Victor Yu questioned the cycle of poverty, "how the problem is that what if that child's parents don't have money and their [sic] poor?" Victor is smart to look at economic inequalities, all good historians do.
In 1492, why did the Western Europeans set sail to conquer the world and not the Native Americans, Asians or Africans? The Answer is not that Europeans were smarter, better looking or that God loved them more. The answer is in economic inequalities.
Your assignment is to focus on one of the advantages Europe had in 1492 or on one of the disadvantages facing Native Americans or African. Write about this single advantage or disadvantage: the how and why it lead to European ascendancy. Refer to your class notes, the textbook may or may not be useful I suggest pages 22 - 65, and the videos below are for college level but you may get much out of it. Comment Due Tuesday October 7th.
If you cannot watch this video you may read about it on http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/index.html
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An advantage that the Europeans had over the Native Americans was disease. The Europeans had brought smallpox and other types of diseases with them to the New World. Measles, small pox, and typhus were common in Europe, so most Europeans were immune to them. However, the Native Americans weren't and millions of them died in the years after Columbus reached the New World. There were about 10 million Native Americans living north of Mexico when Columbus had arrived in 1492. Now there were less than a million. The Spanish had conquered the Aztec, and Inca due to their superior weaponry but possibly more than three-quarters of the Aztec and Inca populations were killed by the diseases the Europeans brought.
An advantage that the Europeans had were guns. They could kill a person from more than one to four feet. They also had another advantage, they had brought over deceases. The Europeans were already immune to measles, small pox, typhus, and other types of diseases. The Native Americans were not.
One of the advantages that the Europeans had over the Native Americans was technology with steel. From the earliest days of European civilization steel has always been one of the greatest tools of conquest of human history.
Germany and northern Italy became the home to iron technology. The products they created were unique throughout the world. They created single plates of armor hammered from one sheet of metal, and long swords designed for popular duel. By the mid-fifteenth century, the latest techniques were used to create the strongest, lightest and most flexible armor and swords. Geography had played an important rule to spread technology, and the Europeans took advantage of it to perfect the art of war.
Civilizations in the Americas lacked equivalent iron resources, but were rich beyond imagination in copper, tin, and precious metals like silver and gold. This had been the incentive for European exploration in 1492. The European’s quest was to seize a paradise made of gold. The invaders were not disappointed. Gold was so common in the land of the Incas; it was used purely for decoration. Protected only by bronze weapons and knives carved from stone, the Inca Empire fell easily to deadly Spanish steel.
One advantage the Europeans had over the Native Americans was their immune system. The Europeans were used to and have developed immunity to (meaning accident prone to the following diseases) : small pox, measles, typhus and other diseases. When Columbus found what the Europeans thought was a shorter route to India, they had not only brought pots, pans and guns; they brought disease. The Native Americans have never been exposed to small pox or measles. This resulted in Native American casualties. There were millions of casualties for the Native Americans. Over ten million Native Americans lived above Mexico before Columbus came to America. After Columbus arrived to the “New World”, the population went down to less than one million. All curtsey to the European’s weapon of mass destruction; disease.
One advantage the Europeans had been domesticated animals and plants. Scientific experiments have shown that the humans with the most productive crops were the most productive farmers. Europeans had an advantage over the Native Americans because the crops they grew were more nutritious and higher in protein. The wheat that the Europeans consumed was one fifth of the calories they consumed a day. Since the Europeans domesticated animals such as horses, cows, buffalos, and other big strong plant eating animals, they were able to plow their crops. The only muscle power the Native Africans from New Guinea had was human muscles and pigs. But pigs aren’t built to plow, therefore resulting a bad harvest. Since the Europeans were able to domesticate successfully, they were able to have plentiful meat, wool and etcetera. By domesticating sheeps, they were able to gain wool and meat; making their diets richer.
One reason why Europeans had a bigger advantage then Native Americans is because they had guns. Native Americans only had spears and arrows, but the Europeans had guns that shot from hundreds of feet away. Between the wars that were fought by Native Americans and Europeans, the Europeans usually won, because of their equipment. Also, the Europeans had better medicine, so they had treatments to more diseases. So when the Europeans came to America, lot’s of Native Americans died because they had worse treatments and less diseases, before the Europeans came. And another important reason why Europeans had a bigger advantage then Native Americans is because of each of their economy. Europeans had money, and Native Americans had another uncivilized system like rocks. But they still couldn’t live without each other. Both of them traded between each other. The Native Americans gave food and jewelry, and Europeans gave guns. That is why Europeans had a bigger advantage then Native Americans.
