Week 2

This week, what struck me as important and worth remembering was when the Europeans came to the new world, they had an advantage because of the geography and because of the disease that spread, killing almost all of the Natives in the process. Another main thing we learned was the Spanish South America, Brazil and the Caribbean, and North America. The Spanish, coming from Spain only came to explore. Most of the work was performed by the natives in South America because they wanted silver. Since most of the people who had come were men, they procreated had children with) Native women resulting in mixed race people. I believe the Native's did not want to be with the explorers but if they wanted their children to survive and live a better life than the rest of them, this would be for the best. Also, when the Portugal and French went to the Caribbean, they only went to explore. Initially, they had the native people working but after awhile, they got the African slaves to work for them, producing sugar. The Portuguese men had families with the native women and the African women so there was a lot of diversity. Same with the Spanish people, I feel like the slaves did not want to be with the men but if they wanted a better future for their children they would be protected from hard work and would have a higher chance of surviving. The British went to North America but they had intended to stay in the land that they had found. The people who worked were from indentured servitude. Indentured servitude was the people who wanted to go to a new land, maybe for a better future, and since they did not have enough money to go they paid with their lives and would have to work a certain number of years (would be negotiated) and then they would sign away their lives for a period of time until they worked it off. They also had African slaves which were the native people to do the work which included trading fur. The Europeans believed that having a mixed race was not good so they only had families with other European women, especially because the Europeans intended to stay, so they brought along their wives, and other women to start a new life with them. Even if the European men had a baby with the native women, they would deny it. The reason they wanted to stay was mainly because it was such a good area for trading (ie. fur trading).