Development of Understanding between Cultures - Essay Example

One example from history is the interaction between Europeans and American Indians in the colonial period in 1492 when 1-7 million American Indians lived in North America and European hunters migrated from northeast Asia into Alaska. They interacted with the native people through trade and agriculture. The Spanish and French are said to have developed good harmonious relations with the native people. The Spanish worked towards converting them into Catholicism after 1600. The English interaction with the American Indians was rather complex which involved mostly warfare and alliances.

Another good example of cultural interaction is the development of understanding between Western and non-Western cultures over time. Non-Western cultures have adopted Western modernization without abandoning their own cultures, religious values, and practices. Global trade has helped enhance this understanding. Both cultures have made efforts to start active communication across them and the pioneers of this understanding are the philosophers of both the cultures who took an extraordinary interest in the other culture to spread understanding.