Sebastian Novoa

U.S. History

Mr. Schwartz

18 October 2016

"You see, in this world there's two kinds of people, my friend. Those with loaded guns, and those

who dig. You dig". This quote mentioned by Clint Eastwood in the movie "The Good, the Bad and

the Ugly", represents what happened throughout the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries between the

European settlers and the Native American colonies. European colonizers brought with them guns,

which means they got power, therefore they had control over the people from American colonies

who were forced to become their slaves. For that reason, it could be said that America is a story of

ambition, coercion and slavery.

America is a story of ambition. What made the Europeans become interested in searching for new

lands and then conquering them was always ambition. Although Christopher Columbus’ idea was

not to land in America and acquire all the wealth that was there, his dream was to reach China and

open a trade route that would allow the treasures to flow into Europe. By that time, Europe was

going through political and economic difficulties and America was already discovered as a

potential source of tremendous wealth, so Europeans’ desire was to sail to there and acquire lands,

become rich, get raw materials and spread Christianity which was easy because they had their own

lands to practice their faith. It is clear that Europeans did not stay in their continent, but they were

ambitious and went to America.

Indeed, their ambition led them to take advantage of Native Americans just to get what they

wanted. Throughout the period of colonization Native Americans were forced to work for the
colonists, starting with Christopher Columbus in the late 15 century who created the “encomienda”

system which made them work in their plantations without complaints, because otherwise they

would be hunted down or killed. Then, in 1521, Hernan Cortes along with an army of 500 men

and tribes who hated Aztecs destroyed the whole Aztec Empire, creating a new empire where the

Native Americans worked for him extracting gold and silver which was going to be send back to

his country. That is why coercion represents a great part of America by that time.

In the same way, slavery was a key source for the European conquerors from the 16th to the 18th

century. In 1619, tobacco became a lucrative cash crop for the colony of Virginia, thus indentured

servants started working in the plantations, but they were not enough, so Africans were brought to

America and slavery became a vital economic system. After Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676, it was

thought that indentured servants were more politically fractious, so the number of African slaves

increased widespreadly for the workforces. What is more, in the Middle Passage, African slaves

were maltreated and at most 80 percent of them arrived alive to America, the others died. Only 6%

of the ones who arrived alive were sent to the British colonies in North America while the rest

were shipped to South America or the Caribbean. Slaves became a valuable commodity and soon

after they were part of a triangle trade system between Africa, America and Europe.

Under those circumstances, people would think that America was a place exploited by Europeans

which benefits stayed only with them. In fact that is true, but also Europeans’ arrival helped this

new world - America - to change its primitive way of living to a more developed one, in other

words, it was the beginning of progress, a progress that has not ceased until today. To conclude, if

America had not been colonized, not only it but also the whole world would be the same today?