Relationship Between Europeans And Native Americans

The Indian societies were of a huge variety with different traditions and cultures which the Europeans became aware of the more they explored the Americas. However, the Europeans too, were considerably different with their aims and this therefore created different results from each relationship between the two. The Europeans were interested in a variety of things when they went across the Atlantic to the Indies, for example, the assistance of the Native Americans as military allies and valuable resources. The valuable resources would be obtained from the Indians, but only through trade, and for cooperation which constrained European behaviour. This need for trade and alliances put the Europeans on an equal level with the Indians and also created
The Taino had never seen white men, men with beards, people who wore clothes and had never seen anything like ships before; they thought they were from the heavens. Due to this, Columbus and the Taino managed to create a friendly bond with one of their powerful chiefs Guacanagarí, or as the Taino called them, ‘caciques’. The Taino were very generous to Columbus and his crew by trading them valuable gifts, such as gold, green parrots, exquisite stones and more which shows how easy it was to approach these peoples! As sighted in the summary of Columbus’ journal by the friar Bartolome de Las Casas, “the utmost care should be taken not give offense to the natives in anything, and that no article should be taken from them without his permission; in this manner they were paid for everything they gave the Spaniards” justifies that this bond between the two peoples was strong and that the Europeans put orders in place to make sure they didn’t ruin it. However, some of these peoples were afraid of the Spaniards and ran away from them. Guacanagarí remained loyal to Columbus and asked him to kill two of the leaders of Española for taking his women which resulted in many deaths. This shows that this cacique trusted Columbus and believed he could help him solve his problems even though it did not end so
Due to all of this, the Taino became more precautious of who they had alliances with and became less open, thoughtful and trustful of both the Castilians and Columbus. They also made threatening gestures which is the complete opposite of how they initially felt towards these Europeans. The Taino were affected horrendously due to the effects of war and forced labour as their men had been slaughtered. Las Casas wrote, “There were generally left only boys and women and children” which shows the measures of what had happened to this once, blossoming tribe that was extending its petals towards the sun only to have shrivelled. Despite all their efforts to survive, disease did play a part too as diseases such as smallpox, measles and also such things like famine came into play over the years which wiped large numbers of the