Question

How did Europeans feel about the beliefs of American Indians?

Answer 1

Answer:

First European perceptions of Native Americans seen them as uncivilized savages that, together with effort and time, might be educated and assimilated into European civilization. Christopher Columbus reported his view of these Indians at the following fashion:

They need to be good servants and of rapid intelligence, because I find that they really soon say all that’s stated to them and that I feel that they’d easily be made Christians, for it seems to me that they’d no creed. Our Lord prepared,in the right time of my death, I’ll bring back half of these for your Highness, that they might learn how to speak.

This passage indicates that Columbus thought the Indians smart and could be readily converted to European manners, but didn’t believe them equivalent to Europeans. Columbus shows his ethnocentric by dismissing Native American spiritual beliefs and culture, and by imagining that since they didn’t speak a European language they couldn’t”talk”

Explanation: