By most Europeans accounts the settlement of the western Hemisphere brought civilization to an uncivilized people. What they failed to understand was that the Indians had their own beliefs and ways of life that benefited their native population. The Native Americans for example were skilled hunters, farmers and used everything in their environment for survival or for essential necessities. They shared the land together and moved about freely in search of food. According to historian James Axtell, “the basic unit of social membership in all tribes was the exogamous clan, a lineal descent group determined through one parent.” (Divine, 9) Women owned the planting fields and houses and they maintained tribal customs.
And the men owned the hunting grounds that the family needed to survive. So this all changed when the Europeans came. Indeed, the first time Indians had contact with the Europeans was in the Caribbean islands. . The Spanish tried to convert the Indians to European ways. When the Indians refused, the Spanish were very harsh with them. For instance, villages were burned, hundreds of Indian men, women and children were kidnapped and shipped to Europe to be sold as slaves. Furthermore, the conquerors brought with them many diseases such as measles, small pox, and influenza. In fact, these were diseases that the Indians were not immune to them.
Later on when the English arrived in Virginia, the Indians had mixed feelings about them. They felt hostile due to their past experiences they had with the Spanish explorers. So they ended up attacking one of the English ships that landed there. Eventually after the British were able to settle in Jamestown, Virginia, they found themselves living in territory controlled by one of the most powerful Indian leaders, Powhatan. Powhatan helped them through the winters. He was hospitable toward them and he provided them with food. He was disappointed that the English did not return his hospitality. He also felt that the English were invading his people and they were trying to possess his country. Moreover, since the colonists were dependent on the Indians for food, Captain Smith decided to establish trade with the Indians for food. But when negotiations failed, he decided to take what he wanted by force. Therefore, the good relations between them did not last and Powhatan was force to fight the English. Unfortunately, it ended up in a complete destruction of the Powhatan Empire.
The Report on You Rendered Me Invisible: Occlusion of Caste in Indian English Fiction
Vijayalakshmi Nair, HOD, Dept. of English, Burhani College of Com. & Arts, Nesbit Road, Mazagaon, Mumbai 400010. Mobile: 9930316898 email id: [email protected] You Rendered Me Invisible: The Occlusion of Caste in Indian English Fiction “It will not be denied, I think, that until V.P.Singh decided to implement the Mandal Commission Report, caste had no place in the narrative milieu of the ...
As a large number of white men and women continued arriving in North America, it altered Indian cultures. For instance, the conquest strained traditional ways of life so native people had to find new ways to survive. According to Historian James Merrell,” The Indians found themselves living in a world that from their perspective was just as “new “as that which greeted the European invaders” (Divine 9).
Indian communities felt the need to develop different strategies for dealing with the European settlers. Some chose to resist, some fled their homelands, and some didn’t compromise. “Cultural misunderstandings and intolerance plagued Indian-European relations, hampering negotiations and sometimes leading to violent confrontations.”(AmericanPassages).
For example, the Indians learned that by resisting the British, it usually ended in the suspension of trade, on which the Indians were depending for guns and other things. Thus, from the perspective of the Native American, the Indians suffered more than any other group
When Sir Edwin Sandys reorganized the colonies along the James River, more forests were increasingly being cleared for tobacco plantations. This led to more encounters with the Indians who felt very bitter about their lands being taken from them. And to make matters worse, the English tried to convert the Indians to Christianity. What more could the Indians do except attempt to retake what was truly theirs from the beginning.
The Essay on Indian Society Indians Europeans Family
During the 16 th and 17 th centuries, when the Europeans started to come over to the new world, they discovered a society of Indians that was strikingly different to their own. To understand how different, one must first compare and contrast some of the very important differences between them, such as how the Europeans considered the Indians to be extremely primitive and basic, while, considering ...
It seems then that cruelty and greed were prevalent in the early history of all the European nations dealings with the Indians. Even though the Indians were hospitable to them the Europeans considered them barbaric. They viewed Indians as uncivilized in need of their protection and salvation. Thus, they thought it was best to had them change there way s and adapt to theirs. So, they felt it was their responsibility to civilize the Indians and put their lands into good uses. Thereby, having them give up what they believed in and what worked best in their lives.
Reference:
America past and present, volume I, Divine Breen and Fredrickson Williams,copyright 2002
http://www.learner.org/amerpass/unit03/context_activ-2.html
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/learn/features/timeline/colonial/indians/indians.html