When the Europeans came to the New World, they brought weapons, animals, and language. These aspects combined equaled to a huge advantage. But one deadly factor was disease. This is what led to the decline of the Native Americans. When the Europeans came, they weren’t aware that they were carrying smallpox.
In Europe, the people lived with animals. Most of these diseases they had came from animals. Over time, these Europeans gained immunity to the diseases. Yet the Native Americans had no immunity to it. So when the Europeans came to the New World, these diseases spreaded like wildfire. These viruses killed almost 90% of the Native Americans. More natives of the New World were extinguished by germs than the gun or the sword. This made germs a superior advantage of the Europeans over the Native Americans.
I think one advantage that the europeans had over the native americans was guns. swords and spears and knights in shining armer is nice, but who would win? 1000 men armed with swords or 100 armed with guns? the answer is guns. A person with a gun could kill a man over 50 yards away. Most of the men where trained to fire several times in one minute. Now you do the math. if they can fire 5 times in one minute and there were 200 men then they will fire 1000 bullets in one minute! Another advantage i think the europeans had over the native americans was the immunity to disease. Yes the black plague was horrible and so was small pox but the europeans were immune to those diseases. the native americans where not. the native americans caught many of the europeans diseases and died. this is why i thought the europeans had the advantage.
The topic I chose is how geography gave Europe a huge head start in its ascendancy. There was a place in Western Asia called the Fertile Crescent. As you can guess from its name, the Fertile Crescent was a good place for farming. The people who lived there grew wheat and barley, which supplied carbohydrates and protein. The Fertile Crescent also had domesticated animals, such as sheep and goats. This meant that people didn’t have to go searching for meat. People also got milk, fur, skins, and muscle power from these animals. The animals ate plants, and in turn supplied dung as fertilizer for the plants.
Eventually, many people lived in the Fertile Crescent. This meant more people could work efficiently and feed more people. This led to people becoming specialists. They made huge advances in technology.
Unfortunately, the climate was dry and the ecology was fragile. The land was overused and couldn’t support more farming. However, geography was on their side. The people brought their belongings and moved east and west of the Fertile Crescent because it was the same latitude. This meant it had similar climate, and their plants and animals could thrive there. West was Europe, and part of the people from the Fertile Crescent moved here. Europe now had the technology, plants, people, and domesticated animals of the Fertile Crescent. This gave Europe a huge head start toward its ascendancy.
One advantage that the Europeans had over the Native Americans when they visited the New World in 1492 was that the explorers were immune to disease. A few examples of these diseases are chicken pox, measles, smallpox, cowpox, malaria, etc. The Native Americans weren’t immune to these illnesses, and as a result, they got sick easily. Most of these diseases the Europeans got from were animals, such as cows.
Since the European population was enormous, they had enough people to supply the whole town with wheat, rice, barley, oats, and other staple crops that contained protein. The Europeans had many people to feed and many crops to be fed with because of such a large population in people. In addition, the Europeans raised animals, such as the cattle, oxen, etc. and domesticated them. This means that the inhabitants (Europeans) had skin, meat, fur, and power from these hardworking animals. This physical connection resulted in diseases because animals have germs and the Europeans took it in. Then, they gave these sicknesses to the Native Americans and the population of the first settlers of the United States started to decrease.
Lastly, as people traveled to trade, migrate, or immigrate, they unknowingly transferred diseases to other people. This period was called the Black Death, where people were dying by the hundreds. This deathly series of deaths hit the Europeans between 1347 and 1351 and killed millions of inhabitants. When Europeans brought the disease first to the United States, they never realized that rats with fleas had come aboard, too. As the Europeans passed the disease on through communication and trade, as rats were living in the city, and as the people with these infections got worried and moved to other towns, the population of people greatly decreased, and the number of deaths and infections increased. As you can see, the Europeans had a superior advantage when they sailed to set up a new colony.
What would America be now if the Native Americans hadn't been devastated by disease? It is said that in the centuries after Columbus landed in the New World on October 12, 1492, more Native North Americans died each year from infectious diseases brought by European settlers than were born. They died of epidemic waves of smallpox, measles, influenza, bubonic plague, diphtheria, typhus, cholera, scarlet fever, chicken pox, yellow fever, and whooping cough. It is not clear the exact population at the time when Columbus arrived, but what it is certain is that by the end of the 19th century the population had shrunk to about 530.000.
