Throughout the centuries for some dehumanizing reason, people have felt the need to

force others against their will to work in manual labor. The consequence of disobedience was
most commonly physical abuse or in a handful of harsh cases, death. Currently in the world, it is
estimated that there are around 29.8 million people in slavery (Lindsay). Scattered across the
globe, slavery is definitely just as big of an issue now as it was back in the 1500s. The Europeans
used their technological advancements to gain control and force the natives into slavery. Within
about a few hundred years of the first landing in the New World, entire Native American tribes
were wiped out completely without a single trace.
Christopher Columbus first set sail westward bound in 1492. His reasoning was not
because he was so adventurous or brilliant. It was because he did not know how far of a voyage
it truly was to the New World. Nevertheless, when he landed somewhere in the Caribbean, he
was greeted by the Native American tribe known as the Arawak tribe, formally known as the
Tano tribe (Johnson). They did not have a known official language, which made matters more
confusing for them. European Colonists literally sailed into their land, said that if they did not
convert to Christianity, they would kill every single one of them (Karam). The problem was that
they did not speak Spanish. Due to the inability of communication between both parties, The
Colonists would slowly kill off every single Native American in sight by either execution,
slavery, or hundreds of other inhumane reasons.
The Native Americans did not have knowledge of anything that went on in Europe at the
time, because of two main reasons. First off, they did not care and secondly, they had no way of
finding it out even if they wanted to. Sailing across the Atlantic to figure out all of the
controversies in Europe was not very practical as one could imagine. When the Europeans first
Jared
Bansky
Period 3
Term Paper
12/9/13
Global Perspectives Term
Paper
landed into the Caribbean, the Natives were more than willing to trade and exchange good with
them for gold (Cook). In fact, the Europeans made things much more complicated than it needed
to be. The natives had no perspective on what was useful and valuable and what was not. For
example, the Native Americans could not make glass, but they could always mine for gold. For
example, the Europeans could have just told them that glass was more valuable than gold and
hoodwinked the Natives out of every ounce of gold that they owned without needing to kill off
any of them. They could have completely plundered all of their valuables with ease (Karam).
The Europeans were able to conquer the Native Americans much easier than believed.
Death was fairly uncommon amongst the Europeans. When they landed in 1492, they were still
at an advantage over the Natives, even though they were outnumbered by a ratio of one hundred
sixty seven to one (Cook). In Europe, the information of technology spread very rapidly. In the
Americas, it was the opposite. There was very little communication between tribes. Technology
evolved at a much slower pace for the Native Americans as opposed to the rapid growth of the
Europeans. Therefore, they were at an immense disadvantage technologically. Not only this, but
the Colonists were skilled fighters and had trained militaries with machine operated weaponry
who had an enormous amount of experience. They were trained killing machines and were raised
to be that way and fight since birth (Guitar).
By the early to middle 1500s, the Europeans had mastered the craftsmanship of swords
and armor. They had carefully mastered the art of constructing swords in order to perfect the
ideal ratio of flexibility and durability (Karam). The Native Americans did not have any armor,
because they rarely needed to worry about being conquered. In Europe, different empires were
always faced with the threat of being conquered or killed in battle. With this paranoia, the
Europeans had to develop ways to defend themselves in battle. In order to do so, they took steel
and various other metals and made them into armor to protect your body from swords, arrows,
and eventually were designed to defend against bullets (Guitar). By the time the Europeans
began sailing the Atlantic and conquering the New World, they were nearly invincible against all
of the Native American's weaponry. The master craftsmanship of swords and armor was just the
perfect storm.
During the middle to late 1300s the gun was invented and began to be used as one of the
brutal killing machines in the European artillery (Foner). In the perspective of a Native American
at that age in time, gun powder was completely horrifying. They were these mystical machines
that would make a loud noise, flash and make people bleed. They had never seen such things. On
top of that, they had cannons which were the same thing only with louder noises and more
damage. At that day and age, the Natives they were fighting with poorly built, flimsy, brittle
weapons (Johnson). The Natives had absolutely no defense against anything that the Europeans
threw at them, so fighting back was definitely not an option. With this major disadvantage on
their side, the fact that they outnumbered the Spanish by one hundred sixty seven to one, soon
meant nothing to them but just a higher supply of slaves.
Since the Europeans now had the technological advantage over Native Americans,
conquering them was unimaginably simplistic. However, after a few thousand deaths, the
Natives gave up fighting back. They just gave in and did not want to be killed. They just wanted
life to go back to the way it was. Unfortunately that was not the case, because the Europeans then
began to slowly decelerate the death rate and started settling into New World and put the Native
Americans to work. Their idea of work was a bit different from the way that modern day work is
defined. The Colonists took the Natives and used them for free slave labor. In the eyes of the
Tano tribe, slavery was way, way worse than just straight death. The slaves were forced to work
in absolutely horrendous conditions. Suicides were very common and were considered to be a
much more graceful way to die than to be worked or beaten to death (Johnson). More times than
not, the Natives worked in mines which inevitably lead to a slow painful death. They would be
mining and inhaling all sorts of poisonous chemicals and dirt, and sadly, they would die of
respiratory related issues after just a few days in the mines. In addition to respiratory issues, they
were common starved to death and/or dehydrated. The main issue with the lack of gold being
mined, was that there was no gold on the island to be mined (Foner). They gave the Europeans
all of the gold that they scavenged over the years from trading with surrounding tribes. Once that
supply ran out, they were out for good. The Native Americans most likely tried to tell them that,
but they spoke different languages. That's why the Natives were quite confused as to why they
kept making them mine for something they didn't have. That is the equivalent of going to a
mountain range and forcing people to find something that is indigenous to desert climates. It just
fails to make logical sense.
Europeans had quite the advantage over the Native Americans. They had an offensive
superiority over Natives that slowly chipped away at the fact that they were at a statistical
disadvantage regarding population. The Natives had absolutely nothing to defend themselves
with against the fearsome European arsenal. When the Europeans began advancing their usage of
gun powder, conquering rival territory became more untroublesome. Not only were they
shooting guns at the Natives, but they were also riding on cavalry. On top of that, they had
recently perfected the craftsmanship of swords and armor, they were virtually unstoppable. Once
conquered, the Europeans killed and enslaved all of the Natives. Between 1510 and 1514 the
Tano tribes population had decreased by more than twenty two percent because of the Colonial
invasion entirely (Cook). In conclusion, the Europeans technological advancements over the
Native Americans gave them a tremendous advantage in developing power and control.