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Emma Hull Mr. Wimmer AP US History January 26, 2012 Genocide in the Colonies  When the colonists came to the New World and realized that the Native Americans had already been living on the lands, how did they feel? The colonists thought that the land that the Native Americans had been living on could just be theirs. In efforts to control the land the Europeans killed some Native Americans. The colonists thought they had real reasons behind their killings of the Native Americans. When looking into these events the question arises, was this genocide? The definition of genocide is the intentional killing of an entire nation or ethnic group. Genocide has occurred many times in history, but it was with obvious intentions like the Nazi Holocaust or Rwanda in 1994. Factors like disease can kill many, but is it considered genocide? The Native Americans and the colonists both have a view on whether or not the colonists committed genocide against the Native Americans.  The Native Americans went through many hardships and changes when the colonists arrived. The colonists settled on the lands that the Native Americans had lived on for years. The Native Americans were very successful and had known how to live based off of the land. They grew crops and hunted various animals to provide food for the tribes. The colonists were basically looking for items like gold when they first colonized in Jamestown, Virginia to make a profit. They were not used to having to grow and hunt for their own food. They unfortunately faced starvation and stole food from the Native Americans (Price). The Native Americans were treated horribly by the colonists not only in Virginia, but in all of the colonies. The colonists in New England also stole from the Native Americans upon arrival to the New World. Even though the colonists did this, the Native Americans still greeted the colonists and gave them food and even traded with them. They tried to be friendly with the colonists. The colonists then tried to convert them to Christianity. Most did not convert and got into misunderstanding the colonists and the Native Americans became hostile against each other. The colonists fought the Native Americans with the intentions of killing them for not converting and because they thought they had superiority over the Native Americans (Price). They then started to kill the Native Americans for no apparent reason in ungodly ways. Many were burned alive and some were fed to dogs.  With the colonization of the Europeans, they brought over many diseases that were new to the Native Americans. Some of these diseases included measles, smallpox, influenza, whooping cough, bubonic plague, and scarlet fever. The Native Americans caught these diseases more easily because they were unknown to the Native Americans compared to the Europeans who had mostly grown immune. The contagious diseases spread fast through the tribes and killed thousands. Even though it was unintentional, in some genocides in history the number of those killed by disease also factored into the number dead. For example, those who lived in the Jewish communities or were in concentration camps that died of disease are counted in the number dead because the intentions of the Nazis were that way. If the colonists had intentions of killing the Native Americans, then the massive number of Native Americans that died from disease brought over by the colonists would be counted toward the genocide of the Native Americans. Many Native Americans were killed when the colonists came to America, but the colonists saw their killings of the Native Americans in a different way (History).  When the colonists came to Virginia they were not greeted on the best of terms by the Native Americans. A group of Native Americans shot arrows at the colonists when they first scouted the area. This happened a lot and even had the colonists fearing the Native Americans because they would attack them with bow and arrows if they went scouting or hunting (Price). The Native Americans thought that they had full range when it came to hunting because they did not really have restrictions when it came to not trespassing on others land (Native). The colonists were afraid of the Native Americans because they came on their land if they pleased and since they had been hostile to the colonists before the colonists thought they were just protecting themselves (Native). In self-protection the colonists shot and killed many Native Americans. The horrible killings that happened to the Native Americans also happened to the colonists. The Native Americans would cut up the colonists body parts and throw them in a fire one by one (Price). The colonists only thought they killed the Native Americans out of self-protection.  The diseases that were brought over from Europe just happened to kill many Native Americans. They did not feel as if it was intentional because they had little control over the various diseases that spread through the tribes of Native Americans. It was just a product of colonization.  As a result of the colonization of the Europeans, the number of Native Americans decreased over time. According to the study done by the University of Colorado, in 1500 there were about 12 million Native Americans and 400 years later in 1900 there was about 237,000 Native Americans (History). The Native Americans had obviously died off, but determining whether or not the colonists committed genocide would be based on the intentions. While a lot have been killed by the colonists, there was more killed by disease brought by the colonists showing that the colonists were guilty of genocide even if they feel they weren’t.

Works Cited

"History News Network." //History News Network//. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. .

"Native American Clashes with European Settlers." //West Virginia Division of Culture and History//. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. .

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Price, David. "White Men Meet Indians: Jamestown & the Clash of Civilizations." //The Occidental Quarterly//. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. <www.toqonline.com/blog/white-men-meet-indians/>.