The European Invasion of North America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The European Invasion of North America - Essay Example The invasion of the European immigrants into North American forced the Native Americans to cope with the new environments, intercultural social relations and to a new environment in general. This paper will explore the kind of life the native residents of North America before the European Invasion, there life after the invasion, and how they coped with the new environment with reference to the book ‘The American People Creating a Nation and Society’ by Gary Nash and other authors. The Invasion Before the European invasion of North America, the natives had divisions of many different polities which involved bands of families to large business empires. Primordial paradise is the term used to refer to the lives of the Native Americans today. This effectively means that the native residents lived a life free from any restrictions. Before the invasion of the Europeans in North America, there was no clear evidence of Christianity among them. The broad generalization way of pai rs of philosophical principles leads to the quality of the native culture. The American Indian religion was wrapped together in a multidimensional cycle. These natives believed in the power of gods, performed and gave sacrifices to them in the belief that the gods were naturally supreme powered. This religion contributed towards peace and harmony among the native residents as they developed a sense of belonging towards the gods they worshipped. However, this does not necessarily mean that harmony was always maintained. Conflicts arose from various issues but were easily solved by the governance units that were already in place. Another remarkable feature of the Native American cultures was the degree of symbolic and moral convergence or homogeneity among the people who socially and geographically disparate. Perhaps this displays a common history and explains the fate that eventually ensued from the European invasion and the ultimate conquest for the bands and empires that were assoc iated with the native North Americans (Nash 108). The European invasions, as anyone would expect, caused more conflicts than they were before. The native residents were not ready to surrender that easily to the invaders. They had to stage up a fight in order to avoid losing the land they regarded to as a paradise to the European invaders. The Indians undoubtedly had to devise ways on how to cope or merge with the culture that came along with the European invaders. More importantly is to note that the European invasion brought along what they call the western civilizations even presently. Before their invasion as outlined in the second paragraph, the native residents worshipped gods. It was their way of religion, but after the European invasion, Christianity is widely spread as the major method of worship. The acceptance of the Native Americans showed towards Christianity as the religion means that the native Indians were not necessarily rebellious to the culture that was introduced by the European invasion (Nash 212). The different European nations that invaded the Indian Territory in North America made different approaches to invading North America. After the invasion of the French into North America, there is evidence that trade thrived fairly well between the French and the Native Americans. For instance, the French developed an interest in beaver