How did Europeans change the Americas?

The Americas
have been drastically changed through colonization and conquest by European peoples, but I will
do my best to address this widespread and complex transformation.

Before the
arrival of Europeans in the 15th and 16th centuries, First Nations peoples throughout the
Americas had a subsistence lifestyle primarily composed of hunting, gathering, and small-scale
farming. They practiced their indigenous faiths, experienced a diversity of linguistic and
material culture, and while most were rather egalitarian, some were heavily stratified and were
lead by god-kings. Though sometimes at the whim of nature, they had successful economies and
produced rich material culture, some of which survives today.

When European
explorers and colonialists journeyed to the Americas, they captured many slaves, forced
conversions, and killed First Nations people through violence and disease. Indigenous life-ways
were almost entirely eradicated. The land which First Nations people lived on was taken as
property by Europeans and cultivated for the purpose of exporting resources. The Europeans
believed that it was their duty to "civilize" and shepherd the indigenous populations
of the New World so that they could be saved in heaven after death. This religious ideology was
used to promote the economic exploitation of land and people in the Americas, including people
captured in Africa and transported as a source of  labor.

The colonization of
the Americas has almost entirely eliminated the culture, language, and people who are native to
these places. European culture and people were transplanted to effectively replace the
indigenous cultures. A great diversity of blended cultures exist today, many with influence from
the First Nations populations who once lived on the same land. Though the Americas have been
developed into many beautiful and thriving societies, it cannot make up for the genocide which
began over five hundred years ago. The diversity which once existed was quickly replaced by a
rather small selection of European (primarily Italian, Iberian, and English) culture, language,
religion, and industry.

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