European Settlements and the Decline of Indian Power in America Essay

European Settlements and the Decline of Indian Power in America What today is the state of Virginia used to be Native American lands. The Indians claim that God had given them the right to own and settle those lands. The problem as we have seen in class is the Europeans such as the Spanish and English came and took over the Native American land in the name of the King and /or Queen. They invaded their territory, and destroyed their culture, all in the name of conquest. What I intend to show is how these problems developed for the English from the years of 1607 to 1644. Kirkpatrick Sale in his book Conquest of Paradise says that the English were just carrying out the Columbian legacy with the same brutality toward the Native American population. The main goal of the English as well as the Spanish was to settle large chunks of land and have military control over a backward (as they saw it) society. By 1610 the enemy for the English was the natives, or as they called them savages, and their mission was to take them prisioner and make them slaves. It even says in the charter granted to the colonists in 1607. "Which may by the Providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the glory of his divine majesty, in propagfting of the Christian religon to such people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of all true knowledge and worship of God and may in time bring the infidels and savages living in those parts to human civility and to settled and quiet government (Warner 38). Plus if the natives became hostile they felt that it w as their right to ta ke their corn while in return giving them useless things of no pratical value, such as beads, compasses, and looking glasses. The English felt that in time the Indians would com... ...t I want or I will slaughter your population and take you prisioner. Plus the Indians were on English land when it really was their inherited land from their ancestors. It was like what Columbus did on Hispanola; he took over native lands and did what he wanted with the Indian tribes, steling their land putting them in slavery and having them recognize the Spanish as superior people. It was a battle between the Indians and the colonizers and as we can see the colonlists won. It really was a clash of cultures with the latter winning. Bibliography Campell, Charles. History Of The Colony And Acient Domion of Virginia. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott and Co. 1860. Sale, Kirkpatrick. The Conquest of Paradise Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy. New York 1991 Warner, Charles D. Captain John Smith 1579 - 1631 New York, Harvey Holt and Company. 1881