Comparison between the way the Europeans treated the Native Americans and the Africans before the 20th century - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages 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 as to why Kevin Reilly terms their flow to America as “stars in heaven”. Apart from treating the Native Americans with arrogance attitude, the Europeans also discriminated against the American Indians. According to Reilly, the explorers and colonialists brought in devastating diseases such as small pox, 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 become lazy due to fatness. In this regard, the Europeans tr ...Download file to see next pagesRead More