European Effects On Native Americans

When the Europeans arrived in the Americas, in 1492, they greatly changed the Native American’s way of life. There were four major things the Europeans brought to the Native Americans: disease, war, technology, and Christianity. These, among many other things, massively effected the lives of most, and ultimately all of the Native Americans. The effects of most of these are still being felt today, although to a lesser extent. First, and most devastating is disease. For thousands of years the people of Europe more specifically the British and Spanish lived extremely close to animals which had diseases which evolved into diseases which could harm humans. Each time a disease would evolve an epidemic would occur and kill many thousands of europeans, but would leave some left who would develop anti-bodies and become immune to the disease. When Europeans traveled they unknowingly brought several deadly diseases with them that the indigenous people were not immune to. Among the the worst and most costly of those was smallpox which killed an estimated ninety five percent or twenty million Natives.
As they brought muskets and swords that were superior the the Natives weapons but they also brought domestication of animals new ways of farming, compasses maps and others. It is safe to say that everything was not all bad for the Native Americans. Native Americans also gained property which was a foreign concept the the Native people who were for the most part largely nomadic and or lived in societies where everything was owned by the tribe and not the individual especially property. Not all Indians lived in societies where property was owned by the tribe in fact some lived in tribes where it was very similar to todays system but, European influence certainly helped spread the belief in property rights. They did gain several valuable tools, weapons and useful items from the Colombian