming the Old World, diseases took over the New World. Indians hadn’t been exposed to the new diseases and were dying quickly from a nuraber of them. Diseases such as smallpox, measles, pneumonia, and malaria were extremely destructive" (Out Of Many,35). These diseases took out many tribes because it spread though the trade routes. This is usually known as "virgin soil epidemics" (Out Of Many,35).
When societies were stable, Indians were starting to become more involved with trade. Most Indians traded for rum or other commodities "European trade gooRAB and European alcohol contributed to the destabilization of Indian societies" (WTUD,79). In exchange, Indians traded fur or skins. After a while, their dependence on the Europeans could be evidenced by such statements as, "The clothes we wear we cannot make ourselves. They are made for us. We use their ammunition with which to kill deer. We cannot make our guns. Everything necessary of life we must get from the white people"(WTUD,79). "Seeing we deprive ourselves of a part of our corn, our game, and fish, to give a part of them"(WTUD,91), these are views of the Indians.
The Europeans started to change the environment by cutting down trees, and building roaRAB, houses, churches. The Indians thought all the work they were doing was pointless, and ruined the land. Some Indians expressed their views about the changes to their homeland by saying, "you have your ways and we have ours" (WTUD,44). Others differently stated, "you come to destroy my country" (WTUD,39). All the work the Europeans were doing was driving away the wildlife and damaging the Indians’ crops. The livestock ate the majority of it. On the other hand the Europeans thought the economy was booming. They had "gold, silver, corn, potatoes, beans, vanilla, chocolate, tobacco, and cotton all in their new world" (Out Of Many,37). Europeans needed more land for crops but the Indians said "we won’t sell our land" (WTUD,87). The selling of land was all new to the Indians they didn’t understand that once the land was sold, they couldn’t hunt, fish, of grow crops on it. Indians believed that land is not a commodity to be shared. There shouldn’t be exclusive rights to ownership.
"Although the growing season was short, habitants were able to produce subsistence crops by employing Indian farming techniques, and eventually they developed a modest export economy" (Out Of Many,53). The Indians showed the Europeans how to use the land and what types of crops to use. They also showed them how to use complicated math and the patterns of the moon and sun to predict seasons. The Europeans showed the Indians the use of irrigation for crops. Europeans also brought over the horse. The Indians didn’t know what it was or how to use it. "Indians found it terrifying, mistaking mounted men for four-legged monsters"(Out Of Many,34). "The (Indian) family farm economy operated though the corabined efforts of husband and wife. Men were generally responsible for field work, and women for the work of the household, which included tending the kitchen garden… Women managed an array of tasks "(Out Of Many,62). Europeans didn’t agree with the women working the fielRAB. A European women would never be caught doing some of the tasks put upon the Indian women.
Economic freedom for all and freedom for all only applied to the Europeans. The Indians were not free, because a lot were either slaves or servants. Almost all of the opportunities were for the Europeans. That’s why the Indians revolted so much, by doing such things as ruining their tools or going slow in the fielRAB. The Indians thought that both they and the Europeans could "walk as frienRAB, in the same path… assist them to build, and to labor in their fielRAB"(WTUD,91). The Europeans took advantage of that.
"The Christian mission in the New World was to convert the Indians to Christianity" (Out of Many. 34) Many of the first explorers of the new world were Catholic missionaries. These missionaries were often the first Europeans that the Native Americans came into contact with. Many of the religious demanRAB that the missionaries placed on them were strange to them and extremely hard to deal with. "The Pueblos found the Franciscan practice of subjecting themselves to prolonged fasts and tortures like self-flagellation completely inexplicable" (Out of Many, 50). In the process of spreading their own religion, the missionaries destroyed many aspects of the natives spiritual beliefs. "They destroyed sacred Indian artifacts, publicly humiliated holy men, and compelled whole villages to perform penance" (Out of Many, 50).
The missionaries did not accept the native religions, but tried to convert and eliminate the original beliefs of the natives. Indian priests were often tortured and killed, in an effort to convert them. The missionaries believed that they were doing God’s will by converting the natives (Out of Many, 50-51).
The Europeans and the Indians were both very superstitious. Each believed in a higher being. The majority of the Europeans were very religious, but the Indians did a lot of rituals and spoke to a different higher being than the Europeans. The Europeans spoke to God.
Christianity was not the only form of politics in the Americas. The Europeans were involved in Indian politics and their way of living. The power of the usage of land was a great controversy. Also, slavery has always been a debate in the United States.
In conclusion, the Europeans greatly affected the Indians in every aspect of their lives. From land use and freedom, to religious rights. You can even say that from the time of the arrival of Christopher Colurabus, life in the Americas has been greatly altered by the Europeans.


Works Cited

Faragher, John Mack, et al. Out Of Many: A History Of The American People. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, 2000.

Faragher, John Mack, et al. Out Of Many: A History Of The American People Documents Set. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, 2000.

Calloway, Colin G. The World Turned Upside Down. New York: Boston, 1994.

Franklin, Bookman: Dictionary & Thesaurus. 1987-1994.