Answer

1. • 1. 1. Native American society

           Question1: Describe Native American society or societies around the time of first contact with Europeans. (A way to thinking about answering this question is to think about the following: Were Native Americans a homogeneous group that would have viewed themselves as part of one large group inhabiting the Americas? What generalizations can be made about Native American societies?)

           The Native American society is a special part of American history that forms the basis of understanding America today. Prior to civilization and industrialization, there existed native American communities that occupied select parts of North America. With the coming of the Europeans, a lot of structural changes occurred that altered the native American society in several ways. It is however important to appreciate that prior to the first contact with the Europeans, the native American societies were segregated into tribes that lived independently of each other. The tribes lived together as a means of guaranteeing security and sharing of resources among each other (“1. Indigenous America | THE AMERICAN YAWP”, 2020). The native Americans did not view themselves as a homologous group inhabiting the larger North America but instead, each tribe viewed itself as a territory and claimed the land on which they lived.

           Question 2: What were the unintended consequences of the exchange of plants, pests, and diseases between the Eastern hemisphere (Old World) and the Western hemisphere (New World)?

           The coming of the Europeans stimulated the exchange of ideas, information, concepts, and technologies with the native American societies. The introduction of crops such as grapes onions and wheat led to the development of agriculture in the western hemisphere as the crops did exceptionally well in addition to the readily available extensive arable land (“2. Colliding Cultures | THE AMERICAN YAWP”, 2020). With the increased investment in agriculture came the increased need for human labor to work on the farms. This indirectly paved way for the transatlantic slave trade. The exchange equally brought about diseases that were non-existent in the western hemisphere, diseases such as smallpox and typhoid became public health issues that had to be dealt with as the brought about serious affliction to the native Americans (“2. Colliding Cultures | THE AMERICAN YAWP”, 2020).