New Worlds for All by Colin Calloway

The practices that were given up had large impacts on the Indian way of life, "Previously, hunters had prayed to the spirits of the animals they hunted " (pg. 13). As the Europeans taught the Indians what they believed to be the "only " religion Indians had to also deal with much of their race becoming infected. Since the Europeans were not coming down with what the Indians were, Indians would convert to Christianity in hopes of saving more of their race. "Converts most commonly came from communities that were falling apart. " (pg. 72) Indians attributed their downfall to the Europeans arrival but it wasn't only the human Europeans that brought this devastation upon them. .
             It wasn't just the European explorers that brought the unseen force that wreaked havoc among the Americas it was also the trade items. Both races used trade for different reasons. Calloway wrote, "Indians' reasons for trade differed somewhat from Europeans'. Trade was a way of cementing alliances, preventing conflict, making and renewing friendships; it was an activity hedged around by social and ceremonial considerations. " (pg. 43). Europeans brought with them many various trade items and various plants that added to the unseen attack against the Indian culture. They brought items they thought would help them survive in the new world such as tools, wheat, and rye. As explorers went out in search of trade, they encountered many areas in which the population had already been decimated. The diseases spread faster than the explorers could travel. "It is likely that most Indian people who were struck down by European diseases like smallpox died without ever laying eyes upon a European. " (pg. 33). All the devastation happened before either party knew what was the cause. Indians and Europeans both became reliant on many trade items. Calloway wrote, "As they became dependent on trade goods, some Indian communities found it difficult to preserve their land and their independence.