Chapter 13 Summary

A significant moment in history was when the Europeans came to the new world and exploited the land of the natives. They had an advantage because of the geography and because of the disease that spread, killing almost all of the natives in the process. The places the Europeans took advantage of included Spanish South America, Brazil and the Caribbean, and North America. The Spanish came to explore, and work done by the natives in South America was for silver. Since most of the people who came to the new world were men, they creating lives and families with the native women resulting in mixed race people. The natives did not want to be with the explorers but if they wanted their children to survive and live a better life than the rest of them this would be for the best. When the Portugal and French went to the Caribbean, they only went to explore to see what they could bring back with them to their home. Initially, they had the native people working but after disease struck and killed many they got the African slaves to work for them producing sugar. The Portuguese men had families with the native women and the African women so there was a lot of diversity. The British went to North America but they had intended to stay in the land that they had found. The people who worked were from indentured servitude. Indentured servitude was the people who wanted to go to a new land, maybe for a better future, and since they did not have enough money to go they paid with their lives and would have to work a certain number of years and then they would sign a contract to to work for a period of time until they worked it off. The British believed that having a mixed race was not good so they only had families with other European women, especially because the Europeans intended to stay, so they brought along their wives, and other women to start a new life with them. Even if the European men had a baby with the native women, they would deny it. The reason they wanted to stay was mainly because it was such a good area for trading as well as a fresh start for some people that wanted to get away from Europe.