Table of Contents
How did the settlers treat the natives?
The English treated the Natives as inferior, believed they stood in the way of their God-given right to the land in America and tried to subject the Natives to their laws as they established their colonies.
How did Indian life change in the 18th century?
How did Indian life change in the 18th century? Their living grounds were most likely changed, enslavement for farming, forced religion, but eventually benefited from the goods and knowledge from the colonists. Why did the United States declare independence?
Who were the early settlers?
The Spanish were among the first Europeans to explore the New World and the first to settle in what is now the United States. By 1650, however, England had established a dominant presence on the Atlantic coast. The first colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607.
Why was the Native American vulnerable during the colonial era?
Native Americans were also vulnerable during the colonial era because they had never been exposed to European diseases, like smallpox, so they didn’t have any immunity to the disease, as some Europeans did.
How did epidemics affect the Native American population?
Though many epidemics happened prior to the colonial era in the 1500s, several large epidemics occurred in the 17 th and 18 th centuries among various Native American populations. With the population sick and decreasing, it became more and more difficult to mount an opposition to European expansion.
What did the colonists bring to the New World?
Although the colonists suffered diseases of their own early on, they were largely immune to the microbes they brought over to the New World. The local Native American populations, however, had no such immunity to diseases like smallpox, tuberculosis, measles, cholera, and the bubonic plague.
When did the first Europeans arrive in North America?
In the fifteenth century, when European settlers began to arrive in North America, the continent was richly populated with Native American communities. Hundreds of thousands of people lived in a wide range of environments from shore to shore, each community or nation with its own distinct culture.