Q 16

The Spanish, French, and English started their expeditions into the new world with similar goals. Acquire
new lands for their country and increase wealth. However, each of the three countries went about those
goals slightly different.

The Spanish goals were achieved using harsh methods. Their aim to strip the land of precious metals
and colonize the land was supported by their conquest and subversion of the local natives. They began
this process with the Taino natives from Hispaniola as well as acquiring slaves from Africa. The Spanish
decimated the native populations through slavery as well as disease throughout its conquests through
Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Cuba, and Central America. The Spanish were the most instrumental in
the decline of native populations in the new world. Of the positive influences The Spanish are
responsible are the introduction of livestock such as cattle and horses as well as new crops such as Sugar
and coffee to the new world. The Spanish also were most responsible for the introduction of new hybrid
races due to cross breeding between the colonists and the Indian and African women. (Faragher,
Buhle, Czitrom, & Armitage, 2009).

Though the first French attempts at colonization in the New World were due to Huguenots seeking
religious refuge not wealth and slaves, the crown backed ventures did seek wealth and new lands. After
failed settlement attempts in Brazil and Florida, the French discovered the St. Lawrence River. This river
led to the Great Lakes as well as the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. This led to the meeting and eventual
commerce based relationship between the Indians of the northern woodlands and the French colonists.
The French focused most of their trade on the fur coats of the Indians which eventually grew into a huge
market with over 1000 ships trading for furs each year. For the Indians part, they”became reliant, as a
way of life, on the Europeans for items such as cloth, copper, glass, and ironware” (Faragher et al.,
2009, p. 39).While not intentional on the part of the French, their colonization and commerce with the
Indians did lead to epidemic disease as well as inter-tribe warfare.

The last to attempt to colonize the new world was England. While the English wanted new lands and
wealth, they wanted nearly nothing to do with the Indian “savages” , believing that like the Irish they
were an inferior race. Rather than open commerce with the natives like the French, “the English
attempted to dominate and conquer” (Faragher et al., 2009, p. 43) through brutality. This led to the
failure of the English attempts at colonization. It also may have contributed to the introduction of new
hybrid races to the New World similar to the Spanish hybrids. After the fall of Roanoke and the
disappearance of the settlers it was believed that “Virginia Dare and other English children may have
been adopted by Indian families, grown up and taken Indian spouses, in the process creating the first
mixed community of English and Indians in North America” (Faragher et al., 2009, p. 26).
Q 17

Joseph de Acosta proposed the Asian Migration Hypothesis in which the belief is that people were able
to migrate from Asia to North America by way of a land bridge which was called Beringia. The theory
tries to account for the vast number of natives in the New World upon its discovery by the European
colonists.

The belief is that during the ice age, much of the earths water was locked up in huge glaciers. This would
have lowered the water line to the point where what is now known as the Bering Straits, would have
been a “huge subcontinent of ice-free, tree-less grassland” (Faragher, Buhle, Czitrom, & Armitage,
2009, p. 3).This grassland connecting Asia to North America would have served as an easy access point
to migrants following big game and looking for new unclaimed lands to settle. Along with the
northeastern Rocky Mountain pathway, the melting that signaled the end of the last Ice Age also would
have allowed for natives to travel south along the shore line in search of new settlement locations while
having a readily available food supply.

It is believed that the first migration across the land bridge may have reached the Great Plains as early
as 11,000 BCE but archaeological findings suggest that it may have been closer to 12,000 BCE. Following
the first migrations, it is believed that the Athapascan people moved across Beringia into the northwest
part of North America and then broke off groups who migrated into the southwest. Acosta’s Asian
Migration Hypothesis also accounts for continued migrations utilizing small boats across the Bering
Straights even after the melting ice covered Beringia under water (Faragher et al., 2009).

References:
Faragher, J., Buhle, M., Czitrom, D., & Armitage, S. (2009). Out of many: A History of the
American People (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.