Friday, July 26, 2019

Describe how Native Americans way of life was transformed by the English settlers

Native Americans' way of life was completely transformed by the arrival of English settlers. For one thing, they now found themselves competing for land which had been theirs for centuries. In order to establish settlements the newcomers had to find somewhere to live. Inevitably, this meant that at some point land would have be taken from Native Americans, especially when the population of the new settlements expanded. Moreover, the English settlers needed a regular food supply, and this involved intruding on the natives' traditional hunting grounds, meaning that in addition to competing with the English for land Native Americans would also have to compete with them for food.
Although some English settlers, such as the Quakers who founded Pennsylvania, managed to establish generally amicable relations with indigenous tribes, most of them were deeply hostile to Native Americans, seeing them as wild, dangerous savages following a primitive heathen religion. This unshakable prejudice determined how most English settlers subsequently treated Native Americans, leading to suffering on an appalling scale.

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