America Before Columbus. The Website Essay

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This can be seen in the Catholics who were so tightly bound to the Vatican in Rome (17). The textbook points out that this wasn't just the case for Catholics, the Protestants in the New World were also closely tied to their Protestant religion in England.

The relationship that the colonists had with the Native Americans was an important one because the European colonists needed the Native Americans to help them build their New World; in short, the Europeans needed the Indian workforce (Ruckman 17). Sadly, Indians became slaves who were bought and sold, or they were forced (indentured) workers (17). Ruckman notes that the colonists needed major work done and the Indian workforce was not enough to meet the demands of a growing society, which is why slaves for Africa were being imported -- roughly beginning around the year 1502 (17).

Spain came to the New World in 1492 (the same year as Columbus) and England appear on the scene roughly five years later -- 1497 (Ruckman 19). For the English, going to America was a response to social and economic troubles in their homeland (19). France founded Quebec, its first settlement in North America, in 1608 (less than a year after England's Jamestown) (23). The Dutch also arrived in America in 1624. Henry Hudson sailed up what is now called the Hudson River in New York and established his own settlement, which is now New York State (23).

2. The Battle of Lexington and Concord was, of course, the bloody conflict that started the American Revolutionary War. The British wanted to seize both weapons and ammunition at Concord and kill leaders of the American Revolution. It was Paul Revere (reportedly) who traveled on horseback to Lexington and then to Concord to spread the warning that the British were planning an attack. When the British got to Lexington, the people hid. The next day, revolutionary men, the Minutemen, gathered at Lexington -- ready to use guerrilla tactics against the British. It was the desire of the American revolutionaries to free themselves from England's unfair governing that was the instigation of a revolution.

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3. Life in the New World colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries was a time of reorganization and expansion (Ruckman 29). The first English settlements were business enterprises, for the most part, and they were not strong entities; there were so many challenges that they had to face, which, for the most part, they were not prepared for (28). There was little blending of cultures between the English and the Native Americans. The English wanted to isolate themselves from Indian culture as they had used these people for slaves and obviously did not think that they were on the same human level as they themselves were. The English didn't do a whole lot of mingling with other European colonists either. It is actually quite amazing that the English were able to form such strong and permanent settlements along the eastern seaboard when they were so anti-everybody else. Not only did they create great settlements in the east, but they even moved into the south where the created great plantations and grew a "slave-driven agricultural economy…which had few counterparts in the north" (28).

For new English colonists coming to America, the journey was treacherous and many did not survive the voyage, but this did not stop them from coming in droves to the New World. With areas expanding -- Virginia, for example, - and the new interest in cultivating tobacco, it seems like everyone wanted a piece of America.

Interestingly enough, Jamestown was ever only able to survive because of the technology that the Indians shared with the English (Ruckman 32). The English had great sea vessels and other technology, but it was a general sense of superiority that they had when it came to the Indians. This sort of racism would infect American culture and continue with indentured servitude and slavery of Africans, the effects of which would be felt for hundreds of years later. America is still recovering from its tainted history of slavery and racism so carelessly started by the English. Despite the English's racist feelings against the.....

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"America Before Columbus The Website" (2011, February 18) Retrieved May 16, 2025, from
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https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/america-columbus-website-4725
   

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