Colonialism
Institution
Student Name
North America was under European colonization during the initial stages before liberty and modernization. Colonization happened during the sixteenth century, which was purposeful to engulf the land and own other resources that were beneficial to those who were more enlightened, such as the Spanish. After independence, the North American continued to influence colonial behaviors towards the land and the natives. This behavior is evidenced by the act of taking away land from Indians, together with the use of the land. My goal in this essay is to prove the accuracy of the statement using facts and shreds of evidence from history.
The Native Americans influenced the dispossessing of land from the Indians. The behavior that they had learned from their colonizers who established colonies in their territory for economic exploitations. The Americans displaced the Indians to the so-called marginal areas: as an example, all Indians from the east were displaced to reside in west and areas such as the Great Plains and Oklahoma. The displacement continued to push the Indians to their limits, where we see their territories being reduced to some kinds of reservations. As an example, currently, the Indians reside in the west of the Mississippi River in the united states (Coughlan, Nelson, 2018).
North America impacted land use for the Native Indians, together with their beliefs and traditions. The Indians were endorsed to their religion and the totality use of their land, which changed upon the fight against colonialists. The dispossession of land paved the way to many problems ranging from the social perspective to other areas of their lives. For example, the ancestral use of the land faded away. The shrines that were their worship place became a story to be told, their rites changed, and social ties broke apart. Is has also been noted that North America’s land use brought forth erosion, the known lifestyle of the Natives changed from fishing, hunting, livestock keeping, among others.
The Spanish, French, and English came to the New World to find precious natural resources such as gold, exotic food, among others. The move was basically to have more wealth than other nations since they started believing that they can have more wealth by exporting more resources than they were importing. To achieve this, the Spanish, French, and English moved to the new world in search of mines that were not heavily mined so that they could have more gold than their counterparts and thus have more wealth. For example, it is also said that the urge to discover new pathways through the sea to new places also fostered their movement to the New World (Kramer, 2019).
Spain established the known largest empire in America. Based on the abundant mines of metals, they were able to grow their colony in a different way, which made them more wealthy. French, on the other side, was able to develop an extensive empire which they could use as their market place to sell products to Europe. Although France became stable after the movement to the New World, numerous wars made them lose a lot of their land, for example, it lost most of its territories to North America. The English colony to America was mostly indirect when compared with that of the Spanish and France. The only impact that it made North America feel was paying taxes, and this was how it grew.
In conclusion, colonization led to human suffering. The atrocities that nations went through trying to free themselves from the hands of colonizers are beyond doubt that it led to servitude and death in the long run. We cannot fail to congratulate the brave men who fought for our freedom despite being under total dehumanization by their counterparts. Colonization made countries to be miserable while others became richer. Although it is associated with suffering, we cannot fail to quote that it shaped who we are and has always made us make sound decisions that will foster peaceful coexistence at any cost.
References
Coughlan, M. R., & Nelson, D. R. (2018). Influences of Native American land use on the Colonial Euro-American settlement of the South Carolina Piedmont. PloS one, 13(3).
Kramer, L. S. (2019). Threshold of a new world: Intellectuals and the exile experience in Paris, 1830-1848. Cornell University Press.