For the Native Americans of North America, contact with Europeans was not as intense as what the Aztec and Inca empires experienced after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors.
Nevertheless, Spanish explorers who tried to penetrate into the region that would later become the United States left the tribe three major legacies: disease, horses and other domestic animals, and metal tools and firearms.
Disease. The most serious threat to the indigenous people was not the superior weapon of the Europeans, but the diseases they brought to the New World.
With the possible exception of syphilis, there were virtually no infectious diseases in the Western Hemisphere prior to contact with Europe. Indigenous people who had no natural immunity or enhanced resistance soon died of diphtheria, mumps, measles and smallpox. The main killer, smallpox, quickly spread beyond the original European carriers.
Tribes that meet and trade from a distance infect each other and bring diseases back to their villages. There is evidence that smallpox was already present in Peru sometime before Francisco Pizarro's arrival in 1532.
It is estimated that in many areas, Native Americans are depopulated by up to 90 percent due to disease, and in some cases, even knowledge of the existence of certain tribes is erased.
The virus carried by Spanish explorers traveling along the Gulf Coast wiped out tribes on the lower Mississippi River, so their cultural presence (visible in the form of graves) was largely unknown until the 20th century.
The devastating effects of the disease are not limited to the year of initial exposure. In 1804, Merriwether Lewis, leaders of the Legion of Discovery, and William Clark, were hospitalized by the Mandanese during the winter at Fort Mandan-on-Missouri River.
This tribe has about 2000 people, horses and other domestic animals.
Although disease was a curse for indigenous peoples, the introduction of livestock in Europe improved the quality of life for many tribes. The most famous and significant changes come from horses, but other domestic animals are also important. Cattle, sheep, goats and pigs are raised for food, and their skins are used as clothing, blankets and shelter.
During the 1540 Francisco Vázquez de Coronado expedition to the southwest, horses arrived in North America, which changed the culture of the Plains Indians.
By the end of the 16th century, horses were traded, stolen or wandered, and their numbers multiplied.
The Sioux, Cheyenne, and Kiowa soon discovered that horses were indispensable, and horse use spread to other tribes as well. The simple bundling arrangement of poles made of young trees allows the horse to pull large loads.
The poles double as tent frames and make the dwellings of these nomads larger and more comfortable. Riding on horseback, the Indians became more efficient bison hunters.
Within a generation, the Plains Indians made horses an integral part of their culture. Pioneers who crossed the Mississippi River in the 18th century and met Indians on horseback did not know that horse culture was less than 200 years old.
For some time, the cost of introducing a variety of domestic animals was obvious to both locals and Europeans. European settlers fed their livestock with European grain.
These grains, including wheat, oats, rye, and a wide range of other grasses, enter North American soils in much the same way that matan and weeds invade well-tended lawns. Slowly, the landscape of North America changed as native grasses were replaced by foreign varieties. It was not until the late twentieth century that environmental changes were fully noticed and even began to be assessed.
Metal tools and guns. Technically, the indigenous people were in the Stone Age.
As sophisticated and practical as their baskets, pottery, and obsidian blades, Native Americans lacked the knowledge to make metal tools. The knives, needles, fish hooks, axes, and jars provided by Europeans were immediately considered more effective than their stone, bone, or clay tools.
Early firearms - muskets and pistols - did not have a clear advantage over the Indians for Europeans. These guns were not particularly accurate at short distances, reloading took time, and were difficult to repair; Native Americans initially found their own bows and arrows to be very effective against them.
Even the Puritans realized the limitations of their guns when they passed a law in 1645 requiring militias to train spears, bows and arrows, and muskets.
By the end of the 18th century, the balance of fire for muskets changed, and muskets evolved into rifles with greater accuracy.
By the end of the Civil War, repeating rifles and six-round revolvers put bows and arrows at a serious disadvantage. Native Americans did not refuse rifles, and many learned to pour lead into bullet molds.
However, advances in weapons technology made them dependent on whites for guns and ammunition, as well as most metal products. Native Americans could not replicate the complex mechanics of Winchester or Colt, and cartridges that required molded bullets, cartridges, and gunpowder were beyond their ability to replicate. By the end of the 19th century, European and American technology had overwhelmed Native Americans.
Great biological exchange. European engagement does not only affect indigenous peoples; There is a real, if possibly unequal exchange. Many new crops and edible plants, such as corn, beans, potatoes, peanuts, pumpkins and avocados, were first introduced to Europe from the Western Hemisphere. Corn, or Indian corn, is perhaps the most important of them. Able to grow in almost any climate or soil, it quickly became a staple food around the world.
Columbus's old view of "discovering" America has been replaced by his view of "encountering" America.
The rewording acknowledges that in 1492 there were already millions of people with unique and developed cultures in the Western Hemisphere who deserved to be recognized as the first Americans.
There is no doubt that contact with Europeans, both then and later, was devastating to the local population. While conquest is certainly inevitable, oversimplification should be avoided.
It didn't happen everywhere at the same time. In some places, confrontation was sudden and conquest was direct, while in others indigenous peoples were unaware of the presence of Europeans for centuries. Until 1769, the California Indians knew almost nothing about Europeans,
