James Dinh
History
Midterm
The Europeans and the Natives

The European invasion of the Americas greatly influenced the Native American societies. There are many arguments one could make claiming whether or not the coming of Europe to the Americas was beneficial or ended up causing more issues to the Natives than prior their arrival. There are definitely two sides to the coin, the one side that shows how much Europeans have helped the Native Americans, and the other side showing how if the Europeans never came to America, the natives would still be in power but with less technology but more living people. A further investigation is needed on the concept of invasion, and it needs to be taken with a grain of salt, because no matter how much the Natives got from the Europeans, they could have also lost double that.
There are many factors to take into account when thinking of the European Invasion in America; one of the largest concepts to think about is the horrific thing the Europeans did to the Native Americans. Two of the strongest examples to take from are the invasions of the Spanish and the French. The Spanish had taken over the Americas long before many Europeans, this allowed them to develop a wealthy empire in America, and they already had a strong sense of a caste system, and they already had Indian and African slaves working for them. But the first stages of the Spanish invasion of America included frightful violence; armies marched across the Caribbean islands, plundered villages, slaughtered men and captured women. This also led to the creation of the encomienda, which Indians were basically compelled to work for the Spaniards, or else they would be violently punished. Because of how successful Spain was in the invasion of North America, France and Great Britain would later join the Spaniards and invade America on their own, changing the once natively