European Settler's Affect on Native Americans.
In 1492 Christopher Columbus made his world famous voyage to the new world, thinking he was traveling to China. Although to the end of his days Columbus believed he had, in fact, landed in China, the evidence he produced pointed to a new unknown world. The new discovery encouraged many Europeans to explore and settle the new world. The Native Americans suffered greatly due to their susceptibility to foreign diseases, and European greed for riches and desire to expand.
Between 1518 and 1521 Hernando Cortez lead an expedition of approximately 600 men to the new world in what is now Mexico. There they found the beautiful city of Tenochtitlan where they were, for a while, seen as gods. When war did break loose, Cortez was forced to flee. Before he returned with more men, a vast number of Aztecs suffered and died of smallpox because there bodies had no natural immunities to it. Smallpox was not only seen by the Aztecs, but became a problem for many other Native Americans as well. Although smallpox was the most catastrophic of all the imported diseases, influenza, measles, chickenpox, mumps, typhus, and more were all catastrophic to the prone Native Americans. Many tribes were reduced to less than five percent of their original populations. Disease was responsible for millions of deaths during this time.
The European's overall desire for god, gold, and glory had horrible effects upon the Native American's as well. It was Hernando Cortez's overall desire for riches that caused the downfall of the Aztecs. Although the initial fighting with the Native Americans was not caused by their greed for gold, Cortez set out for Mexico from Cuba purely in search of famous riches. After barely escaping the city with only one fourth of his men, Cortez gathered more troops to attack the city and steal the rest of their treasures. In other ways the Europeans greed negatively affected the Native American's, too.
