New Worlds for All by Colin Calloway

            Europeans were searching for a place to create a new world. In Colin Calloway's book (1997), New Worlds for All, he shows how, "The "new world " existed in the imaginations of Europeans. " (pg. 9). The inhabitants of this "new world " were struck seemingly out of no-where by an unseen force. As Europeans sent more explorers to the new world in search of new trade routes they brought with them, unintentionally, many devastating plagues. This was done through various means, one of which was the explorers themselves as soldiers another was religion. Exploration teams also brought many of their livestock on the journey, adding to the Indians vulnerability. Disease was one of the largest contributing factors to the Indians downfall.
             When Europeans set out to their "new world " their mindset was that it was uninhabited. Once they arrived and found "savages " they believed they lacked structure. Europeans thought that the "savages " needed organized worship, and Christianity was the answer. "Indians had no real religion; converting them to Christianity would be a simple matter of filling a dark void with the light of the Gospel. " (pg. 68). Indians would listen politely to the missionaries, but they wouldn't change or adapt to the christian way of life. Indians saw Christianity as a dark force spreading throughout the land. Calloway put it in these terms, "The newcomers infected their bodies, stole their land, killed their game, and threatened to sever sacred relationships that had kept the world in balance for thousands of years. " (pg. 69). That is not to say that Indian members did not see the benefits of using individual parts of European Christianity. Indians found ways to adapt this new religion with their own. ".Indian people often explored, considered, and incorporated elements of its teachings. " (pg. 69). Some Indians had adopted parts of this new religion and gave up parts from their own.