After the Fact Assignment 1
According to “Europe on the Eve of Exploration” the most important “consequences” of the first contact was that the Europeans brought over diseases, which had a catastrophic effect on the Native American population, religious beliefs, different social structures and non- native plant and animal species, not to mention the destruction of entire civilizations.
Before contact, according to several of the reading materials, there were many tribes that were constructed into nations among the people. Within these groupings they had several different languages and they had their own oral traditions and faith in shamans and their own tribal leaders. As stated in the article “If we were to take a Polaroid snapshot of NA society just before large scale European penetration of the Western Hemisphere, we would see a people of immense cultural diversity” i
With the arrivals of the Europeans it caused the tribes oral traditions to die with their elders, loss of faith in their leaders and a weakened structure overall. Also ninety percent of the Native American population was killed off with the arrival of the Europeans. According the You Tube video by 500 nations when Columbus landed the people were very generous to him and even saved his crew from wreckage? Columbus gave the chief a red cape as a gift of gratitude and in return the chief gave Columbus a golden tiara. In Columbus’s mind this was the chief giving up his power, which was very arrogant. Before his contact the islanders had over one million natives, when Columbus returned to the island he did so with an army and enslaved all of the people. As stated by 500 Nations “the invaders came prepared to take their provisions by force.”ii After De Soto came and wreaked havoc all over America he killed almost all who crossed his path. As quoted by this video, “…[the] population that Las Casas had estimated at two million was officially reported extinct”. ii
So with the arrival of the Europeans came destruction and greed for money and