Centuries ago, the Indians migrated to North America through the bearing straight. Over time, after many generations, the Indians made their way to the eastern part of the "New World." This is where they settled and lived for many years. Soon enough the Spanish and English were there seeking wealth. They both became greedy over time. The Spanish were after everything the Indians had, whereas the English were only after gold and land. The economic and cultural responses of the English and Spanish to the Indians was very different from each other.
When the English first arrived to the New World, they didn't know what to expect. The Indians happily greeted them and made it seem to be a paradise. The goal of the early settlements was not to settle with large amounts of land or agriculture, but was to find gold and trade with the Indians.
Range of Plains Indians at the time of first Europ...
Staged view of Plains Indian culture, Alberta, ca....
Karl Bodmer: Indians hunting the bison. Tableau 31...The English hoped that trading with the Indians would become a major part of their profit, so they treated them well. They figured that if trade with the Indians was the way to overseas development, they were going do it. The English taught them to use tools that they brought over from England and also changed the way the Indians fought. Over time, they began taking the land from the Indians. They soon started seeing the negative points about the Indians and called them savages and other names. Although the English weren't able to subjugate the Indians, they still felt they were of a higher race than them.
Unlike the English, the Spanish came to North America for subjugation. The Spanish brought hardly any women along with them from Spain, so they married Indian women. The mixing of the two cultures caused cultural dissemination. They were there for disciple reasons.