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Relationship with the Native Americans

Before being colonised by Europeans in the 1600s, North America was inhabited by Native Americans.

Nomadic hunter-gatherers

Nomadic hunter-gatherers

  • Before being colonised by Europeans, Native Americans were:
    • Nomadic people - meaning they moved about according to where they could find the most hospitable conditions.
    • Hunter-gatherers - meaning they lived by hunting and fishing.
Technology

Technology

  • Although the Native Americans were resourceful and sophisticated, they had very limited technology compared to the Europeans who were about to colonise their land.
    • For example, they had no knowledge of guns.
Disease

Disease

  • English colonisation of North America was a disaster for the Native Americans.
  • Many Native Americans caught European diseases that they had no resistance to, like smallpox and influenza, and died.
Savages

Savages

  • They also often faced very brutal treatment at the hands of the colonists, who saw them as savages and inferior to them.
  • As a result, millions of Native Americans died as a result of disease or violence.
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