Introduction
The contact between the European and Indigenous people led to many points of conflict and clashes. The indigenous people for this are the Indians in America. The conflict of the Indian cultural and religious beliefs with the Christianity and European cultures made it almost impossible for the existence of the two groups of people without conflicts. The Hindu religion clashed with the Christianity leading to conflicts and differences between the Europeans and Indians in America (Tompkins 8-10). The differences in cultural background between the Europeans and the indigenous people led to many grounds of conflicts. The attitudes and perceptions towards various sociocultural activities also led to many grounds and instances of conflicts between the European and indigenous people in the colonial period. The clash of the cultures between the Europeans and indigenous population was inevitable due to such perceptions and bias of each culture towards another. The disparities or differences in languages also contributed highly to the clash between the culture of the European and indigenous population in various parts of the world. The racial bias and discrimination between the Europeans and the indigenous people were made it almost impossible to avoid the conflict during their interactions. The nature of religious background and practices of the Europeans was different from that of the Indians living in the U.S leading to the potential threats of conflict between the groups while interacting. The bias of superiority of cultural norms and values of one culture to those of other groups also led to grounds of opposition as well conflicts among the population.
Cultural bias and misconception by the Europeans towards the Indian people led to much ground of conflict. The Europeans assumed most of the cultural values and norms of the Indians living in America to be barbaric and archaic, therefore; they tried to impose their cultures and norms on the indigenous people. This led to a lot of opposition and conflicts both at the individual and societal levels. The Indian people believed deeply on their customary practices and norms making it difficult for the Europeans to convince them to change or adjust to the cultures of Europeans. The indigenous people could not just accept change of their cultural norms immediately as the European wanted (Koppelman 26). The opposition and reaction of the Indian people towards the wishes and acts of the Europeans led to many differences between the two groups. This opposition made it almost impossible to avoid conflicts between the Europeans and indigenous people in the U.S and other parts of the World. The contact between the Europeans and the indigenous people brought about conflicts in the religion section. The backgrounds of the Europeans religions and the Indian community's religion were very different. This, therefore, means that there existed greater disparities in these between these two religions. The Europeans wanted the Indian community to adopt their own religion. This idea meant that the indigenous communities had to do away with their own. The Indians were not ready to accept immediate change of their religion to Christianity. This is because they believed strongly on their gods whom they were linked with by their priests or priestesses. Because of this refusal to adopt the request of the European people, it led to disagreements between the two different races. As a result of a disagreement, conflicts arose which were not avoidable because none of the two communities wanted to change their religion.
Conflicts also arose between the Indian community and the Europeans because of the land issue. When the European communities landed in the indigenous community land at the time of exploration, they needed land. The Europeans needed the land as well as for farming and other economic benefits as mineral exploitation (Yenne 24). Most of the indigenous people did not collaborate with the Europeans. This, therefore, meant that they were not given land for both settlement and other factors they needed to use land for. In addition to this, most of the European people targeted the most productive pieces of land of the indigenous communities. The locals were not ready to give easily their most productive lands as they depended on them for their basic needs as well as for economic advancement.as a result of this disagreement; it led to the emergence of conflicting interests between the two communities. These conflicts were not avoidable as no race was ready to give up their interests easily.
Racial bias and discrimination based was deeply rooted in the minds of the children of the opposing cultures. The children of the Europeans believed that the people from the indigenous people were inferior in relation to education and technological advancements as well as the intellectual capacities. This misconception led to many grounds of conflicts between the Europeans and the Indian people during their day to day interactions in the society (Seelye 19). The racial bias and acts of superiority complex made it almost impossible to avoid the differences and conflicts between the Europeans and indigenous people in various parts of the World.
In conclusion, the conflicts between the Europeans and the indigenous people were almost impossible to avoid due to the large number of cultural, religious and racial differences among the people. The cultural beliefs, norms and values, contributed highly to the clash between the Indians and Europeans making it almost impossible to avoid the grounds of conflicts. The aspects relating land ownership and use, therefore, led to many cases of conflicts between the Europeans and Indians making it almost impossible to avoid the grounds of differences between the people from the European and indigenous populations. Religious differences and perceptions of the Europeans towards the religious beliefs of the Indian population also contributed highly to grounds of conflicts.
Works Cited
""Indians":" Arizona State University. N.P., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. Indians - Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History Jane Tompkins_398546_4.pdf
Seelye, James E, and Steven A. Littleton. Voices of the American Indian Experience. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood, 2013. Print.
Yenne, Bill. Indian Wars: The Campaign for the American West. Yardley, Penn: Westholme Publishing, 2006. Print.
