Primary Cause of Conflict

Abstract: This paper will show that the root of conflict between Native Americans and Europeans was because of different religious beliefs and culture. Support comes from The Earth Shall Weep by James Wilson, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations by David S. Landes, and http://www.wyandot.org/jogues.htm. the importance of the essay is to show that the drastic differences in culture caused the most conflict, and these differences were caused by different beliefs.

The primary cause of conflict between Native Americans and Europeans was do to their totally different cultures; which resulted from their conflicting religious beliefs, such as the ways of viewing time, the difference between ideas regarding place and space, differences in work ethic, and simply the different religions of themselves.

Fresh out of the Humanistic Revolution, Reformation, and going through the Scientific Revolution, the European culture was, in the 1500s through 1700s, in a linear time mindset; was sceptical, inquisitive, progressive, and Christian.

In general terms, Native American culture at that time was in a cyclical time mindset; had nature related religions, was unquestioning of its natural surroundings, and seemingly almost stationary; without progression.

The Europeans lived in linear time; the world began and time had been steadily moving forward in a straight line. This idea had roots in their religious beliefs that God created the world and after an uncertain amount of time had elapsed the world would end. Linear time. However time wasn't just a strait line; it was also a line of progression. The Europeans were constantly trying to advance and progress towards betterment. the reason for their striving for progress was also likely connected to their religious belief about being cast from Eden. Their belief in having been cast out because of their own failure, built their desire for and need to progress. This made their linear progressive time. The American Indians, however, viewed time as more of a cycle. Nature cycled around them from season to season, and in this same way their time cycled too. This had much to do with the fact that Indians did not view themselves as above nature, but a part of it. Also, because nowhere in their beliefs were they ever deprived of something better, they did not try to progress to betterment. They were satisfied with the way they were. That is not to say that they did not progress at all; but that their progress was little, slow, and not necessary to them. This caused conflict between the two when Europeans came to America. The Europeans did not understand cyclical time and that it was reason why the Indians were so behind them in advancements; they saw it as the Indians being uncivilized. This view caused the Europeans to, for the most part, either have minimal contact with them, take it upon themselves to teach the Indians their better ways, take advantage of them, or to clear them out all together.

The different Christian religions of the Europeans were all spacial religions; meaning that the religion wasn't connected to one place, and you could practice it anywhere. The Europeans did not have any physical thing or place that they were particularly attached to that was needed for them to be Christians. The American Indian's religion on the other hand, was directly related to place. Whether because their ancestors where buried in a particular place, or because it had been important in their creation story, specific places were important and part of the base of their religious beliefs and rituals. This caused problems when Europeans wanted to move the Indians to different places, because the Indians did not want to leave their sacred places, or when Europeans wanted to mine or farm (or any other place altering movement) the Indians became angered, and the Europeans could not understand; or didn't care because these ideas where foolish.

The Europeans had a strong work ethic.

They meant to progress, they meant to make money, and at least for many of them this was at least in part due to their religion. David S. Landes, in his book "The Wealth and poverty of Nations" speaks concerning Max Webbers ideas about protestant work ethic. "Protestantism..promoted the rise of modern capitalism...by defining and sanctioning an ethic of everyday behavior that conduced to business success." The Native Americans worked differently than the Europeans. They worked doing what they had to. They only grew the food they needed for one year; they were not interested in mass farming, and they certainly had no factories. The Europeans saw them as being behind and backwards. Some innocently tried to offer help which was accepted or denied, while others used it as a way to dehumanize the Indians making it easier on peoples minds to dispose of them. As James Wilson puts it in his book The Earth Shall Weep, "Some nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars have viewed [Native American's] system not as real farming at all."

The fact that the Europeans and the Native Americans had such different religions was conflict in itself. The Europeans believed that their religion was right. In fact, every branch of Christianity believed that only it was the right religion. The Indians had their own religions, and generally didn't have a problem with others having theirs. That perspective went along with their beliefs about places being sacred; they believe because of their place and aloud you to believe your beliefs because you have a different place. The Europeans tried to convert the Indians to forms of Christianity. Some Indians Willingly converted, but it didn't always work out so easily. Some Indians were extremely angered by missionaries, such as some of the Iroquois who chewed fingers of off Father Isaac Jogues. Things went the other way as well; most Europeans saw the Indians as savages because of their difference in religion.

The Native Americans and Europeans found conflict because of how drastically their cultures differed; the way they saw time, how they worked, the space or place of their religions, and just their religions on their own. All these things are either directly related to, or are outcomes of their religious beliefs; making the difference in their religious beliefs the prime cause for conflict between the two.