Finger Broken Mystic Analysis

These diseases completely wiped out the 10 million or so Native Americans on the islands and at least ½ of the more than 100 million on the mainland of North America.” The Europeans that came brought diseases that killed many Native Americans and destroyed entire empires. This

The manner in which it is presented has the ability to inspire or deflate, to move nations to love, joy, anger, or hatred” (Teters 492). He also explains that this country knows nothing about the history of the Native American people nor any ethnic group that was indigenous before colonization. He uses examples from his public education, “I remember trying to become invisible as teachers told stories of brave settlers, untamed lands, and savage, uncivilized Indians. Washington State history simply did not include American Indian history” (Teters 492). This shows that schools are white-washing history and are not teaching what really happened.

This work guides the reader along a path of history that is often misconstrued

This began a sad discrimination toward Native Americans that lasted for centuries, and there are traces left of this today. Though negatively, this caused Christopher Columbus’ name to be well known for starting this horrible treatment of native peoples in the Americas. The Europeans came and wiped out millions of people with diseases and also killed the natives if they did not completely obey what they were ordered to do by the explorers. Columbus exploited these people, and many other explorers that followed did the same thing. While talking about the Native Americans in a letter, Columbus says, “All these people lack….every kind of iron.

In the book written by James W. Loewen, Loewen studies the biases of an ordinary history class, beginning each chapter with quotes from various historical figures. Loewen indicates that the root of the problems Loewen discusses comes from the history textbook itself. This being said the textbook gives a dull, culturally biased description of the past, often alienating readers such as Latinos, Native Americans, and African Americans. Throughout Loewen’s chapter four, there are many ways in which Loewen discusses the Native Americans to be talked about more highly than the Natives should be. The Native Americans were talked about in many negative ways, and the Natives are said to have been “lied about” more often than any other portion of the

Immediately following Columbus ' arrival in the New World in 1492, a mass exchange of people, animals, and microscopic life between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres began. This transition brought about extremely dramatic consequences because the Old and New Worlds had previously been completely isolated from each other. Although there were some insignificant results of this exchange, such as certain species of animals and plants taking over foreign ecosystems, there were also devastating ramifications; namely, perilous diseases. The Europeans were immune to the diseases which they introduced to the Natives. This created a virgin soil epidemic, which is an outbreak in which the afflicted had not been exposed to before.

So many colonists died because of the disease, lack of water and food, and Native Americans. Firstly, many settlers died because of illnesses and

This book is written in first and third person in an objective style. This style fits the subject very well because in history, facts are much more important than feelings. The book was written very well, but at some times it is hard to understand because it may be in a different languages, use obsolete words, or just use words that aren’t very well known. The book is fairly concise, but sometimes can get a bit lengthy. Overall, the book is fairly easy to understand.

“1491” Questions 1. Two scholars, Erikson and William Balée believe that almost all aspects of Native American life have been perceived wrong. Although some refuse to believe this, it has been proven to be the truth. Throughout Charles C. Mann’s article from The Atlantic, “1491”, he discusses three main points: how many things that are viewed as facts about the natives are actually not true, the dispute between the high and low counters, and the importance of the role disease played in the history of the Americas. When the term “Native American” is heard, the average person tends to often relate that to a savage hunter who tries to minimize their impact on their surrounding environment.

With them came smallpox, measles, chicken pox, influenza, and many other diseases. “Before the arrival of Columbus, Native American disease wasn’t dominant in the land. Due to the lack of exposure of disease in their younger years, Native Americans were vulnerable to the European diseases that would come with the Columbian Exchange. The diseases would soon destroy many societies of the ancient Aztec, Maya, and Inca. Through many estimates it is foreseen that alien diseases caused over 50% deaths of the Native American population.

First day of sophomore year, looking through the syllabus of AP World History, I began to seriously question why I had chosen to take such a rigorous course on a subject I didn’t even enjoy. History was always boring to me because every year before tenth grade I had been stuck with a teacher who presented facts, names, and dates in a monotone fashion that presented to me a very dull view of what history as a subject really was. It was in AP World where I had the privaledge of having a teacher who was passionate on what she taught, and a course that gave an intensely more detailed view of history. It was no longer a set of mindless facts, but the story of mankind and why the world is the way it is. It also came to my attention how little control

Historians differ on what they think about the net result of the European arrival in the New World. Considering that the Columbian Exchange, which refers to “exchange of plants, animals, people, disease, and culture between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas after Columbus sailed to the Americas in 1492,” led to possibly tens of millions of deaths on the side of the American Indians, but also enabled agricultural and technological trade (Henretta et al. 42), I cannot help but reflect on whether the effects should be addressed as a historical or a moral question. The impact that European contact had on the indigenous populations of North America should be understood as a moral question because first, treating it as a historical question is difficult due to lack of reliable historical evidence; second, the meaning of compelling historical claims is contestable as the academic historian perspective tends to view the American Indian oral history as invalid; and finally, what happened to the native Indians is morally repulsive and must be discussed as such. The consequences of European contact should be answered as a moral question because historically, it is hard to be historically objective in the absence of valid and dependable historical evidence.

It is estimated that approximately 95% of pre-Columbus Native Americans were killed by European diseases. Since the outbreak of the diseases spread because of the European colonization, it made conquering the Americas much easier. Health was definitely the most detrimental obstacle that the Native Americans had to face as a result of the European

(document 12) The journey Columbus took spanned months so they almost certainly brought medicine. The reason Columbus didn’t help them was unknown but a known fact is that he didn’t bother to help them. Finally, the native American population got decreased by more than 24 million because of Columbus’ actions. The graph in document 13 show a decrease in the Native American population by 24 million people.

As the Europeans found native along the coasts of the New World, they found them easily malleable and able to be used, so they enslaved them and those who fought back were wiped out. Europeans, as well as the Africans, had built up a resistance to many diseases such as smallpox and were therefore not really affected as much by the diseases if they became sick. However, the Native Americans had not had contact with the disease and it quickly spread rapidly and slowly helped the Spanish rid themselves of the natives so they could take control of the land. Geoffrey Cowley offers insight on just how profound the effect of smallpox was when he writes, “ ...When the newcomers arrived carrying mumps, measles, whooping cough, smallpox, cholera, gonorrhea and yellow fever, the Indians were immunologically