Meeting of Cultures Analysis

Name:

Date:

📚 Part 1: Analyze the Sources

Directions: Read each adapted primary-source excerpt. Underline or identify words that reveal the writer’s beliefs, goals, or concerns.

Source A: Indigenous Perspective — Adapted from accounts of Taíno encounters with Columbus, recorded by Bartolomé de las Casas, 16th century.

“The visitors were welcomed with gifts because our people believed peace should come first. Soon, however, the strangers demanded gold and labor. Their arrival brought fear and suffering to many villages.”

Source B: European Perspective — Adapted from Christopher Columbus’s journal, 10/14/1492.

“These people are friendly and could be useful to us. I believe they would make good servants. I will bring information about the land and its resources to the king and queen.”

Source C: African Perspective — Adapted from Olaudah Equiano’s memoir, 1789, describing the effects of the Atlantic slave trade.

“I was taken from my home and carried to a ship. I saw fear and sorrow among the captives. We were forced into a journey to a place and life we did not choose.”

1. Which source most clearly describes the goal of gaining wealth and resources?

Source A

Source B

Source C

2. Which source emphasizes the loss of freedom and forced movement?

Source A

Source B

Source C

3. Identify one detail from Source A that shows how Indigenous people experienced cultural contact.

✏️ Part 2: Compare Perspectives

Directions: Complete the comparison prompts using evidence from the excerpts and your class notes.

4. What was one belief or value shown by the Indigenous perspective?

5. What was one European goal during early contact?

6. What consequence of contact is shown in the African perspective?

7. Check all factors that helped Europeans expand their power in the Americas.

Ships and navigation technology

Weapons and armor

Disease outbreaks

Alliances with some Indigenous groups

8. Compare one similarity and one difference between two perspectives.

📝 Part 3: Supported Conclusion

Directions: Write a well-developed paragraph answering the question. Use at least two specific details from the sources or your class notes.

9. How did cultural exchange change life in the Americas? Explain both a positive exchange, such as new foods, animals, or technologies, and a harmful consequence, such as disease, conquest, or slavery.