Question

What did the europena contact with the americas impact the indigenous populations

Answer 1

The European contact impacted the indigenous populations of the Americas in terms of control and domination. Once the Europeans arrived to the American continent they discovered that the local populations made usage of different kind of valuable resources for them like gold, silver, coil, wood, precious gemstones among others. So in this way Europeans decided to take control over these valuable resources and the land by the colonization of the continent. A violent process in which they used military technology such as gunpowder weapons, cannons and galleons to subjugate the local populations and empires. The Europeans also impose the system of beliefs from the Christianity to the indigenous populations in order to replace their religion and idols and indoctrinate them to exercise control trough religious customs and traditions. Another unbelievable impact was given by the fact that there was a microbiotic exchange between the Europeans and the population of the Americas, some viruses like smallpox and tuberculosis were not present in the native population of the Americas; actually some historians attribute the success of the conquistadors to these viruses. That was the case of Cortez in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru where they conquered vast empires with a small group of armed men but favored by the epidemic action. Another impact was the asimilation of local indigenous populations to the emerging culture imposed by the colonizers, they forgot their culture and native language moving to the aura of the spanish and other languages imposed by the colonial powers in the Americas.