European Expansion In America

European Domination and Exploration

As the Spanish conquistadors as well as other Spanish explorers came upon new lands in the New World, they came into contact with different Indian tribes and gradually exterminated them through force, conquest and diseases to which the Indians are not immune. In 1492 when Columbus and this crew arrived in Cuba, thinking it was Asia, first traded with the Arawak Indians then took them as prisoners. The second time, he arrived with more ships and went from Island to Island in the Caribbean wanting more slaves and gold. Using crude methods, he made the Indians find him gold. When they tried to run, he and his crew found them and killed them. When they tried to fight, many more died because Spaniards had better weapons and horses. In two years, half of the 250,000 Indian populations in Haiti died through suicide, murder, hard work, and injury. In the year 1650, none of the original Arawaks were left on the island (A People's History of the United States pg.4). In the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, Spain and Portugal divided the American continent. Following Columbus's example, the Spanish Conquistadors like Cortes, Pizarro, Cabeza de Vaca, Orellanasa, and other Spaniards set out exploring for gold and new conquests. When Cortes sailed to Mexico seeking gold, Montezuma welcomed them, believing Cores was the God Quetzalcoatl. But as he kept taking gold, the Aztecs became tired of the Spaniards' stay and attacked. Cortes laid siege to the city and ceded it in 1521. Disease soon spread, so did the feeling of subjugation. Mexico's Aztec population went from 20 million to 2 million in a century. The Spanish built a fortress at St. Augustine, Florida to protect their sea lanes to the Caribbean. In 1598, Don Juan de Onate led hundreds of men on a expedition from Mexico into the Rio Grande valley abusing all Pueblo people they came across. They declared the province of New Mexico after the battle of Acoma in 1599, in which they cut off one foot of each pueblo survivor. Because of missionaries' later efforts to curb native religious traditions, the Pueblos rebelled, destroyed every Catholic Church and killed priests and hundreds of Spanish settlers. The Spanish and Indian tribes did not live in harmony, they fought each other every step of the way and eventually the Spaniards won. Most of the Indians died in battle, slavery, disease, and were almost exterminated after the forced conquests.

The French and most of the Native American tribes of the Americas got along, blended peacefully, and partnered up in their endeavors as the French settled in various areas. Even though the problem of disease decreased Indian population, the French did not treat the Indians the way the Spanish had. The French explorer Samuel de Champlain led settlers to settle in Quebec to establish it as a fur-trading center in 1608 and befriended the Huran Indian tribes. They later helped them fight the Iroquois, which earned Iroquois hate and Later impeded French access of Ohio Valley and destroyed French settlements. Settlers and the Indians bonded in 1609 and trapped fur together. When the Jesuits came along and tried to convert these Indians to Christianity, they were tortured, but made few permanent converts. Champlain returned to France after the English attacked and took the Fort in Quebec, but after the French-British Treaty it was again French land. Even though the Spanish was the first to discover Louisiana, the French was the first to colonize it. After the French settled in Louisiana, the Indians found that they did not like French people's habits and way of life. So tribes moved away from settlers and at times, would still help them in the winter. Across the Mississippi, there was a great concentration of lead mines and wine springs in the 1700s; a reason why Frenchmen settled in Illinois. In 1720, the Fort de Chartres was built near the Mississippi river to be the seat of government for the Illinois country and to help control the Fox Indians who later fought a war against the English and French. With exception to some friction, the French did not create as much destruction to the Indian population and their land as the Spanish had and young Indians soon relied on European tools and other goods in everyday life instead of making tools the traditional way.

The English had various problems with the Native Americans, and had a little less to do with the natives at first, but years later it came to war between the two cultures for a long time. When the English first arrived on Powhatan's land, he watched them settle and helped some Englishmen who ran away to get through starvation in the winter. As summer came around, the governor of the colony wanted him to return his runaways. When Powhatan refused, soldiers were sent and killed Indians,