The effect
of European settlement in the Americas was devastating to the indigenous populations. It is
thought that the native population was reduced by as much as ninety percent in the first century
after first contact as the result of diseases inadvertently introduced from Europe. Whole
civilizations vanished and societies crumbled.
The survivors of these plagues
were left with little of their old ways of life to hold on to. Many native peoples were too weak
and disorganized as a result to put up much of a meaningful resistance to European encroachment
on their lands. Many of them were enslaved, particularly in Spanish controlled areas but also in
some of the English colonies. Others were pushed aside and marginalized. Many were forcibly
brought to education centers that sought to remove any vestiges of their traditional ways of
life.
To this day, Native Americans continue to be marginalized in society.
In the United States, Native American unemployment rates are significantly higher than the
population in general. Rights to their lands are still being denied to them in some places.
Child and maternal mortality rates tend to be higher than average. All this can be traced back
to European settlement that did much to destroy the way of life of countless native
peoples.
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