History Essay Introduction

European Settlers arrival in America changed the Native American way of life forever. Since first contact, European Settlers have manipulated and exploited Natives to unfathomable degrees. If not for their help, the first colonists surely would have failed to create a stable settlement. The newcomers accepted their help, but later betrayed them for personal gain. While the Native Americans may have had greater numbers in which to fight back, their weapons were no match for the new technology the settlers arrived with. Europeans also brought disease with them to the new land, and passed their illness on to the Natives, who were not accustomed or immune to the sickness. This alone caused the deaths of thousands and thousands. Prior to the settlers, Natives had inhabited most of the land on the eastern coast. The newcomers believed that they could take what wasn’t theirs. Due to the vast knowledge of the indigenous people, settlers attempted to first befriend the tribes and learn what they could from them. Regardless of some tribes that wanted nothing to do with the settlers, others were intrigued by the riches and technology the Europeans had brought. Some treaties made actually worked, while others inevitably led to violence. Once settlements had developed larger populations, expansion was required. The required land by the settlers consisted of sacred territory that Natives had lived on for centuries and centuries. European newcomers didn’t realize the significance of the area, and removed the indigenous by force. This occurred countless times throughout history, and resulted in Native American resentment of English settlers. Native Americans responded to this mistreatment in the only ways they could: negotiation or violence.
Violent conflicts between the Native Americans and the European Settlers was quite common. Countless massacres took place, whether the victims be European or indigenous. Motive for these massacres was usually land, but often occurred due to common prejudices of how the natives were inferior. Native American attacks happened quite often against settlers as well, considering many of the indigenous people viewed the newcomers as invaders who stole from them and killed their people. When Natives were deemed unruly or rebellious, they were imprisoned in forts. However, the most common form of abuse the English settlers inflicted upon the Native Americans was relocation. The most famous relocation occurrence in history was the Trail of Tears. The Trail of Tears was a forced removal of 16,000 Cherokee Indians from their Southern lands to Oklahoma. The journey alone killed a quarter of the Cherokees. This instance in particular was effective in the sense that it showed average Americans the horrors and the severe mistreatment the Natives experienced. They were expected to leave their lands if commanded to, and if they stayed, they would be killed or suffer abuse from the surrounding Americans. European settlers didn’t view the Natives as an indigenous people who lived on this continent, but as an obstacle that they needed to overcome. Living with the Natives in peace and harmony was attempted, but with ore commitment, these attempts could have been more effective. European settlers came to North America to change their lives, and never dreamed their arrival would change the lives of those who were already here.