European Colonization of the New World Term Paper

European Colonization

What issues were involved in the European colonization of the New World from 1492-1640? How significant were these issues for the future course of U.S. History?

The world of Columbus, of 1492, may seem like a foreign country as well as another time, when comparing the new American nation of the 18th century to the European world of the 15th century. During the period from 1492-1640, the European powers were obsessed by trade, commodities, and racing to the New World in search of colonial dominion and gold. In contrast, America was interested in founding a new and enclosed national territory. However, Columbus' view of the native peoples, as quoted in Howard Zinns' A Peoples History of the United States illustrate that the initial encounters between Europeans and the natives of the land was to be a continuing limitation upon equitable relations between Anglo and Indian-Americans.

Columbus wrote of the Arawak men and women of his first encounter brining "parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells." (Zinns, 2003) Thus, the inequitable trade for goods was early earmarked as characteristic during this first transaction. Columbus gleefully noted that the natives "willingly traded everything they owned." (Zinns, 2003) Because trade was the purpose of his mission, Columbus did not view this exchange with any guilt. He viewed the natives as commodities themselves, noting that the natives "were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features," and would make excellent workers and slaves. Most significantly (and despite his reference to spears, which may have been used for hunting rather than violence against other human beings) Columbus noted the natives did not "bear arms," in other words, they did not know the meaning of using swords in military strife, and thus were objects of military conquest, rather than potential adversaries or allies. "For I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane," wrote Columbus. (Zinns, 2003) Rather than marveling at the….....