Class 11 History Chapter 10 Displacing Indigenous Peoples
NCERT Notes for Class 11 History Chapter 10 Displacing Indigenous Peoples, (History) exam are Students are taught thru NCERT books in some of state board and CBSE Schools. As the chapter involves an end, there is an exercise provided to assist students prepare for evaluation. Students need to clear up those exercises very well because the questions with inside the very last asked from those.
In this chapter, we will discuss about the histories of the American and Australian natives. The immigrants of Europe settled in many areas of South America, Central America, North America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand from 18th century. This resulted in pushing out the natives to other regions. The European settlements were called colonies and when these colonies became independent from their European mother country, they became states or countries.
NCERT Notes for Class 11 History Chapter 10 Displacing Indigenous Peoples
Class 11 History Chapter 10 Displacing Indigenous Peoples
The theme tells the story of what European settlers did to the native peoples of America and Australia. The natives and the Europeans represented competing notions of civilization.
Sources
- Oral History of natives
- Historical and fiction works written by natives
- Galleries and Museums of native art
History of American and Australian Natives
- American and Australian history textbooks until middle of the 20th century discussed only about how Europeans discovered the Americas and Australia.
- They never mentioned about the natives except to suggest that they were hostile (enemy) to Europeans.
- The natives however were studied by anthropologists in America from the 1840s.
- Later from 1960s, the natives were encouraged to write their own histories or to dictate them oral history.
- The historical works and fiction written by the natives are available to read today.
- The visitors to museums in these countries could see galleries of native art and special museums which depict the aboriginal (natives) way of life.
- American Indians themselves have created the new National Museum of American Indian in the USA.
European Imperialism
- Spain and Portugal did not expand their empire after the 17th century.
- France, Holland and England extended their trading activities and established colonies in America, Africa and Asia.
- Ireland was also a colony of England.
Establishment of Colonies
- From the 18th century, the Prospects for profit drove people to establish colonies.
- Nature of the control establish was different for different countries.
- Trading companies like the east India company became political power in South Asia.
- They defeated local rulers and took over their territories.
- They followed the older well-developed administrative system and collected taxes from landowners.
- Later they excavated mines, established plantations and built railways to make trade easier.
- Except in South Africa, Europeans traded on the coast in Africa.
- They went into the interior of Africa only in the late 19th century.
- Later, European countries reached an agreement to divide and distribute Africa as colonies among themselves.
- The Dutch in South Africa, the British in Ireland, New Zealand and Australia and the Europeans in America were called ‘settlers’.
- English was the official language in these colonies except Canada where French was also an official language.
North America
- The North American continent extends from the Arctic Circle to the Tropic of Cancer, from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.
- There is desert of Arizona and Nevada to the West of the Rocky mountains.
- There are many big industries in USA and Canada due to the availability of oil, gas and mineral resources in many areas.
- Wheat, corn and fruit are grown widely and fishing is the major industry in Canada.
- The immigrants from Europe, Africa and China have developed mining, industry and large scale agriculture in the last 200 years.
The Native Peoples to North America
- The native peoples might have come from Asia through a land bridge across the Bering Straits, 30,000 before.
- During the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago, these people moved further south.
Lifestyle of Natives
- They were lived in groups along river valleys.
- They cultivated vegetables and maize and ate fish and meat.
- Natives only killed as many animals as they needed for food.
- They did not develop kingdoms or empires like Central and South America.
- They did not feel any need to own land.
- They formed alliances for their own reasons.
- They did not feel to own the land and were satisfied with the food and shelter they got from it.
- Goods were obtained not by buying them, but as gifts.
- Numerous languages were spoken but these were not written down.
- They were skilled craftspeople and made beautiful textiles.
- They could understand climate and different landscapes.
Encounters with Europeans (Entry of European Traders in North America)
- The European traders after a difficult two-month voyage reached the North coast of North America in the 17th century.
- These traders in North America came to trade in fish and furs, which was helped by the natives who were experts in hunting.
- Further South, along the Mississippi river, the French observed that the natives held regular gatherings to exchanged handicrafts which were unique to a tribe or food items not available in other regions.
- The Europeans gave them blankets, iron vessels, guns (which were used to kill animals instead of arrows and bows) and alcohol in exchange for local products.
- The natives became addicted to alcohol and this was helpful to Europeans because they could dictate terms of trade.
- Even Europeans got addicted to tobacco from the natives.
