Colonial Era Dbq

The Pre Civil War Era was a Pax Romana a time of peace before the war.The Financial Panic of 1819 was the country's first major economic depressions. It was the beginning of the Pre Civil War Era. November 6 of 1860 Abraham Lincoln is elected as president of the United States. In office Abraham receives the first transcontinental telegraph message.

In “Times are Altered with Us Indians by Colin Calloway,” Indian peoples are shown to have created thriving communities before the Europeans arrived in their lands. They had developed long histories, effective fishing, farming, and hunting techniques, political systems and social structures, hundreds of languages, had advanced culturally in the form of artwork and architecture, as well as have far reaching networks of trade and communication, way before Europeans had “discovered America.” Once Europeans had arrived however, they had caused Native Americans prosperity to falter. The most devastating cause of change for the Indians were diseases like smallpox, plague, measles, yellow fever, and influenza brought by the Europeans, and caused several tribes to be completely wiped out and some tribes to only have a few survivors. The diseases, as well as alcohol, caused the social and political structure to be affected negatively because elders, providers, family members, healers, and counselors perished so all the resources and knowledge in these people perished with them and were not able to be passed on to the survivors. Eventually, Indian life began to be taken over by European ideals as a way to survive, by converting to Christianity, trading with the Europeans, having the Europeans interfere in their politics, and having war-caused by the Europeans- ruin their remaining communities. Indians role in colonial America are different than they are portrayed in traditional

In 1606, The Virginia Company was made to find gold and riches in the new lands. This company was made up of many Englishmen that wanted wealth and fame. So they left England and set out to go to the Americas. There were many rivalries and disagreements among the people of the ship, thus lead to trust issues. They were very confident that the Indian people there would help and give food to them. When the settlers arrived, they were too scared of the Spaniards at sea who were also settling near this area to see their real enemies. The Indians. The very people that the settlers trusted to receive food from. Because of their foolishness, many settlers died from Indians at the very beginning of their arrival.

The 18th century was just the beginning where it displayed the true connotation of the United States.The puzzle was revolved around past events that lead to the Civil War.It appeared that the Union was beginning to deteriorate.Nevertheless,South Carolina was the first in line to secede from the puzzle in 1860 where Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas,Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee followed that path one year later.From the issues of slavery to formal dialogues concerning the North and the South that ascended to settlements of both sides, the United States appeared inaudibly to be fabricating into one realm.

The colonists had, in the course of many years of British rule, developed their own culture and beliefs while still holding the British government in utmost respect. The colonies had slowly begun to unify their efforts and deny British rule. Between 1750 and 1776, the colonies united and formed the ultimate identity of the United States of America.

Throughout the 19th century, the American market saw drastic changes in infrastructure and production. The agriculture sector was no different, as new technologies and modes of transport led the way for farmers to sell goods and work their land, easier and faster. New laws and regulations also paved the way towards cheaper food throughout America. However, as prices dropped, and production flourished, a minority of Americans suffered the consequences of starvation, while farmers suffered low gains. The agricultural picture of the 1800s paints an image of new technologies and a transformed transport sector, which gave way to lower consumer prices and hardships for farmers.

Christopher Columbus then started exchanging ideas, plant life, and animals with the Native Americans (Beauchemin 1). One could agree that Metamuza is right about the Europeans negatively affecting the Native Americans after arriving in the Americas. “When Europeans arrived in the “New World” they were indeed generous. They brought smallpox, malaria, measles, influenza, and bubonic plague”, these diseases that the Europeans brought over drastically decreased the Native American population (Beauchemin 2). The Europeans also caused conflict among the Native Americans, “... a disease worse than smallpox, they brought a capitalist

There is data to suggest that around the beginning of the 16th Century, there were approximately 18 million Native Americans living in North America. By 1900 the population of the Indigenous peoples had declined to about 250,000. The common belief has been that this rapid decrease in population has been due to the disease that Europeans brought with them when they migrated to the “new world”. Historian Alfred W. Crosby writes that “it is highly probable that the greatest killer was epidemic disease, especially as manifested in virgin soil epidemics.” Many reports and essays focus on disease as the main killer of the Indigenous population, but few often look at how the European and Indigenous population responded to disease. The questions

