... the similarities and differences of the two accounts, the reader is able to see a parallel relatioship between what society believes "first encounters" should be and what they actually are. In La Relacion, Cabeza de Vaca and his men set sail to explore the seas and landed on the Americas. When they encountered the inhabitants of the land, fear immediately flooded their minds ... 's theory of evolution states that species must adapt to their environments to survive or face extinction. In this case, the Pilgrims and De Vaca adapted by using the Indians as a crutch until they were able to s...

• Word Count: 985
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... 1500's, the Spanish claimed a huge majority of North America through the Treaty of Tordesillas, with Portugal. Gradually, conquistadors such as Balboa, Ponce de Leon, Cortes, Pizarro, de Soto, and Coronado, started arriving in large numbers. The main goal of all of these early explorers was profit and profit only. As a ... result, they severely mistreated the Native Americans solely for the purpose of finding gold and wealth. For example, Hernando de Soto, with about six hundred soldiers, moved westward from Florida, in 1530, in search of gold. On their trip, they brutally mistreated th...

• Word Count: 695
• Approx Pages: 3

Although the primary source only presents one point of view of a situation; the opposing sides belief is equally important. The dialogue "La Relacion" by Cabeza de Vaca; the experiences of William Bradford in "Of Plymouth Plantation" and the story of "Pocahontas", all express the importance of understanding both sides of a situation. According to the primary sources ... 's behaviors were clearly an act of their culture or retaliation. Furthermore, the primary source's bias description of an event will often lead to other misunderstandings of a situation. In Cabeza de Vaca's "La Relacion", Ca...

• Word Count: 589
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... and ancient ways of life were gone forever. Spain became the dominant exploring and colonizing power in the 1500s. The Spanish conquistadors eventually made their way into North America. Hernando de Soto undertook a gold seeking expedition during 1539-1542. He discovered and crossed the Mississippi River. He brutally mistreated the Indians with iron collars and fierce dogs before dying of fever ... Indians, creating a distinctive culture all in its own. Relations between the early English settlers and the Indians were tense. The starving colonists took to raiding Indian food supplies. W...

• Word Count: 523
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... . They began with Columbus, who, in 1492 was sailing in search of a passage to the East Indies. The true conquest began with the conquistadors such as Francisco Pizzaro, Juan Ponce De Leon, and Hernando Cortes. These men crushed whoever opposed them and wiped out native people and their culture. Although it was difficult to maintain such a vast and discontinuous empire, the ... to. The French government decided that Catholicism would be the official religion of the colonies and so they banned Protestants from the settlement. Other explorers began to move south. Sieur de La Salle took man...

• Word Count: 807
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... and no fighting". "The French offered to furnish us with instruments of every kind and sharp knives to take the skins of their enemies heads." (Axtell, 451) In 1879, Susette La Flesche, describe in the article as "a spirited daughter of a famous Omaha family", responded to a newspaper reporter statement of Indian barbarity during war. She countered with, "Don't you know that the ... in Quebec he was shown by the Stadaconans "the skins of five men's heads, stretched on hoops, like parchment."(Axtell, 456) In 1540, one of the two men with Henry de Soto were captured by Indians that, "remo...

• Word Count: 701
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate