Term Paper on "Developed Technology of the Native Americans Before European Settlements"

Term Paper 5 pages (1450 words) Sources: 2

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Indian-American Technology

Stasis: It is still commonly believed that technology in America began or was introduced by Europeans after the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.

Between 1000 and 1003 AD or five before Christopher Columbus discovered America for the Old World in October 1492, Scandinavians landed in the Continent but failed to settle permanently (Kishlansky et al. 2007). These explorers' common intent to conduct long-distance sea trade dealt a catastrophic blow on the vulnerable empires and tribes of the Continent, then isolated for more than 25,000 years from the rest of the world. When European explorers reported back to their base about the presence of wealth in the Continent, Spain sent more expeditions of conquistadores and claimed possession of the Continent Spanish people started migrating and introduced their culture in the regions (Kishlanky et al.), making it appear like the Native Americans learned technology from their colonizers.

II. Disruption: This common belief grew out of the prejudice that civilized and colonizing Europeans brought their developed culture into the Continent and affected the primitive Native Americans.

The Europeans' permanent presence and continued conquest were disruptive to the Natives in the regions who then had thrived in isolation for thousands of years with their own civilizations (Kishlansky et al. 2007). Those civilizations and indigenous technology were far less advanced than those of their conquerors. Furthermore, internal conflicts and divisions among the tribes and empires were weaknesses exploited by their conquerors. These Natives were subjected to unprecedented cultural and religious shock by the sudden presence and powerful impositions of more organized and prepared Spanish forces. Most of all, Spanish conquerors brought many diseases into these unprotected and unsuspecting Native populations. Whole societies of Natives perished or reduced by the onslaught of epidemics of contagious diseases, such as typhus, influenza and smallpox. Deaths from diseases combined with deaths from inhuman labor, cruelties and slaughters to culminate in huge depopulation and mass dying recorded in history (Kishlansky et al.).

This was how Native populations were adversely affected by Western European discovery and colonization. Native American societies went down, massively depopulated and forced to accept European culture, migrants, plants, animals, political power and economic interests (Kishlansky et al. 2007). This was how the displaced Native American societies grew into an entirely new and diluted direction. The "white men" or European colonizers brought much change to the Native Indian people (Fixico 2003). Records say that only 225,000 Indians or 2% of the original native population and less than a thousand buffaloes remained at the turn of the 20th century from new and deadly diseases and more than a thousand wars. The colonizers' search for long-distance sea trade and wealth in the early 1500s moved them to look for gold and silver in the Continent. In the process, they imposed European values on the Natives. Their missionaries introduced and propagated Christianity. They also imposed the use of European metal in producing weapons like guns, rifles, and the plow (Fixico).

III. Condition: Part of that common belief was that the primitive Native Americans developed their own tools and transportation means only after Europeans settled.

The U.S. government initiated treaties with the Indian tribes between the 1850s and 1871 for the ultimate purpose of seizing Indian homelands (Fixico 2003). Some of these treaties created Indian reservations throughout the West. The government entered into 389 treaties with the Natives, the majority of which it violated in pursuit of the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. This doctrine states that European-Americans possessed the right and duty to expand in the North American Continent. They based the pursuit of gold, silver and railroads on this doctrine. The idea was completely new and strange to Native Indians who believed that they were stewards of the Earth, which they could not perceive being owned (Fixico).

Native Americans built their lives around the buffalo, which was a great symbol to them (Fixico 2003). They used this animal in 52 different ways for food, supplies, war and hunting tools and other purposes. It was their most important natural resource. They hunted the animal with bow and arrow. But the existence of the animal was almost decimated by the construction of the transcontinental railroad. European-Americans and the Natives entered into treaties with Five Civilized Tribes after the American Civil War. These treaties were to produce huge surplus land for public domain, especially… READ MORE

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