Saturday, January 18, 2014

The New World

After centuries of territorial expansion and the invasion of Europeans, they had made profound impacts in the cultural interaction between the culture of Europeans, Indians, and Africans in the New World. Notably, it was the conversion of the religion of the natives to the religion of the colonists. The Europeans’ view of uniform of true religion was necessary for the progress of civilization and social stability (Foner p.17, 18), so this did not only destroy the existing political structures of the Indians but also convert their economic lives and spirit (Foner p. 31). Today, a religion is a personal choice not a liability.

In relation to gender, according to page 15 and 16 of the text book, Indian women didn’t hide sex before marriage, and they could even choose to divorce husbands. Moreover, families in Indian society were matriarchal. At the time, a European married man controlled of family assets and his wife had no independent legal identity. In contrast, Indian women owned houses and stuffs, and the husbands moved in with their wives' families. However, there was no statutory mixed marriage, only the sexual abuse of slave owners.

The Europeans also advance the technologies, such as metal tools and machines, gunpowder, and the scientific knowledge necessary for long-distance navigation which gave them the ability to outperform the Aztec and Inca empires, as well as other cultures in North America (Foner, p.10). After two centuries of territorial expansion and the invasion of Europeans, they formed three new empires most powerful accumulation of wealth and land of indigenous people (Foner, p.113). At the same time, large numbers of European colonists migrated to the New World (Foner, p.114). The Europeans brought with them diseases that the native people had never been known to lead to a large number of Native American people have been killed in a series of spread of horrible diseases (Foner, p. 26). To meet the great demand for labor in the new colonies, the massive import of slaves from Africa began. After this, there were many American people who belonged to the next generations of the slaves. All of these significantly increased the population of the New World although war and disease had killed natives significantly.

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