Why were Native Americans Dominated by Europeans?

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Why were Native Americans Dominated by Europeans?
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How many Native American Tribes can you name?
How many Native American friends do you have?
Where are they now?
What happened to them?
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(No Transcript)
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Why were Native Americans Taken Over by
Europeans?
One answer
Geography
(Ill get back to this later)
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A more specific answer is that Europeans had

• Meaner diseases
• Better technology
• Better political organization
• A literate society

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Have you ever had any of the following diseases?

• a. smallpox
• b. chicken pox
• c. Influenza (a really bad case)
• d. measles
• e. Bubonic plague

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Meaner Diseases

• Smallpox think chicken pox on steroids.
• Influenza Different types of the flu.
• Measles Like a powerful flu and cold combined.
• Bubonic plague high fever, swollen lymph nodes
  and it can spread to your lungs.

• Most of us survive a case of the flu fairly
  easily nowadays, but all these diseases have the
  potential to kill a lot of people, very quickly.

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Smallpox was especially devastating to Native
Americans.In many cases, 65 to 90 of those
infected, died!
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http//nmhm.washingtondc.museum/collections/archiv
es/agalleries/smallpox/smallpox.html
Smallpox Obviously not something you want.
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Sometimes these diseases were given to the Native
Americans on purpose.
http//gold.aecom.yu.edu/id/management/smallpox-in
dex.html
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Why did Europeans have meaner diseases?
Many nasty diseases have been transferred to
humans by animals. Think of all the talk in the
news about Bird Flu.
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Europeans had closer contact with more animals,
especially farm animals (chickens, pigs, cows,
oxen, horses, donkeys, etc).
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Why?
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Europe, Asia and Africa had been trading their
animals for many centuries before the exploration
of the Americas. The largest DOMESTICATED animal
in the Americas was the llama, and it was only
used in South America.
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1. Many diseases come from animals
2. Europeans had closer contact with more
animals.
3. Many large domesticated animals in
Eurasiaonly one in the Americas.
4. Also, Native Americans were spread out,
making widespread disease and exposure to them
less likely.
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Europeans Had Better Technology
VS.
Wooden and Bronze Weapons
Steel Weapons
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Steel Armor vs.
Quilted Armor
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Europeans brought horses to the Americas

• Outran enemy
• Gave a higher platform for fighting
• Intimidating size

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Political Organization
In just about any sport, the more organized team
is going to win. This means better
communication, better training and preparation,
better use of resources, etc Europeans had well
established political organization.
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Literate Society
As much as you may hate writing, it serves a
great purpose. It ensures more ACCURATE
communication.
Try communicating an idea orally through ten
different people. Now try it in writing.
Better results?
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While their spelling was terrible, most European
conquerors were literate (at least the leaders,
anyway). This allowed for better military
strategy.
Better writing and communication
Better military strategy
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The Native Americans that lasted the longest were
those that learned to use the Europeans weapons
and strategies.
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So, to recap, Europeans dominated Native
Americans with

• meaner diseases
• better technology
• better political organization
• literate society

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Lastly, one question you may have is why did the
Europeans have these things and not the Native
Americans?
One possibility Geography
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Diseases, technology and information seemed to
have moved more easily along the same parallels
of latitude (east to west). Crossing the world
from north to south, requires going through many
more climates, which could explain sub-Saharan
Africas similar fate. The Americas were
completely isolated making the gradual exposure
to these forces even less likely.
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QUIZ
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• Which of the following is NOT one of the reasons
  given why the Europeans dominated the Native
  Americans
• meaner diseases
• hotter temperatures
• literate society
• better political organization

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• 2. Which of the following was the most
  devastating of the European diseases?
• influenza
• smallpox
• AIDS
• measles

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• 3. One animal the Europeans brought to the
  Americas which was very effective in war was the
• llama
• horse
• elephant
• camel

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4. This advantage allowed Europeans to learn from
each other and improve their military strategy
against Native Americans a. disease b.
literacy c. husbandry d. guns
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• 5. The whole reason why the Europeans had major
  advantages over the Native Americans may be due
  to
• geography
• technology
• shipbuilding
• intelligence