The Way the Europeans Treated the Native Americans and the Africans before the 20th Century - Essay Example

Years before the 20th century, the relationship between the Native Americans and the Europeans was sore as the latter treated the former with arrogance. Scholarly reviews ascertain that, when the Europeans set foot on American soil, the Native Americans received and welcomed them with great hospitality (Reilly 55). Nevertheless, as time went by, the Europeans’ greed to conquer America displayed and all of a sudden their relations grew sour. This essay will seek to compare and contrast how Europeans treated both Native Americans and Africans before the 20th century.

The Europeans began to disregard the hospitality and respect accorded to them by the Native Americans and went ahead to display their insatiable greed for their valued resources and land hence treating them arrogantly. As a result, the Europeans commenced a series of brutal attacks as they invaded the Native Americans’ land and resources. Need to conquer the Native Americans made the Europeans increase their troops in this land (91). As such, this appears to be the reason why Kevin Reilly terms their flow to America as “stars in heaven”. Apart from treating the Native Americans with an arrogant attitude, the Europeans also discriminated against the American Indians. According to Reilly, the explorers and colonialists brought in devastating diseases such as smallpox, measles, and yellow fever, among others, which diminished and annihilated drastically the entire Native American population. Under this spectrum, the Europeans sought to remove the Native Americans by slaughtering them ferociously, a factor that led to the worst massacre through the enactment of the Indian Removal Act in 1830 and 1890 (164).

In this case, the Europeans treated Native Americans as primitive and resilient. This treatment led to the removal of Native Americans from their homes, starvation, and exposure as well as illnesses that aimed at reducing them in numbers. Additionally, the Europeans treated Native Americans with suspicion hence took away their children to schools where they civilized them and ensured that they did not value their customs and traditions. With reference to archival researches as well as academic studies, the Europeans treated both the Native Americans and the Africans almost the same with Africans facing a greater deal of racial discrimination (202). This is so because the Europeans discriminated against Native Americans and Africans on a racial basis and civility. Ideally, the Europeans treated Native Americans as non-civilized beings and as such reduced them by killing them and drawing them into reservations and thereafter taking their children to schools in order to end their beliefs and customs.

On the other end, Europeans treated Africans as inferior. For three centuries, the Europeans traded Africans as slaves simply because they believed Africans were inferior. The Europeans believed that the continent of Africa was dark and the people living in it were illiterate. Due to their limited information, the Europeans portrayed them as childish and warlike. European explorers saw Africans as savages shaped by their activities, which included hunting and gathering. In addition, Europeans treated Africans with barbarism since they believed that the African soil was fertile, and the climate made it possible for Africans to have “tropical abundance” hence becoming lazy due to fatness. In this regard, the Europeans treated Africans with animosity and sold them as slaves (243). Confusedly, Europeans segregated Africans not knowing that they worked slowly and disregarded seasons due to their own reasons and habits.

Moreover, it is agreeable to say that the Europeans treated Africans as baboons or rather fewer humans. Attributively, Africans were black and dark while whites were light-skinned. This difference in their color complexion made Europeans think that they were different from Africans because their skin color did not match. This aspect led to the never-ending series of racial discrimination against Africans. Fact-findings maintain that the Europeans treated Africans as filthy and thus deserved to work. They, therefore, made Africans work in the American plantation for no pay and for long hours. The fact that colonialists saw Africans being warlike triggered the immediate treatment by the Europeans as a risk to their own survival. This belief sparked the idea that Africans needed protection against themselves, as they appeared to be a threat to their own safety. This forced the Europeans to treat Africans as insecure (289).

In conclusion, upon comparing and contrasting the ways in which the Europeans treated Native Americans and Africans is observable that neither the Native Americans nor the Africans received fair treatment. The Europeans did not match themselves with any of the two mainly because of their sophistication and power. Before the 20th century, both Africans and American Indians could not match the superiority culminated by the Europeans (336). Consequently, the Europeans seemed to have the ability to demean and diminish or rather mistreat the Native Americans and Africans. Precisely, the outcome of these mistreatments resulted in the continued racial discrimination that exists in contemporary America. It also led to the long-term advocate for equal rights between and among the Europeans, the Native Americans, and the Africans.