Chapter 1 indians the settlements of america Essay

1. Jamestown was the first colony that gets found. It was there where the first permanent settlement occurs. Jamestown was a poor location for colonization. The men dug wells to obtain water, but the water they found could not drink because it was contaminated. In addition, the ground was wet and had too many mosquitos. The mosquitoes were carriers of diseases and made the settlers sick. After a year, about half of the settlers had died of disease and starvation. The Native American Indians kept the English alive providing them with food. The English were so busy trying to discover gold that they didn’t bother trying to grow food. That was when Captain John Smith became leader of the Jamestown colony. He saved the colony by creating a rule, which maintained that anyone who did not work would have no right to eat. This made the colonist planted food, and they were forced to build shelters and fences to protect against any attack. These American Indians or â€Å"Amerinds†, showed them great diversity of character and attainments due to the differences in climate, soil, food, building material, and the activities necessary to preserve life. They taught the settlers how to plant and grow corn, beans, squash, etc. and also helped them to establish good relations with neighboring Indian tribes. On the other hand what the English settlers offered to Native Americans Indians was different. In exchange for food, they offered them weapons, horses, cattle, sheep, vegetables and fruits, hatchets, swords, metal pots, skillets and knives, which would give them the technological advantage over their enemies. They brought not only tools for the conquest of the wilderness, but also the forms of government, the religion, the books, and the languages of the Old World. But besides the different technologies and different lifestyles that they offered to them, the English brought with them different types of diseases, such as smallpox, which was lethal to Amerinds, this produced a lethal epidemic that affected a large portion of the tribe. American Indians had a very different culture from the English people. Despite some successful interaction, questions of ownership and control of land and trust between peoples, caused conflicts arise. Virginia suffers very frequent periods of drought and by that time the colonists did not understand that the natives were ill prepared to feed them during the hard times. In the years after 1612, settlers cleared the land to prepare it for export farms dedicated tobacco, its crucial crop for economic purposes. When the tobacco exhausted farmland, the settlers continuously had to clear more areas to replace them. This small wooded land was that the Indians could use to hunt and supplement their food crops. The more settlers arrived, the more demanding land. The spread of tobacco cultivation altered life for everyone, because its cultivation required abundant land. The tribes tried to fight the invasion of the settlers. The main conflicts occurred with the indigenous slaughter of 1622 and another in 1644, both under the command of the younger brother of the late Chief Powhatan, Chief Opechancanough. Recognizing the danger, the war leader launched coordinated attacks along the James River on March 22, 1622. By the end of the day 347 colonist lay dead, and only a timely warning from two Christian converts saved Jamestown itself from destruction. Europeans had a very mixed picture of the native Indians. On one hand, they believed that the Indians could be soft and generous and also attentive and willing to trade. At first it was a very positive image and the settlers had hoped that they would be welcomed with open arms and friendly hands. They wanted to believe their way to the Garden of Eden. 2. After reading the three sources that tell the story of the Indians and the Settlement of America, I found it more accurate the description number 3 â€Å"A people and a Nation† (2008) that gives us Mary Beth Norton, because I think is a very complete description about the events that occurred with the New World. She begins by describing how other civilizations of America were. She mentions how that residents, of what is now central Mexico began to cultivate food crops, especially corn, squash, beans, avocados, and peppers; while in the Andes Mountains of South America, people began to cultivate potatoes, and it was thanks to the improvement of these techniques of agriculture that could be spread this knowledge through America with the exception of those areas with harsher climates. Thanks to agriculture most of the Americans began to adopt a more sedentary life, without the need to spend so much time hunting and gathering. I believe that it is very appropriate that she mentions these details, since it is important to us as readers have an idea of how other civilizations in the Americas were, in this manner we can understand a little more about the civilization of the Native Americans Indians, because in some way they were very similar to each other. In the same way, in this source the author also makes mention of another significant civilization of America, the Aztecs; they were one of the most important and recognized civilizations of the American continent, they had a style a little different from other civilizations, they tended to be a little more wild, they use to forced their neighbors to pay tribute in textiles, gold, foodstuffs and even in human beings, who were sacrificed to the war god Huitzilopochtli. After the author made mention of these events, she continues her story mentioning the arrival of the English for the first time in 1607 to a region near to Chesapeake Bay called Tsenacomoco. It was a group of 104 men and boys, who established the palisaded settlement called Jamestown. This source tells us the beginning of a radical change to this Nation; the author mentions the number of people, the name of the region in which they arrived, and the date on which this happened; it seems to me that these data are necessary to know for any American person, I think it is important for all of us who live in this continent know this historical fact, and more specifically know what happened in this country. I am convinced that this source is more accurate, because it shows us these and more details, and is more precise describing how was the relationship between the colonists and the Native American Indians. It shows us what was the difference between these two different civilizations, and at the same time expresses us which were their similarities. Both groups held deep religious beliefs, subsisted primarily through agriculture, accepted social and political hierarchy, and observed well-defined gender roles. Despite the coexistence that came to have each other, both groups continued to have their own beliefs and thoughts, which for me in somehow led them to start a war, because the settlers wanted to impose their will on the Indians, and at the same time the Indians wanted to not let this happen, and also they were tired of being their food source and carriers of diseases that the settlers brought.