Why did these no deadly diseases in other parts of the world make such dreadful devastation among Native Americans? The answer is very obvious: because Native Americans had no immunity to these diseases. But this leads to another question: Why this lack of immunity? And why had Native North Americans no deadly diseases infected Europeans in return? The reasons are that these diseases, such as the smallpox virus, had an incubation period of 10-14 days and it spread by human breath or infected clothing, so when the first symptoms appeared in a village, infected people who had not developed symptoms yet would move to other villages carrying the disease with them. However, the spread was not even, affecting more native farmers living in populated permanent villages and towns along major rivers like the Mississippi, Ohio, Gila and Rio Grande than those on the Great Plains of the Midwest or the Great Basin who seasonally changed their location or lived far from major population centres.
Why the lack of immunity? Why did Native North Americans not transmit any disease to the Europeans in return? The answer is very interesting. Unlike Europeans whose immunity was due to the previous contact with these diseases and even other epidemics like the Black Death, Native Americans had no disease to pass along, they were clean. The explanation comes from their origin. They descended from Northeast Asian populations and their port of entry to North America was the Bering Sea region. This area has been called a “germ filter”. Its harsh arctic climate killed off bacteria or the carriers (mosquitoes) so Native Americans had no disease to transmit to Europeans.
What would America be now if Native Americans had not come via the Bering Sea? or if they had brought diseases with them? America history would have been quite different, wouldn’t it?
Europe just happens to be the best possible place in the world to attain domestic animals AND plants. All other areas either can't get animals because of geography (think of placing sheep in the new world without a ship for example), or don't have cooperative temperate weather conditions (Imagine trying to grow apples in the desert before irrigation). The rise of domestic agriculture allowed Europeans to do two things; form the food support necessary to allow for an extensive population base, and catch the diseases from their livestock which would be actually give them a huge advantage in the long run/fight.
When you have a large amount of animals and people together in the same areas, disease can jump from species to species. The only way to survive this is though luck. Simply put, if early European settlers happened to have the right genes they wouldn't die of disease, and over time the survivors of many successive waves of disease were the ones who survived to reproduce, and these survivors children acquired the genetic ability to survive living with animals despite having a vast amount of deadly germs on their body (as all humans do).
The reason why this is relevant, is that when Europeans got to North America they could kill about 90 percent of native populations by just stepping foot on the North American continent. Because native American's hadn't built up genetic resistance to animal based diseases (like the bubonic plague that killed about a quarter of the human race in medieval times), they died in masses of strange foreign diseases which spread through trade routes far in advance of Europeans. This meant that Europeans didn't really have to conquer all native groups but only about the 10% that remained of them.
Why do you think the European farmers harvested so many good crops? Why do you think they were able to work so hard and maintain their strength? What made the European farmers, craftsmen, workmen, etc. be able to do such work that the Native American farmers couldn't?
What the Europeans had, that the Native Americans did not, were helpful plants and animals. The plants had such high protein and the animals were so strong from eating the plants. One advantage the Europeans had over the Native Americans were domesticated plants and animals. Protein was the key to their strength. The Europeans' domesticated plants were wheat, oats, rye, etc. These plants took up a lot of calories that they consumed in a day and that helped them on the field. They burned their calories by working hard and
that resulted to being muscular. The Europeans' domesticated animals were, horses, cows, sheep, goats and a variety of fowls. These animals consumed a great amount of the domesticated plants. With this strength given to the animals from the plants, the animals helped the Europeans harvest the plants. Also, they carried the many loads for the Europeans during harvest time. Therefore, not only did the domesticated plants help the Europeans maintain their strength, but they also helped the animals to help the Europeans. Besides the animals eating the plants to stay healthy and strong, they also provided warmth. The sheep had provided them with wool to make blankets and clothing. Overall the animals, they provided meat. As you can see, this creates a cycle-like process to keep maintenance of strength. The plants helped both the Europeans and the animals. Then, the animals help the Europeans and next, the Europeans help themselves.
On the other hand. Native Americans had pigs as domesticated animals. Pigs were not high in protein and the Native Americans themselves did not maintain their strength for long. Their domesticated plants did not help or they did not help enough. Therefore, they did not harvest well and did not get descent meals. Besides providing pork, the pigs were not a very good source.
