Exploration Conflict Essay, Research Paper
& # 8220 ; Human life is reduced to existent agony, to hell, merely when two ages, two civilizations and faiths, overlap. & # 8221 ; Stated by Albreight Von Haller. Human life, during the find of the new universe was reduced to existent agony. When the European adventurers came across the seas, they brought their ain ideas, beliefs, and ways of life, while the indigens already held a strong history and independent civilisation. Native Americans and the Europeans conflicted culturally with their spiritual beliefs, militarily, and their readings of land. The spiritual beliefs of the European adventurers were wholly from the bible. God made adult male and gave him complete control, as shown here in the book of Genesis 1:26. & # 8220 ; Then God said, & # 8220 ; Let us do adult male in our image, in our similitude, and allow him govern over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the farm animal, over all the Earth, and over all the animals that move along the ground. & # 8221 ; ” The Europeans idea of the native peoples as pagans or non trusters because they did non believe in the Christian God. In one case the Spanish Explorers forced native Americans to give up their ain spiritual imposts. Barbra Mcall the writer of The European Invasion describes how the Pueblo people were out to idolize the Great Spirit in ways they had done for centuries. The Indian people conducted ceremonials and other traditional activities in secret, until the Spanish found out about the secret assemblages. As a effect the Pueblo people were viciously beaten and even fire at the interest. Another manner the Europeans and indigens conflicted was militarily. The Europeans came from a much more advanced society. During geographic expedition they traveled with many work forces and better arms than the Indians. In the 1500? s, when geographic expedition to the new land foremost started there were more Thursdaies
an 1 million native people living here, by the end of the 1800?s their population had reduced to an estimated 200,000 people, a fact from The Invasion Within, written by James Axtell The concept of land is one more example of the differences between the natives, and the European explorers. Native Americans believed the land and its riches were gifts from the Great Spirit and should be treated with the utmost respect. Tzvetan Todorov talks about the Indian perspective in her book The Conquest of America, saying. The idea of owning land had been unknown to the Native Americans, many chiefs signed treaties of land ownership to the settlers, but did not comprehend what was meant by the agreement.. While the settlers used these treaties as legal rites to alter the land, and kill the animals. These misunderstandings grew into bigger problems, and even battles. Thus, the native Americans and the European explorers had many cultural confrontations. Throughout history there were some examples of cooperation among the Indians and settlers. The Indians taught the settlers how to grow maize and live off the land better. Settlers showed the Indians many things and even brought over the first horse to the Indians. Although there were some examples of cooperation, generally speaking the American Indians were invaded and treated very poorly because they were misunderstood.More important is the ethical question Tzvetan Todorov raises, “How should one behave with representatives of other cultures? Can we accept them as different, yet equal and worthy of respect?” Even in today?s society we pray we will be able to learn from other cultures instead of ignorance and prejudice. Even today it is still hard to accept people with different ideas and different cultures. Hopefully, we will learn from the European invasion of the Indians, and try to accept other cultures as worthy of respect.
