History

Essay Question1. The “new world” was not just a new world for Europeans. The Europeans Invasion so transformed the North American Landscape and the societies of American Indians that their world could be said to be “new” as well. Identify and discuss the major changes in Indians’ lives in the century following the establishment of permanent European settlements in North America. Are these changes dramatic enough to justify the concept of an “Indians” New World? The changes brought by the European Invasion created a new world indeed for the Native Americans. The first change was trade. Europeans traded guns and tools for precious furs; the result of such trade was increase of hunting and the following natural imbalance in the environment, and military imbalance between the tribes, where some tribes had guns and others did not. This trade altered almost every aspect of life for Native Americans, and in the end they became dependant on it, contributing to the economic growth of the colonies. (http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/history/ch1.htm)The second effect was huge devastation caused by diseases Europeans brought with them. Native Americans had no immunity for those, and whole communities died; later Europeans used smallpox to destroy the native tribes intentionally. (http://freetruth.50webs.org/A4a.htm)Besides guns, Europeans brought alcohol. Many Indians became alcoholics due to close communication with the settlers. Europeans recklessly destroyed American wildlife; they wiped out all the buffalo population; European hunters skinned animals, took fur and left meat to rot; they grazed their horses, they forced Native American tribes to move to other locations or, later, tied certain communities to certain territories, often useless and barren, thus ruling at their sole discretion without knowing or thinking about differences and peculiarities of the land. Christian missionaries began Christianize Native Americans by force; in particular, they did their best to baptize them before killing. Catholics saw Indian tribes as infidels and heathens, and applied truly inquisitorial measures to them. Later, when the settlers’ society became more or less stable, and the Native Americans rather more, then lass, suppressed, the local governments began ordaining laws concerning Native Americans, in fact turning them into rightless slaves. Most tribes were simply exterminated, people left became servants or were forced to live in extremely miserable conditions. In my opinion, all these changes, though these are only the most important, were enough to justify the term “New World” for the Native Americans. 2 .Colonial Euro-American women have been said to live in a “ Circumscribed world” that revolved around the family, the home, and the neighborhood. Described women’s world, including women’s legal status, experience of marriage and child bearing, work and relationships with parents and husband.It is commonly considered that life was hard for women in colonial America. Commonly their status depended upon the wealth of their family, their race and religion. Without a doubt, black women had almost no rights, and white servants had much fewer rights, then free white women. Unmarried women were supposed to be obedient to their fathers and marry according to economic benefits rather then …