Why Did Europeans Travel To North America

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Why did Europeans travel to North America?
Europeans traveled to North America because European colonists wanted to create societies that mirrored those that they had left behind but the communities that emerged did not seem to meet that goal. Also, Spain, France, and Britain came to dominate the struggle for leadership.
In what ways, if any, did the Spanish, French, and English differ in their dealings with Indian peoples?
One of the first encounters of Spaniards and Indians was not a pleasant one. The Indians took the Spaniards in out of pity but half the natives ended up dying from a disease of the bowels. This already started uneasy tension between these two groups. After the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, Spaniards …show more content…
All the diseases spread so quickly that in some cases, entire populations disappeared and ninety percent mortality rates were common. No one is completely sure whether diseases contributed to population decline or if it prevented population recovery but that is one possibility. Many populations increased after the diseases spread because people were trying to escape the sickness and war. Due to diseases, many populations dropped. Mexico had a population of 25 million people in 1519 but it dropped to 1.3 million by the end of the century. Peru had a population of nine million which became half a million in 1600. This change in population is still not fully understood. There is also an estimate that suggests that the Native population of North America fell by 74% between 1492 and 1800. Diseases really affected the population and changed the outcome for populations of the present day and of the future.
What are your thoughts on the purpose of studying “first peoples” in a US History course?
I think that studying “first peoples” is important because without studying who came first, we wouldn’t have the full history or theories of the “creation” of America. If in the US History course we started learning from when America was already founded or developed, then we would miss a huge part of how it came to be and who lived here before us. Without knowing the “first peoples”, we also
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