Essay: European American and Native American similarities

Prior to 1780, Native Americans already experienced many unfair treatments by European Americans such as the Spanish encomienda system and the broken promise of the Royal Proclamation line of 1763 as well as how European colonies continued to take over the land. Throughout history, European Americans continued to treat the Natives unequally. From the 1780s to the 1840s, European American experienced many social, economic, and political differences after they arrived in the New World. Native American also experienced changes in their society as the Europeans settled into their land. While European American and Native American shared some similarities such as how they introduced each other to new crops and animals and how both of their economies were driven by agriculture, there were far more social, economic, and political differences in between them. One of the most obvious differences was how they each viewed the land. European American viewed land as a resource to be exploited for individual benefit whereas Native American believed that land was a limited social stratification and that land was communal. The second main difference was how European American and Native American viewed social structure and gender role in society. The third difference was how politically different they were compared to each other. European Americans had monarchy as a form of government whereas Native Americans used tribal system. European society was more prone to inequality in comparison to the Native American society due to the idea of individualism, property ownership and social hierarchy. As European Americans kept expanding their power and exploiting land and resources across North America, Native Americans continued to resist against the European power. These differences led to many conflicts and created a huge clash of cultures in North America.
One of a few similarities of European Americans and Native Americans were how both of their economies were largely based on agriculture. As European Americans settled in the New World, they brought many changes to the Native tribes such as introducing them to new crops, animals, and tools. Native Americans were also intrigued by the goods and skills that European could provide. Since European society was more civilized, trading of goods became really popular between European Americans and Native Americans (Jones 46). While Native Americans provided the colonists with animals that they hunted for food and cloth, Europeans introduced them to new metal hunting tools such as arrows, axes, and knives which were really useful for hunting. Native Americans then introduced to European firearms as new tools and weapons. Native Americans became dependent of European Americans as they needed these new resources for their daily routine. Colonial trade also brought rum to the Natives and this caused problems in some tribes. This cultural assimilation created a mutual relationship between Native Americans and European Colonists.
Although both Native Americans and European Americans economies were based on using land for agriculture, their views on land were tremendously different from each other. The European Americans felt the need to draw lines on every inch of land they conquered. The Native Americans view the land as communal space. Unlike the European Americans, the Native Americans believed in the idea of limited stratification. Ever since the Europeans arrived in the New world, they exploited lands and resources for their own benefits. The Natives and the European Americans tried to make compromises, but none of those agreements ever worked. The demand for resources increased as the European Americans expanded their territories and little by little, they eventually pushed the Native Americans out of their lands. These conflicts over lands and resources led to many fights and led to American Indian Wars. As the European Americans continued to expand their power to the west, conflicts between the settlers and the Native Americans increased. One of the most apparent conflicts between the settlers and the Native Americans was the War of 1812. Although the War of 1812 was a conflict between the British and the settlers, the Native Americans were majorly affected by the outcome of the war. This war brought lasting consequences for the Native American inhabitants in North America. The Native Americans wanted to protect their tribal lands from the settlers and that was the only reason why they went into this war. The Native Americans in the Northwest territory allied with the British with a hope to halt the westward expansion (Jones 251). The major leaders the Shawnee prophet, Tenskwatawa, and his brother, Tecumseh. Both led the Native resistance to fight for their lands against the European settlers. In 1813, Tecumseh was killed in the Battle of the Thames and the resistance was destroyed. This war was devastating for the Native Americans due to casualties and loss of land. The Treaty of Fort Jackson in 1814 forced the Native Americans to surrender and to give up millions of acres of land as well as to never ally with any European nations ever again. Due to their loss, the British abandoned the Native Americans and provided no protection and eventually the Native Americans were forced to suffer further defeats (Jones 247). The Native Americans continued to be mistreated and led to inequality for the Native Americans. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson prompted Congress to pass Removal Act which forced the Native Americans to leave the United States and relocated somewhere else. The whole process of removal was disheartening. Americans imprisoned, raped, and killed Native Americans as a way to remove them to somewhere else. These examples showed the inequality faced by the Native Americans from the 1780s to the 1840s. In comparison, the European Americans kept growing and continued to expand their power by mistreating the Native Americans in horrible conditions. In response to European Americans’ terrible treatments, many Cherokee tribes came together as one independent nation and challenged the U.S. legislation of the Removal act. Although the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Cherokee, some other Native American tribes signed the treaties giving the federal government power to ‘assist’ them to the new territory (Jones 277).
Another main difference between European Americans and Native Americans was each of their political system. Most European Americans were influenced by the rule of monarchies while Native Americans were egalitarian in nature. Native Americans believed that leadership was a shared responsibility between everybody. There was no designated single leader within the Native American society. Their government was model based on the concepts of consensus and clan structures. Women also had a leadership role within the society as well and some tribes had women as their leader. Meanwhile, European Americans had a completely different way of how they govern their society. Their political and social structure were heavily influenced by land ownership and wealth. Unlike the Native Americans, women in European American society had no power against the men. In the 1780s, European American women had no rights and no independence. They weren’t allowed to on properties and often times the husband would give the leftover property to their son. In response to the gender inequality, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote and published  Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792 to argue against the unfair representation of women in society (Jones 234). She believed that both women and men should received the same kind of education. This sparked the idea of  the ‘Republican mother’ which suggested that women can strive for a classical education not just ‘womanly pursuits’ subjects and this challenged the view that women were intellectually inferior to men. European American believed in social hierarchy which accustomed to greater scale of inequality.
For Native Americans, festering inequality problems in their land had suddenly become a burden. They were trying to fight back to maintain their culture and their land for many years yet still faced with loss and disappointment. The Native Americans had a strong culture and many powerful beliefs about the natural world and human nature. In contrast, European Americans gained their independence and formed a new nation in the New World. They found wealth and prosperity as they pushed away the Native Americans in order to gain more lands. It was clear that European Americans were prone to social inequality based on their economic, political, and social belief. From the 1780s to the 1840s, these cultural differences created many conflicts between the Native Americans and the European Americans as well as cultural differences within their own culture. Both experienced many changes and learned throughout history about different culture.