Colonial History notes, part 2by Shu Guan, Period 4, 03-26-2012

One reason many European countries colonized other lands and people is because many European countries were running out of

natural resources.

In Europe by the 1500's and on, there was much deforestation and poverty, and the population was becoming too great for the

land and government to handle.

By colonizing the Americas, for example, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish colonists were able to have new lands and opportunities, but in the process millions of

Native Americans were killed, enslaved, intermarried, or forced to leave their land.

Indeed, the European colonization of the Americas was perhaps the bloodiest and most horrific time in human history.

Besides the genocide of Native Americans, European colonists brought African slaves to the Americas to work, especially after finding out that Native American would just die in

slavery.

Image this: men, who you have never seen before, come to your house and your neighbors house and they all have as much weapons as they carry.

Then they start killing or enslaving you, your family, and your neighbors.

And you and your family and your neighbors fight back but are crushed by the men's superior weapons.

And soon, you and most of your family and your neighbors are gone--killed, enslaved, intermarried, or forced to live somewhere else.

This is what colonialism is: it is death, it is slavery; it is the end of one group and the expansion of another group.