Struggle & Survival - Essay Example

Struggle and Survival Introduction Life is constantly a struggle and continued existence is at all times a key objective. In the extensive history of colonial America, each person partook in the social process that depicted the struggle for independence and for survival in the harsh realities of colonial rule. In this regard, common persons fashioned out their personal places in communities founded on the structural variations of class, race and sex (12). These common persons were the genuine accelerators of social transformation in colonial society since they were the manufacturers, law abiders, users, taxpayers, tax collectors, as well as farmers.

In addition, they were the means of spreading of ideas across systems of communication. Moreover, the creation and development of European settler societies greatly transformed the lives of these people both negatively as well as positively (11).DiscussionThe society during the European colonization of America was an irregularly delicate structure. The establishment of European settler societies brought about changes in lifestyle for instance the issue of town living as a form of living a civilized life.

Other settlers arrived in America with the hope of reinstating a structure of society that they deemed was appropriate in Western Europe. As a result, armed disagreement with the Native Americans offered a strong inducement for integration as did the occasionally threatening peculiarity of the American environment. However, shortly, the compelling forces in New World civilization acted as a prevailing corrosive on the common standards and forms of behaviour of the European settlers, both in the borders and inside the colonial cities and towns (17).

The European perceptions of personal property and the adverse exploitation of the environment for commercial purposes were great deterrents to communal modes of behaviour. Nevertheless, the Indian ways of life and culture offered a resilient foundation for societal cohesion. Among African slaves, integration and cohesion occurred in terms of religious affiliations than in open struggle. In addition, there were several chances for grouping integration with the strongly administered social order of plantation, household and mine.

This provided the African slaves with a good ground of interaction and modification of their behaviour. These people learned various aspects of life, which they incorporated in their daily activities (18).The collective foundation of the community remained integral in the Native American civilizations and to a smaller extent even among the African slaves. This is because African slaves concentrated to form new societies near the mines, towns, and plantations of the new society. In most Indian communities, there was collective possession of land and the idea of a collective membership in a surreptitious natural order, which was integral in the community (18).

On the other hand, Africans brought many cultural and structural changes in these settler societies and in return, they adopted many aspects from these Europeans, which transformed their lives. They however experienced many hardships due to their concentration in artificial multi-ethnic societies (20).The Indians also experienced various hardships due to formation of these European settler societies. For instance, they engaged into the structures of tax compilation and compulsory labor founded by the sixteenth century.

Although these people struggled to attain a tribal identity, there were rampant societal transformations due to European influence. In this regard, there was upholding of Native American languages and local culture. These Indians experienced overwhelming plagues, technological difficulties, and the methodical removal of Indian land, labor and superfluous production by the Europeans (19).ConclusionIt is evident that the establishment of European settler societies in colonial America influenced the native people in various ways.

There were significant changes in their ways of life some positive and others negative. As the native people struggled for survival, some engaged in forced labor, lost their native land to the Europeans and engaged in tax collection. These issues changed their lives and even accelerated their struggle for survival.Work CitedSweet, David & Nash, Gary. Struggle and survival in colonial America. California: University of California Press, 1981.