Before Europeans landed in the Americas, Native Americans lived within various complex societies across modern day North and South America. Two of the greatest empires that existed at the time were the Aztecs located in modern central Mexico or at the time it was called Mesoamerica and the Incas located in modern Peru, these societies were unique because they were ruled by kings, nobles and warriors whereas most North American Natives were ruled by chiefdoms. North American Native’s religion consisted of animist quality- a belief that the natural world had spiritual powers. They applied this belief to everyday life- praying to be exempt from disease, good crops, and plenty of food. Some societies amongst many North American Natives were matriarchal for example in the Iroquois society power and possessions were passed down through the female line of authority. Most women were gatherers and watched over the towns and men hunted for food for their families, maize agriculture was popular amongst the Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes Natives. The Native Americans traded extensively before the Europeans arrived, for example there were annual trade fairs between the Navajos, Apaches and the Pueblos. In 1521, Hernan Cortes arrived in Mesoamerica and quickly overcame the Aztecs, not only by force but also disease. Europeans unknowingly brought many diseases, such as smallpox, influenza and measles, that the Native Americans were never exposed to and it was one of the biggest killers of the Natives. At first, Europeans forced Native Americans to be slaves and work on their plantations but soon they were replaced with the African slave.

Culture wasn’t the only thing that the Europeans brought over to the Americas. Along with their customs and rules, came the diseases that the Native American’s have never been exposed to. The Europeans brought many communicable diseases such as small pox and measles which were transmitted to the Native Americans through trade goods or someone infected with them. This quickly annihilated most of the Native American population.

Biological exchange was a significant factor in Europeans’ success in the New World in part because the widespread deaths of the Native Americans made it easier for Europeans to conquer and control them. Individual groups of Native Americans dwindled, leaving those who remained susceptible to English domination. In some cases, Europeans such as Cortés even used the mass deaths to place men loyal to them in leadership positions within the Native American peoples, which further compromised the strength of their nations (Jones, 54). Because the Native Americans were so easy to conquer, European explorers and settlers were able to easily establish lasting presences in the Americas.

However, the Native Americans didn’t just use these resources they garnered solely for food - they used the resources in several aspects of their lives, specifically for health. The Native Americans were dependant on the use of plants and other resources found in nature to use for curatives. Historians often attest that these curatives were far superior to the ones that Europeans used, and thus the span of life for Native Americans was often longer than that of the European people (The People). However, upon Native American and European contact, the Europeans introduced new, foreign diseases that were deadly because the Native Americans had never been exposed to these diseases, and thus did not have natural immunities to them. This was the same for other infectious diseases introduced to the Europeans, namely syphilis. Although, the amount of Europeans affected by syphilis was not even near the amount of Native Americans killed by some of the European diseases brought over in the Columbian exchange. Bartolomé de Las Casas commented on the epidemic of European viruses that killed thousands of Native Americans: “Who of those in

To better understand the conflict between the Europeans and the Native Americans, one must closely examine the state of Europe’s economy at the time. Europe struggled with difficult conditions. This included poverty, violence and diseases like typhus, smallpox, influenza and measles. There were widespread famines which caused the prices of products to vary and made life very difficult in Europe. Street crimes and violence were prevalent in cities: “Other eruption of bizarre torture, murder, and ritual cannibalism were not uncommon”.2 Europeans

One of the tragedies of the colonization of the Americas was the spread of disease that led to the death of millions of Native Americans. Death was caused by diseases brought from overseas, according to William Denevan, “remains one of the greatest inquiries of history.” Smallpox was the first epidemic, followed by typhus in 1546, diphtheria in 1614, and measles in 1618, (Mann,3). Native Americans had no immunity to these diseases, Henry Dobyns, the first social scientist argued that, “Native Americans had no experience with many European diseases and were therefore immunologically unprepared—“virgin soil,” in the metaphor of epidemiologist,” (Mann,3). Roughly every disease Europeans carried to the Americas was a “virgin-soil” epidemic, due to

Colonization in America has demonstrated all of the US history themes of exploration, encounter and exchange in the Americas. From the beginning of colonization, in 1492 by Christopher Columbus, to the establishment of the first American colony, Jamestown in 1607, and to the creation of the thirteen colonies, there have been countless examples of exploration, encounter and exchange. The exploration of vast waters and unchartered territory led to new and undiscovered land and America being colonized. During this time of exploration, explorers encountered many new faces (including Native Americans), crops, animals and even new lifestyles. In addition, with the increased encounters with the explorers and Natives, there was a massive growth in exchange of goods between the Europeans and the Natives in the Americas.