Besides these points, the Europeans had the advantage of disease on their side. Diseases that they had already gained immunity against, the native Americans weren't exposed to yet. The natives died in huge numbers as soon as they came into contact with European and African diseases. The "great dying", which happened with all the spread of diseases opened up room for immigrants as their was a huge labor shortage. Another huge advantage was allies that they gained through divisions of local societies. For example, Aztec were easy to get on their side as they were willing to do anything to break down the Mexica dominance.
As Europeans and Africans began colonizing they brought things such as their people, plants, animals, all which were completely revolutionary. As the domestic animals were brought, ranching communities were easy to build up as there weren't any predatory animals threatening them. Unfortunately women lost their role in producing food. The patriarchy was easily established as men took on that role almost automatically as hunters and warriors became so important. Hunting and military positions were only for men, pushing women out of many once important roles.
Overall the network of all the communication, trade, disease, plants, and animals by European colonial empires is called the Columbian Exchange. The interaction through the Atlantic Ocean connected four different continents and allowed for these four places to expose each other to good and bad things. The benefits in the long run were extremely unequally distributed though, unfortunately. Obviously we know that the Europeans basically reaped the most long term benefit as they conquered through innovation and brutally kicking people out. Europeans were fueled by a mercantilist ideal and they ran their colonies in that mindset. Mercantilism, being the basic idea of encouraging exports to bring in more money and success for the nation, fueled European wars and colonial rivalries.
No comments:
Post a Comment