Week 1: Early Interactions and beginning of Revolution

Date of Week: September 8 - 12

Power has the ability to do good but also an equivalent ability to do evil. The English Puritans along with the Spanish Conquistadors brought many things with them that were considered extremely new and strange to the inhabitants that lived in the New World. In my opinion the English consciously made the decisions to overtake the Indians. The most recognized things that aided the English and Spanish in their efforts were the illnesses and the weapons. The early interactions between the Puritan settlers and the Native Americans formed the history of North America. The interactions between the Spanish Conquistadors and the Tíanos, Mayans,Aztecs, and other indigenous groups created the history of the South and Central Americas. To my understanding these interactions created cultural clashes. The opposing cultures of the Indians and  the Puritans began blending into one another. The Indians thought this as somewhat fine which is shown in their curiosity of how the white men lived and acted. On the other hand the English saw the Indians as savages and their mere existence was opposing the progress of making the land profitable to the Puritans. This huge difference in motives is what I believe began the conflict between these people. The English settlers came and their motives were build around the Settler Colonial Imperative which seemed to say "you go away" you referring to the Indians. The Puritans wanted the Indians to convert or be eliminated from the picture entirely by either sending them away or killing them off. The Spanish Conquistadors had a more Colonial Imperative approach which demanded "you come and work" trying to get as much out of the land as they possibly could. They worked to drain the resources form the area and take back the spoils so to speak to their homeland. These two motives define what will happen and why it happened.


The American Revolution marked a new stage in American history. Slavery made its way to the Americas and African slaves were being shipped in by the boat load. The slaves from Africa were brought for the purposes of labor. In this time there was a huge demand and need for labor for the farms. At this time 20% of the entire population of the Americas was African slaves. In the reading that the class did about Thomas Jefferson's thoughts on the new country I was surprised to find the appalling statements about the slaves. In the beginning of the Declaration of Independence (also in the reading) it states that "all men are create equal"which contradicts to what it said later in the reading. It is clear that Jefferson thought of the slaves as not equal to the white men who could own property. If the slaves were to be freed they would not really be free because society would not welcome them in. The so called "gentlemen" are not seen as good people in my eyes. They used their wealth and power for only themselves and those who were just like them instead of using what they had to influence society to change their thoughts on the African slaves. No person has a right to be deemed better than another person of a different race, color, or culture. The gross mistreatment of the African people that had black skin was derived from the idea of  Caesura, the idea that people only have the ability to fill in what they don;t know with things that are familiar to them. For some people differences can be scary and hard to deal with.

The biggest thing that I got out of the learning and content of this class so far is the analysis of the events that occurred on a deeper level of looking beyond just the facts but with different view points. The class focuses on why events in history played out the way they did. It is said that we have to look into the past to move forward to the future. This statement rings true as we must look to historic events to avoid making the same devastating mistakes. From the early interactions, the clash of the Old World and New World, along with the American Revolution we learn about the ways to treat other human beings that may not be exactly like us. The future generations will learn to embrace the uniqueness of each culture and understand that they all bring something into the world.