Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

European Superior Attitude Toward Native Americans

e peoples but they were alike in taking a completely pragmatic view of violence toward the Native Americans. Similarly, the leaders of various Indian nations were often torn by indecision as to what to do about the unprecedented emergence of these strange new people. In Mexico, for example, Hern¯n CortTs began his expedition against the so-called Aztec (actually Mexica) people in 1519 because he had received, among other gifts, a finely worked gold disk that promised the existence of the portable riches he was intent on finding. The people's leader, Montezuma had feared that CortTs was the god Quetzalcoatl who was returning "as predicted by the Mexican religion" and he hoped to "postpone (and perhaps prevent) the god's arrival" in his capital (Roark et al. 48). The Spanish took advantage of the Indians' confusion, even going to the extent of hiding their dead to retain the reputation of being immortal, and by the time the Mexica decided that resistance was necessary they were weakened by disease and outmaneuvered by the military skills of the Spaniards.

Just as Montezuma hesitated in his reaction to the Spanish for cultural reasons the reactions of Powhatan, the Algonquian leader in the Chesapeake Bay region approximately one century later, were governed by political and economic considerations. On the one hand he was constantly engaged in war with other tribes and believed that "these powerful strangers would make better allies than enemies" and Powhatan accordingly treated the E

...

< Prev Page 2 of 7 Next >

More on European Superior Attitude Toward Native Americans...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
European Superior Attitude Toward Native Americans. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 09:09, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1694435.html