Varying European and Native Motives and the Collision of Cultures in North America - Essay Example

?Running Head: Varying European and Native Motives and the “Collision” of Cultures in North America Thinking Historically: Writing Papers Based on Primary Sources [Name of Student] [Name of Institution] Introduction The economic, political, cultural, and social development of the North American Republics could be traced to the colonial beginnings in the 16th Century. However, these developments did not start or stop with the coming of the European colonial masters to North and South America; in fact, even the natives had their own cultures and developments before the coming of the colonists. However, when the colonists arrived from Europe, a lot of conflicts emerged as each group endeavored to preserve its cultures. Through the clashing of these interests and motives, a collision of cultures sprung up in North America, resulting in the multicultural society that is North America. The conflicting motives began at the initial stages of European invasion of North America. In 1666, George Alsop asserted that poor Europeans should come to America as indentured servants bound by legal contracts that reflected debts or purchase obligation. On the contrary, Gottlieb Mittelberger was of the opinion that poor Europeans should not come to America as indentured servants. This thus paper explores the influence that the natives’ and the Europeans’ motives had on the collision of cultures in North America (Dudley & Chalberg, 1996). The Motives The clashing of the natives’ and the colonists’ interests and motives has been described by historians and political scientists as a major factor in the current collision of cultures in North America. In fact, the collision of cultures has permeated various aspects of peoples’ lives in North America including food, religion, law, political dispensation and art such as music and literature (Henretta & Brody, 2009). Importantly, it is noteworthy that the collision of cultures occurred as the largely diversified immigrants came from all corners of the world. The motives of the natives and the Europeans were equally diverse. While some of these immigrants came for economic reasons, others came for religious and political motives such as to colonize the Americas. Consequently, there had to be struggles among the natives and the Europeans who formed the bulk of the immigrants coming into North America. These collisions of cultures took different forms ranging from ethnic, religious, economic, and political dimensions. Importantly, it should be noted that the conflicting interests did not only pit native North Americans and the European immigrants against each other but there were also conflicts with African slaves in North America and the other nations with vested interests in North America (Henretta & Brody, 2009). Fortunately, the efforts made by all the stakeholders to reduce the cultural, political, religious, and economic conflicts of interests have made North America the multicultural society it is today. The European Colonization of North America The European colonization of North America and the enslavement of West Africans presented a collision of the three cultures that had been developing and existing at different lines since time immemorial. Central to the collision of these cultures were the various individual and collective/national ambitions and impulses of the European colonists and North American Natives. Among the goals targeted by the colonizers of the New World for which their ambitions were burning included long-standing demographic changes, religious expansion, international rivalries and economic gains. At the forefront in the efforts for religious changes were the Protestant Reformists who wanted to spread their religion to the New World. The collision of cultures in North America thus not only yielded biological exchanges but also new religious dispensations that re-defined both the Old and New Worlds (Henretta & Brody, 2009). The attitudes of the immigrating colonizers towards the Native Americans and the African slaves were thus shaped by their various motives and experiences before their migration into the New World. The arrival of the French, English, and the Dutch particularly affected the regions that would become North America. However, New Mexico and the Southwest America were affected most even before the coming of the English, the Dutch and the French. That the conquering motives of Europeans and the resistance offered by the natives of North America played a significant role in the subsequent collision of cultures in North America cannot be disputed. For instance, there were cultural motives among the Europeans to instill their cultures and practices in the natives while the natives’ motives were to preserve their culture from erosion by the immigrant customs and cultures (Henretta & Brody, 2009). In other terms, since both communities had to exist together, there had to be cultural interaction and collision between them. The early cultural interaction of Native North America people, slaves from West Africa, and the Europeans resulted in the many cultures, which currently characterize North America. By conquering North American natives and enslaving West Africans, the European colonial masters created new empires through the many centuries of cultural interactions that followed. Although these interactions were mainly beneficial to the European powers, they were quite disastrous to the enslaved West Africans and the occupied North American cultures (Dudley & Chalberg, 1996). Nevertheless, these cultural interactions and collisions transformed all the three cultures over the centuries, resulting in the collision of cultures in North America. It is worth noting that although the coming of the Europeans led to collisions of motives and cultures in North America, the natives that received the Europeans in the 16th Century were already diversified in a number of ways. This diversification was evidenced by the more than 300 languages spoken by the natives when the European immigrants first set foot in North America. In other words, the way of living of the natives of North America varied greatly when the Europeans started streaming into North America. Among the culturally distinct and powerful empires that existed in North America and resisted the erosion of their culture and interests by the Europeans were the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru built great empires the Mississippians who were great farmers and the Pueblo people who occupied the Southwest towns of what is now the United States (Dudley, 1996). The demand of slaves for the New World trade resulted in an increased slavery by the European powers. To satisfy their trade motives and hunger for wealth, they had to exploit the slave trade in the Islam-dominated West Africa. It should be noted that before the heightened slave trade by the European traders and farmers in North America, slaves in West Africa were former criminals who were punished by being made slaves. However, with the increased need of manpower in European farms in North America, slave trade not only increased but also changed, with African Kings in states such as Togo and Benin acting as slave trade middlemen. The face of slavery in West Africa changed hence forth as slave raids were conducted in interior territories of West Africa and sold to European slaver owners (Dudley & Chalberg, 1996). With their capture, the mainly bantu-speaking slaves brought their culture to North America. Besides