New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America

Why does Calloway argue that the “simple story of racial conflict, in which white invaders fought and defeated the Indians,” both “conveys the broad outlines of what happened” and “distorts historical reality” (119)?

Of all the changes wrought by European invasion of North America, which do you regard as most significant and why? Support your answer with evidence from the text.

How did Indigenous Americans respond to Christianity? How did Europeans respond to Indigenous spirituality?

How does colonial-era warfare illustrate a “new world” of Indigenous-European collaboration? How did European and Indigenous influences combine to invent a new style of battle?

Spanish, French, and English colonizers each established a lasting presence in different regions of North America. In what ways were Indigenous experiences similar across all regions of European colonization? In what ways did those experiences differ from region to region?

Identify and explain the significance of at least three individuals whose cultural mobility allowed them to thrive in both European and Indigenous communities.

Thomas Jefferson and others believed that European-Americans and Indigenous Americans should become one people. To what extent did this intermixing occur in the colonial period? Why did Jefferson and others advocate this?

To what extent did Indigenous influence shape American ideas of liberty and equality?