Varying European and Native Motives and the Collision of Cultures in Essay

Varying European and Native Motives and the Collision of Cultures in North America - Essay Example Through the clashing of these interests and motives, a collision of cultures sprung up in North America, resulting in the multicultural society that is North America. The conflicting motives began at the initial stages of European invasion of North America. In 1666, George Alsop asserted that poor Europeans should come to America as indentured servants bound by legal contracts that reflected debts or purchase obligation. On the contrary, Gottlieb Mittelberger was of the opinion that poor Europeans should not come to America as indentured servants. This thus paper explores the influence that the natives’ and the Europeans’ motives had on the collision of cultures in North America (Dudley & Chalberg, 1996). The Motives The clashing of the natives’ and the colonists’ interests and motives has been described by historians and political scientists as a major factor in the current collision of cultures in North America. In fact, the collision of cultures has per meated various aspects of peoples’ lives in North America including food, religion, law, political dispensation and art such as music and literature (Henretta & Brody, 2009). Importantly, it is noteworthy that the collision of cultures occurred as the largely diversified immigrants came from all corners of the world. The motives of the natives and the Europeans were equally diverse. While some of these immigrants came for economic reasons, others came for religious and political motives such as to colonize the Americas. Consequently, there had to be struggles among the natives and the Europeans who formed the bulk of the immigrants coming into North America. These collisions of cultures took different forms ranging from ethnic, religious, economic, and political dimensions. Importantly, it should be noted that the conflicting interests did not only pit native North Americans and the European immigrants against each other but there were also conflicts with African slaves in No rth America and the other nations with vested interests in North America (Henretta & Brody, 2009). Fortunately, the efforts made by all the stakeholders to reduce the cultural, political, religious, and economic conflicts of interests have made North America the multicultural society it is today. The European Colonization of North America The European colonization of North America and the enslavement of West Africans presented a collision of the three cultures that had been developing and existing at different lines since time immemorial. Central to the collision of these cultures were the various individual and collective/national ambitions and impulses of the European colonists and North American Natives. Among the goals targeted by the colonizers of the New World for which their ambitions were burning included long-standing demographic changes, religious expansion, international rivalries and economic gains. At the forefront in the efforts for religious changes were the Protestan t Reformists who wanted to spread their religion to the New World. The collision of cultures in North America thus not only yielded biological exchanges but also new religious dispensations that re-defined both the Old and New Worlds (Henretta & Brody, 2009). The attitudes of the immigrating colonizers towards the Native Americans and the African slaves were thus shaped by their