When the first Europeans arrived on the shores of North America, with its lush landscape and seemingly endless opportunities for exploration and discovery, it seemed as if the Europeans had stumbled upon heaven on earth. The fact that a race of people already resided on the continent and had developed fairly sophisticated cultures did not deter the Europeans from trying to reach their specific goals of finding gold, spreading the word of God through Christianity and obtaining glory for their homeland by claiming more territory. Some attempts were made to create friendly relationships with some indigenous people but generally speaking Europeans did not grant Indians respect in regards to their lifestyle, culture, religion, language or land. Europeans followed this doctrine of not respecting racial differences when they sailed to Africa and paid people to kidnap Africans and bought them to use as slaves in America. It should be noted that when speaking about Europeans I am generalizing.
Abduction of Europe
Europe Simulator
Bartolome de las casasI will speak about certain Europeans (Americans) who fought for different rights of both the Indians and Africans. There were a lot of similarities in the way both Indians and Africans were encountered and treated by most Europeans. The Eurocentric view that white European culture was the only important culture characterized the Europeans encounters with both Indians and Africans. This allowed Europeans to control people and do whatever they felt they needed to do in order to ensure success in the New World. Europeans considered both Indians and African as sub humans. They regarded them as savages and slaves not worthy of humane treatment because of their darker skin color and thought that their culture was unimportant, unnecessary and backwards because it was different than European culture. Both Indians and Africans endured similar experiences during this time because of their status in the...