Chapter 17 Aboriginal and Indigenous Peoples, Colonisation and Contact History->Section

17.1 What were the reasons for the colonisation of North America and what effects did this
have?->The colonisation of North America

The colonisation of North

America
The Dutch, the French and the British first came to North America for trade, then in search of
new land and homes. The tribes of the north-east were the first to experience the impact of a
European invasion. In 1607, the British first settled in Virginia, expanding their settlements
from 1620. In 1608, the French first established a colony at Quebec, in what became
Canada. From that point, the coureurs du bois (which is French for runners of the woods)
travelled in search of valuable furs to take back to Europe. These French trappers travelled
further west through the Great Lakes and south along the Mississippi to trap beavers, lynx
and other woodland animals, or to buy them from the native people.

Source 17.19 A 19th-century painting showing Sacagawea with Lewis and Clark
during their expedition of 18041806

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Strange but true

One of the most famous mountain men was Jedediah Smith. According to
one story, Smith was attacked by a grizzly bear, and had an ear ripped off
in one swipe of the bears claw. He was able to escape, and returned to
find the severed ear. With the help of friends, the ear was stitched back on
using a sewing kit without painkillers. Despite the best efforts of his
friends, Smith later complained that they had sewn it on crooked.
Settlements spread across the eastern parts of North America. By 1800, the tribes living on
the eastern coast had had more than a century of contact with European settlers. There was
peaceful contact through trading, but many tribes had been systematically dispossessed
forced from their land and made to abandon their way of life. Many tribes were drastically
reduced by diseases brought to the New World by traders and settlers. Survivors of these
tribes moved west, into and over the Appalachian Mountains further inland.
Other tribes further west had not yet felt the full impact of colonisation. This changed after
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led an expedition west of the Mississippi River, in 1804
1806. Their information helped establish the Oregon trail. Based on their reports of good
land suitable for farming and grazing, more and more settlers moved into traditional Native
American homelands. In 1825, the opening of a canal that linked the Hudson River in New
York State with the Great Lakes in the mid-west made travelling west even faster and easier.
These developments encouraged tens of thousands of settlers to move west. Among the first
were mountain men, who travelled west to the Rockies, opening up trails for future settlers.
Then came bison hunters, and next cattlemen, who moved on to the grasslands with their
herds. The cattlemen were followed by homesteaders who chose farm and grazing land to
settle on. Gold was discovered in California on the west coast in 1848, and then silver and
more gold in Nevada and Dakota. Railway lines were built across the plains. Telegraph lines
were built and small towns established. Fences appeared, and the ground was ploughed for
new crops and farms.

Apply 17.5
1 In a group, use an atlas to identify the locations of these places. Then mark them on a
blank map of the USA.

Virginia

Appalachian Mountains

Mississippi River

New York

Great Lakes

Rocky Mountains

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Nevada, Dakota

Montana, Oklahoma

California

Native American reservations

Native American tribes had been forcibly removed from their homelands in what would
become the USA from the early days of settlement. Then in 1830, the US government
passed the Indian Removal Act, which made it official policy to remove tribes to
reservations (areas where they were forced to live). The reservations were often far away
from traditional lands, in areas that were not well suited for farming. Native Americans living
on them were isolated, away from non-Indigenous settlements, trails and transport routes.
On the reservations, Native Americans found life difficult. They could not lead the lives they
were accustomed to. Much of the land was unsuitable for agriculture and they had to rely on
government rations for food. Authorities founded boarding schools for Native American
children. At boarding schools children attended church, studied standard European subjects,
and were forbidden to speak in their native languages.

Source 17.20 A 19th-century painting depicting the Trail of Tears of 1838. This
was the forced journey of 15000 Cherokee from their homelands in the southeast to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma.

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Extend 17.1
1 Conduct research to prepare a short report on the Trail of Tears. Explain the events
leading to this forced removal of the Cherokee people from their homelands and describe
the journey.

Key aspects of contact and

colonisation
Experiences of European colonisation, which began in the north-east, were repeated right
across the frontier. Key aspects of these experiences were:
1. Native Americans were forced to leave their lands. In some cases, treaties were
made with settlers or government authorities to share or buy land. In others, the
US army enforced their removal. The end result was always for settlers to gain
more land, and always in the most fertile and liveable areas. Traditional lands
were fenced off, and Native Americans who entered them were made to feel like
trespassers.
2. Violence and open warfare erupted. Sometimes fighting broke out due to
misunderstanding between Native Americans and settlers. Sometimes it was a
result of the settlers belief in their right to take whatever they wanted, by any
means.
3. European diseases wiped out Native Americans in huge numbers. Native
Americans had never previously been affected by diseases such as smallpox,
measles, cholera and the plague; their lack of immunity made them highly
susceptible to diseases introduced by the Europeans. Even the common cold,
first brought to the Americas by Europeans, could be fatal to Native Americans.

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Source 17.21 A 19th-century painting, Ration Day at the Reservation

This pattern did not end until the USA fulfilled what it saw as its manifest destiny to control
the entire northern continent of the Americas, and create a single nation that stretched from
the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, from Canada in the north to
Panama in the south.

Apply 17.6
1 Discuss how reliance on government rations for food would have affected the culture of
Native American tribes.

Source study
Introduction of European diseases
Source 17.22
For thousands of years, the people of Eurasia [Europe and Asia] lived in close proximity to
the largest variety of domesticated mammals in the world eating, drinking, and breathing in
the germs these animals bore. Over time, animal infections crossed species, evolving into
new strains which became deadly to man. Diseases like smallpox, influenza and measles
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were in fact the deadly inheritance of the Eurasian farming tradition they wreaked
devastation throughout Eurasian history and in the era before antibiotics, thousands died.
With each epidemic eruption, some people survived, acquiring antibodies and immunities
which they passed on to the next generation. Over time, the population of Europe gained
increased immunity, and the devastating impact of traditional infections decreased.
Yet the people of the New World had no history of prior exposure to these germs They
had never experienced smallpox, measles or flu before, and the viruses tore through the
continent, killing an estimated 90% of Native Americans.
From The Story of Smallpox and Other Deadly Eurasian Germs, PBS (USA), Lion
Television, 2005

Source 17.23
The Indians in those parts had newly, even about year or two before, been visited with such
a prodigious pestilence, as carried away not a tenth but nine parts of ten (yea, tis said
nineteen of twenty) among them: so that the woods were almost cleared of those pernicious
[evil, harmful] creatures, to make room for a better growth.
Cotton Mather (16631728) quoted in R. H. Shyrock, Medicine in America: Historical
Essays, Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, p. 2

Interpret 17.3
1 Are Sources 17.22 and 17.23 primary or secondary sources?

2 According to Source 17.22, what were the origins of diseases such as smallpox, influenza
and measles?

3 Why did European settlers have some immunity to these diseases, while Native Americans
had none?

4 What proportion of the Native American population died from diseases introduced by
European colonisers, according to both sources?

5 In Source 17.23, what does Cotton Mathew mean by a better growth?

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Review 17.4
1 Describe the pattern of experiences in the colonisation of North America. What were the
consequences for Native Americans?

2 What was the concept of manifest destiny, and what did it justify?

3 Explain the effect of European diseases on the Native American population and the
consequences for European settlers.

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