First Contact with America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

First Contact with America - Essay Example It is not hard to imagine that European influence was evident on all settlers and continued on for a substantial period of time. The settlers were mostly British and they brought with them their British lifestyle, culture, trends, and traditions. Europe at this time was in its prime as the cultural center of the World with poets, musicians, writers, artists and theater whereas the settlers lacked this substantially. The main reason for this was not the lack of talent but a preoccupation with settling into a new land and making it home. Another region that the colonists could not avoid was America itself with its native population of â€Å"red Indians† as they came to be known. The fact that these natives were called â€Å"Red Indians† shows the British Influence on the settlers who had trade ties with the Indian Sub-continent. The early settlers learned a lot from these natives who were well aware of their local land including sources of food, cultivation, weather trends and much more. The colonist had much to learn from these natives even though the natives lived a life of which by most standards of that time could be referred to as a savage living. Native people were also familiar with Europeans as the French had traded fur with the natives throughout the 16th century. The settlers gave these natives the deadly gift of smallpox. Around 1615, smallpox or yellow fever (for which the Native population had no immunity) swept the coast. Many of the people who lived between Penobscot Bay to the east side of Narragansett Bay died.