One of the main factors that enabled europeans to conquer native North Americans with realative ease was?

Answer 1

Well, first off judging by your location I'm going to have to assume you meant the Natives inhabitants of North American and not any of the aboriginals inhabiting South America.

Anywho, there are two main reasons that the Europeans managed to conquer the North America's native groups with relative ease; strength in numbers and superior warfaring technology. Which as you will see are really just two parts of the same answer.

The Europeans biggest advantage over native peoples was actually accrued in Europe centuries before Europeans even began to venture onto the ocean. Europe just happens to be the best possible place in the world to acquire domestic animals and plants. All other areas either can't get animals because of geography (think of placing sheep in the new world without a ship for example), or don't have obliging temperate weather conditions ( Imagine trying to grow apples in the desert before irrigation). The rise of domestic agriculture allowed Europeans to do two things; form the food support necessary to allow for an expansive population base, and catch the diseases from their livestock which would be actually give them a huge advantage in the long run.

You see, when you have a large amount of animals and people together in the same areas, disease can jump from species to species. The only way to survive this is though blind luck. Simply put if early European settlers happened to have the right genes they wouldn't die of disease, and over time the survivors of many successive waves of disease were the ones who survived to reproduce, and these survivors children acquired the genetic ability to survive living with animals despite having a vast amount of deadly germs on their body (as all humans do).

The reason why this is relevant, is that when Europeans got to North America they could kill about 90 per cent of native populations by merely stepping foot on the north American continent. Because native American's hadn't built up genetic resistance to animal based diseases (like the Bubonic Plague that killed about a quarter of the human race in mediveil times), they died in droves of strange foreign diseases which spread through trade routes far in advance of Europeans. This meant that Europeans didn't really have to conquer all native groups but only about the 10% that remained of them.

But besides primative biological warfare the Europeans domestic animals had given them one other big advantage; superior technology. Europeans could utilize their domestic animals for farming (plowing, milking, eating etc...) which gave them the food excesses necessary to support large sedintary populations which could develop increasingly advanced technology both to outwit their neighbors and increase their own wealth in war and trade.

As a similar Aboriginal example; the northwest coast people of British Columbia could develop large permanent dwellings in big villages because their natural environment had enough natural food sources such as salmon and berries that they could develop a complex large society. Whereas the Nomadic plains people of Saskatchewan couldn't really invent anything because if they did, they would be forced to leave it behind. This meant they never advanced far beyond the technology of stone age European tribes and could never support a population larger then a few families per tribe.

Because Europeans had built up centuries of technology thanks to their sedentary lifestyle made possible by farm animals and abundant naturally occurring crops, they were able to build the ships that brought crops and settlers to the new world, and the guns that could immolate those who resisted the germs. The native populations of North America were never had the population or technology to build ships of their own and after the Europeans gained a foothold in North America, Native groups were inevitably crushed by the waves of ships coming from the old world with populations of inconceivable size supported by farming. With the colonists who came to North America on these ships not having any second thoughts about using their technology (I.E. guns, cannons) to advance their cause.

It should be noted that that Europeans did have substantial difficulty in colonizing North America and that their first attempts that weren't backed by substantial European populations (early vikings from Greenland, early Frenchmen in Quebec) failed because of natives attacking the Europeans.

Also It's worth noting that farmers overcoming non-farmers has many parallels throughout history. With other examples being found in Papa New Guinea and Thailand, long long long before the Americas were colonized.

If you really want to understand this theory read the book by the guy I where I stole it from; Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond.

Answer 2

c. The absence of high density populations or modern nation-states in the americas

Answer 3

Metal armor, firearms, steel edged weapons, and the horse gave the Spanish a huge advantage.

Answer 4

The greatest factor in Spanish victory over native Americans were horses because Spainards didn't have horses at the time.