Major Issues in Colonization: Comparing How Europeans Treated Africa and North and South America

How did the Broad Trends Lead to Differences in How the Europeans Treated Africa and the Americas?

The loss of nearly 11 million people from a continent to slavery in a New World is horrific, but the Europeans did not split up Africa until the late 1800s. They split up the New World very quickly. The table highlights some of the difference conditions in Africa and the Americas and therefore some of the different consequences.

 

 

Difference

With Africa

With North and South America

Disease at the time of contact between the Europeans and the

Killed Europeans—therefore the Europeans needed to stay on the coast.

Killed Native Americans—with estimates at 90% plus.

Gold, availability of

Available for trade at the coast

Available by conquest in the South’s coastal empires.

Territories, access to entry at the coast¾that is, how do the Europeans get a foothold when they are few in number?

Populated by organized states, with armies—thus a barrier to European entry

In the North, relatively unpopulated and with many language groups, resulting in lack of centralization[1]

 

In the South, vulnerable at the time of first contact because of civil war (Incas) and of attempts to tighten centralization (Aztecs) [2]

Territories, access to the interior

Mixed—much of territory considered unknown through end of 1700s and beyond

In the North, Mississippi River network (comparatively easy to travel).

 

In the South, Native American empires (Aztec and Inca) on the coast and comparatively easy to reach by European ships.

Trade, access to

At the coast, initially on the Africans’ terms

In the interior, initially on the Native Americans’ terms

 


 

Copyright C. J. Bibus, Ed.D. 2014

 

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2014

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[1] This and the remaining entries in the column are from the Oxford Companion to United States History, p. 199.

[2] This and the remaining entries in the column are from the Oxford Companion to United States History, p. 199.