The Europeans and Environmental Impacts (2)
The introduction of these animals disrupted the ecosystem and food chain of the new lands and they bred millions of them.
Some tribes were able to adapt to the new
animals, but unfortunately, these animals tended
to wipe out the animals which were already
there, or move those animals to new areas.
These new animals just took over from other,
smaller animals which were there already, or
caused those animals - buffaloes or Bison to
move far away to new areas of living, and those
were the animals that the natives had always
relied on, for meat, leather, skins and other
products.
So the environmental effects of the arrival of
the Europeans were mostly bad (as usual); flora
and fauna died out or moved, diseases came and
the new animal type displaced the existing
ones.
But these effects were not all!
There were what we call 'political' effects too - but they are nothing to do with politicians as we know them now.
The arrival of the ships ‘Santa Maria’, ‘Nina’
and ‘Pinta’ motivated people from other European
countries such as France, England, Portugal and
Russia to explore these areas.
So then, it wasn't just a few Europeans, but
many that arrived.
It became more of an invasion than a 'visit' or
an 'exploration' ....
Thus, the first permanent European colonies
in the New World were established, and this
marked the beginning of the full scale
invasion of the new world by the old
world.
These countries were contributing to the rush
for resources, such as slaves or mineral
wealth.
The mineral wealth was much more profitable, of
course. Not only gold, but precious stones,
silver, tin, copper and others.
In those days, copper, although an alloy, was
used to protect the bottoms of ships.
Tin was used for food storage (but not like the
tin cans we have now), silver was precious as
jewellery, and the precious stones of course
were, well, precious.
Columbus himself was also a governor of those
lands at the time.
However, he was an arbitrary person who did not
make a good administrator: he took everything
for himself and his family, trying his best to
stop the first or original settlers from getting
back their own land.
He was out only to make money and get wealth
for himself and his family and was not good at
actual fair governing.
However, the arrival of the Europeans brought
democracy and capitalism to the patriarchal
systems which existed (e.g. rulers descended
from the male line of a family).
Whether or not those tings are good is
debatable; democracy works for Europe most of
the time but the natives already had their own
system of government, head-people of villages, a
good solid and working structure, where everyone
knew their place.
Capitalism is rarely a good thing; it means
usually that the poor get more poor and the rich
get richer.
Those are really the
short term economic impacts of
the arrival of the Europeans.
Along with the short term impacts, there were of course long term economic impacts of the arrival and establishment of the Europeans.
Those impacts were not all about the New World;
they had effects back in Europe too.
Spain became wealthy as the money they earned through trade gave them the power to work for or against other countries. They then became a great power in Europe, like with all those battles and annoyances they had with Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon (Aragon's part of Spain).
The only reason they had power and wealth was
because Columbus started bringing it back.
But then again, philosophy,
medicine,
science and other ideas also
changed and improved the lives of many in the
new world.
Philosophy is simply a way or
method of thinking, finding
out why something is as it is.
Medicines from Europe
eventually helped the natives in the New World
with illnesses - there were not many medicines
like we know today but herbs which were found to
be helpful in treating illness.
And science, of course;
natives of the New World didn't use metals in
the same way as the Europeans - the Europeans
made things like telescopes, compasses ... even
utensils with which we eat.
The natives tended to live what we call more
'basic' lives - things such as just using hands
to eat anything, if they wanted to see something
far away they used their own eyes or went
nearer.
Even now, Columbus Day is a national
holiday in the United States.
Children are taught about his amazing voyages,
making the land of America known to the
Europeans. They are not taught about the indigenous
peoples and how they lived.
We know or are taught about the Aztecs, and the
gory things such as human sacrifice, but
generally even these days Europeans are not
taught about the GOOD things the natives
had.
Some places also celebrate this as a day for
Italian Culture and heritage. Columbus is still
widely credited and thought of as important
because of how he brought the first intertwining
of European and American cultures.
Which really is not a true thing ... because
although he took great tings to the New World,
he also took bad things and caused terrible
things too.
Who knows or can guess which language is
mostly spoken in South America?
Spanish. 69% of South American countries use Spanish as
their official language. Even these days!
And that's all because Columbus took that
language, and culture there.
Again - what religions do South Americans
have?
They have Christianity and especially Roman
Catholicism.
What about fighting? What happened after a warrior was caught and killed ...
THIS!
If a warrior from another, warring tribe was
caught, often his head would be cut off, brains
eaten and the empty head SHRUNK!
They would eat the brains in the belief that the warrior's bravery and intelligence would become theirs.
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