As you can see, the Europeans had better advantages from the domesticated plants and animals
than the Native Americans. What would help you maintain your strength these days?
Why Europe? That's the First question that comes to our mind, why not any one else? Well to start off from the very scratch, Geography. Geography gave the Europeans major advantages over anyone else. Europe was basically the center of the world if they'd sail west they'd reach the Americas, if they'd sail east they'd reach Asia. Whereas compared to the Native americans they were far too west and there civilization was not "properly" organized. On the other hand the Europeans had a government based system, although their system was not what we would call an ideal system, but taking look at that time they were the most civilized group. As far as Africa is concerned it was far too south.
Another reason how the Europeans had an Advantage over the other groups of people was that there were many crops being grown in Europe for the Vast population. For example wheat, rice, barley, oats, and other staple crops that contained protein were grown. These crops relatively did not use up much man power and were easy to grow, they were also very high and rich in proteins, Carbohydrates and etc. In Africa there weren't many crops being grown because of the water shortage. Resulting in less food for the population.
In addition, the Europeans raised animals, such as the cattle, oxen, etc. Then they domesticated them. This means that the Europeans had used skin, meat, fur, and power from these animals. This physical connection resulted in diseases because animals have germs and the Europeans took it in. Then, they gave these sicknesses to the Native Americans and the population of the first settlers of the United States started to decrease.
These were only the very few of the many reasons why it was Europe who set out first.
A distinct advantage that the Europeans had over the rest of the world was that they had more domesticated plants and animals than the rest of the world. Some of which were more resourceful than others. The cow was an animal exclusive to Europe only during that time. The cow produced milk which can be processed into cheese. Cows also meant beef. Other animals and plants were higher in nutrients, fiber, minerals and protein. This strengthened their bodies.
One advantage the Native Americans didn't have over the Europeans were guns. The Europeans had guns while the Native Americans had spears and other types of killing weapons. Guns had gunpowder and the Native Americans didn't have it. When feudalism began, it was all about the wars and what did the Europeans use? What did the Native American use in their battles? Who won because they had what? Exactly. The Europeans had guns, the Native Americans had swords, spears etc. The Europeans won because they had guns which would be much easier to use than any kind of spear or sword.
One advantage Europeans had over the Native Americans was there domesticated animals. Eurasia more domesticated animals then another continent at that time. They also had weapons, since guns got invented in Europe. Europe also had the gun powder.
Native Americans only had arrows and spears. Europe as well had many crops that were not low in protein. In addition the Europeans had become immune to small pox and other diseases but they still carried the diseases in their bodies. When the Europeans came to America unknowingly they had spread the diseases to the Native Americans.
An advantage the Europeans had over Native Americans was guns. This helped them throughout the years. For example, when the Native Americans and the Europeans were at war the Europeans won because of their weapons. The only weapons that Native Americans were able to use was the spear and the arrow. The Europeans came up with a way of making new and improved technology. They brought language,animals,diseases and weapons into the new world. The Natives usually questioned why did the Europeans come up with making their weapons out of steel and how is it poosible that they have more money. The Native Americans died out when the Europeans brought measles, smallpox, typhus,and etc. Thats one of the advantages Europeans had over the Native Americans.
Some reasons why Europeans had a bigger advantage then Native Americans is because they had guns. Native Americans had only used spears, bows and arrows and some poisons. The Europeans had guns that shot from long distances away. The wars that were fought by Native Americans and Europeans, were usually won by the Europeans. The Europeans had more advanced medicine, resulting in the treatment of many more diseases. When the Europeans came to America, many Native Americans died because their treatments were less knowledgeful. They were being introduced to new diseases including measles, smallpox and typhus. Another important reason why Europeans had a bigger advantage then Native Americans was because of each of their economy. Europeans had money, and Native Americans had another uncivilized system like rocks. That is why Europeans had a bigger advantage then Native Americans.
An advantage that the Europeans had over Native Americans were guns and horses. The advantage of guns were it was way faster than a sword piercing through an human. Guns used bullet or gun powder so that hits the human from a far range. That made many people die faster because it’s attacking range. The advantage of horses were the traveling speed. It was about three faster than human so that killed the Natives faster. The horses could also run over the Natives because it was big in length plus the Native Americans had no knowledge so they wouldn't know if it would hurt them or not.
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