Matt Penn 9.1
How have different historians interpreted the question of whether the monetary gain by Europe was worth the death and destruction of the American Indians during the colonization and genocide of North America?
As suggested by the question above, this essay considers the genocide of North America during the colonization by the Europeans. Firstly however, it is important to gain a basic understanding of the historical context that the above question arises from.
When in 1492 Christopher Columbus became one of the first Europeans to set foot on American soil while searching for a way to India, he inadvertently opened up a whole new world of wealth and land for the European countries. Word spread very quickly, most of it exaggerated, and soon all the countries that had any sort of money were thinking about sending ships to the "New World". At this point, no one had thought about the fact that there could be other people there and honestly expected to just walk in unopposed by anyone except their neighbours in Europe.
[0: There is much debate about who was actually the first European to set foot on American soil: some historians argue it was Columbus, some the Vikings and still others would argue that Stone Age humans who got there first (although as these Stone Age humans became the "Native" Americans, they are normally discounted from the argument).][1: This is very surprising as Columbus records seeing people whom he names Indian - some historians against the colonization would see this as the earliest sign of racism against the Americans. ]
However, when they got there, they discovered that they were not alone. This meant that they had to make a choice of whether they would leave the New World with all its wonders and gold to...