their ethnic and language groups, the slaves had different economic activities with some being hunters and farmers while others were fishermen. On the other hand, the Europeans brought and developed the necessary technologies and wealth, as required by their motives to explore North America further and maximize the use of its resources. The biological and cultural collisions of Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans thus played quite a central role in defining the North American history. However, it is the Europeans who not only initiated the contacts that resulted in these cultural collisions but also regulated and dictated the terms of the interactions (Dudley & Chalberg, 1996). As earlier stated, the collision of cultures began as a disaster for the Native Americans such as the Indians. The Indians and the Europeans Perhaps the North American Indians were among the most affected Natives in North America as far as the cultural influence of the Europeans was concerned. While some insisted that Indians and colonists should live in peace, other Europeans were of the opinion that the Indians should be conquered and exterminated (Dudley & Chalberg, 1996). This scenario prevailed despite the fact that the Indians of North and South America were quite diverse in their ethnic traits, linguistic groupings, and customs among other aspects of their lives. In fact, the Indians North of America was found in many ways to be more diverse than their counterparts in the South and Central America. For instance, while the Indians in the North lived in small tribes, those in Central America, the Aztecs, lived in large and powerful empires (Dudley & Chalberg, 1996). With game becoming more scarce by the day, the Indians dropped hunting for agriculture and soon become the best farmers of their times. They did not only develop new crops in the process but also refined and invented farming methods, which they shared with the European colonists. Many of the foods consumed in North America today such as the various bean species, potatoes, corn, and squash were in fact, developed by Native North American farmers. Furthermore, the Europeans had to adopt and survive on the hunting and farming practices of the Natives when they first arrived in North America. European and North American dietary habits were thus shaped by the Natives’ foods and the Europeans’ economic motives. In fact, the farming and spread of potato as food among the Natives of North America played a key role in influencing the immigration of the Irish and their culture into North America. Unfortunately, the impact of the interests and the motives of the immigrating Europeans disrupted and destroyed the Native American Indian culture. While some of the impacts of European culture on the Native cultures were spontaneous, others were deliberate. Similarly, the Indian and other native cultures also had impacts on European cultures, some of which were deeply significant. Ironically, it was some of the native cultures that made it possible for the Europeans to establish themselves in North America and to survive in the New World (Dudley & Chalberg, 1996). For instance, the Indians assisted the first New England Pilgrims to survive although some of their cultures were quite sophisticated for the Europeans. Conflicting power and political interests also shook up the power balance in North America, with the Europeans rating the Native people as inferior and replacing their governance structures. By this notion, the Europeans justified the harassment they meted on the natives, more so during their colonial rule over North America. The other conflicting motives that pitted the Europeans and the Natives were land and land ownership. For instance, while the Europeans believed in individual land ownership, such ideas were alien to most native communities such as the North American Indians. Although the Native Indians would periodically fight over the use to which a piece of land would be placed, the idea of individual land ownership was never part of in their culture (Dudley & Chalberg, 1996). In fact, land was considered sacred by the native Indian tribes in North America before the Europeans came. Even upon making land deals with the Europeans for the purchase of their land, the implications of their actions were more often unclear to them, resulting in further conflicts with the Europeans. Conflicting trade motives also featured prominently between the Europeans and the Natives as European traders expanded their interests in the local trade that was hitherto a preserve of the natives. Native Americans, Slavery, and other Controversies The Natives also faced a number of other problems and controversies due to their interactions with the Europeans. Slavery is one of the major issues that the Natives had to encounter. Although majority of native North Americans had practised slavery before the coming of the Europeans, the practice totally changed with arrival of European slave traders. In fact, the natives started to exploit slavery in large scale. Earlier, North American natives did not sell or buy slaves and considered the practice immoral. The Europeans on the contrary viewed slavery as moral (Dudley & Chalberg, 1996). With time, the natives started to interact with African and African American slaves at different levels resulting in more cultural interactions. Moreover, when both the Natives and Africans were enslaved in the 17th Century, the Native Americans in the South shared some of their experiences with their African counterparts. In the process of this enslavement, both Native and African slaves adopted some white cultures. The increased slave trade that followed resulted in a lot of tension between Europeans on one hand and the Natives and the enslaved Africans on the other. In addition to slavery, the controversies that Native North Americans encountered were the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 during which people took opposing stands (Dudley & Chalberg, 1996). For instance, while Cotton Mather defended the Salem Witch Trials, Thomas Brattle attacked the Salem Witch Trials. The collision of cultures in North America however had led to numerous benefits to the contemporary American society. First, people from different countries, continents, religious, economic, political, and cultural backgrounds co-exist peacefully in cities, towns, neighborhoods, schools, and workplace. Notably, it should be observed that while some Europeans laid more emphasis on the need to colonize North America for religious reasons, others accorded more weight on economic need. These clashing motives lead to different accounts of the Indians and other natives by the Puritan missionaries and captives (Dudley & Chalberg, 1996). Conclusion The opposing motives of the Europeans and the natives of North America are the main reasons for the collision of cultures that is apparent in North America even in modern times. These motives were not only political but also cultural, religious, economic and nationalist. While the Europeans wanted to gather more wealth and spread their culture and religion, the natives fought to ensure their trade was not interfered with or their cultures eroded. Nonetheless, these communities had to exist together, resulting in a multicultural society that is the modern North America. References Dudley, W., and Chalberg, J. C. (1996). Opposing viewpoints in American history, first edition. Greenhaven Press. Henretta, J. A., and Brody, D. (2009). America: a concise history, 4th edition. Bedford/St. Martin's. Read More