Comparative study between American natives and Europeans
| Natives | Europeans |
| To Europeans natives were ‘uncivilized’-the noble Savage | Civilized in terms of literacy, religion and urbanism |
| To natives, the goods they exchanged with Europeans were gift | To Europeans ,gift were commodities which they would sell for a profit |
| Natives were not aware of market. | the Europeans sold goods in European market for profit |
| Natives were not happy with the greed of the Europeans | Slaughtered hundreds of beavers for furs |
| Natives were afraid that the animals would take revenge for this destruction | They killed wild animals to protect farms |
| Natives identified tracks invisible to the Europeans | Europeans imagined the forests to be converted into cornfields |
Expansion of USA
- Large areas were acquired by purchase of Louisiana (1803) from France and Alaska (1867) from Russia. By war –much of southern USA was won from Mexico
Slavery
- The northern states of the USA argued for ending slavery since they condemned it as an inhuman practice.
- The plantation owners of Southern states bought slaves in Africa to bring USA.
- Protests by anti-slavery groups led to a ban on slave trade. But the Africans who were in the USA remained slaves as did their children.
- In 1861-65, a civil war broke out in which the northern states won to abolish slavery.
- It was only in the 20th century that the African Americans won the battle of civil liberties.
Native peoples of North America lose their land
- In the USA, the natives were forced to move by signing treaties or selling their lands.
- They were cheated by taking more land or paying less.
- The natives were deprived of their land.
- For example, Cherokee tribe in Georgia was governed by state laws but could not enjoy the rights of citizens.
- The Judgment by the US Chief Justice, John Marshall said that the Cherokees were a distinct community, occupying its own territory in which law of Georgia had no force.
- Us President Andrew Jackson refused to accept the Chief Justice’s judgement.
- He ordered the US army to evict the Cherokees from their land.
- They were driven out to the Great American Desert.
- About 15,000 people were forced to move and over a quarter died along the ‘Trail of Tears’.
- Those who occupied the lands of the tribes called the natives as lazy, not skilled, not learning English or dressing properly.
- They deserved to ‘die out’.
- They were concentrated into small areas called ‘reservations’.
- There were a series of rebellions from1865 to 1890.
- The US army crushed all these revolts.
The Gold Rush and the Growth of Industries
- Traces of gold led to ‘Gold Rush’ in 1840s in California.
- A lot of Europeans hurried to America in the hope of making a quick fortune.
- The Gold Rush led to the building of railway lines across the continent.
- In North America industries developed to manufacture railway equipment.
- In order to make large scale farming machinery produced.
- Industrial development led to the growth of towns and factories.
- By 1890 the USA emerged as a leading industrial power in the world.
Constitutional Rights in North America
- The constitution of America included the individual’s right to property’ and right to vote. But these democratic rights were only for white men.
The Winds of Change…
- The problem of Indian Administration is a report of a survey guided by Lewis Meriam published in 1928.
- This report described the poor health and education facilities for natives in reservations.
- The Great Economic Depression began shortly after this report affected all people of America.
- It was in this atmosphere that the Indian Reorganization Act was passed in 1934.
- The Act gave the natives in reservations the right to buy land and take loans.
- In the 1950s and 1960s, the US and Canadian governments ended all special provisions for the natives.
- By the Declaration of Indian Rights of 1954, a number of native peoples accepted citizenship of the USA but on certain conditions.
- They did not want to take away their reservations.
- The Constitution Act (1982) accepted the aboriginal and treaty rights of the natives.
Australia
- The native peoples came from New Guinea 40,000years before.
- Torres Strait Islanders were a group of indigenous people living in the north of the continent.
- The early settlers were convicts deported from England on condition not to return again.
- They ejected natives from land and took over for cultivation without remorse.
- Natives were employed in farms. Later; Chinese immigrants provided cheap labour.
- But Australian government followed a non-white policy to keep away people from South Asia or Southeast Asia.
The Winds of Change
- In 1968, anthropologist W.E.H.Stanner delivered a lecture ‘The Great Australian Silence’-the silence of historians about the origin about the aborigines.
- There was an attempt to study natives as communities with distinct cultures.
- Henry Reynolds, in his Why Weren’t We Told, condemned the practice of writing Australian history as it had begun with Captain Cook’s discovery.
- By 1974,’multiculturalism’was adopted as an official policy in Australia which gave equal respect to native and all cultures.
- Australia had not made treaties with natives when their land was taken up by Europeans.
- The government termed the land of Australia as terra nullius meaning belonging to nobody.
- Children of mixed blood (native European) were forcibly captured and separated from their native relatives.
- Agitation against these issues led to two important decisions.
- The natives had strong historic bonds with the land and this should be respected.
- ‘A National Sorry Day’ as apology for the children lost from the 1820s to the 1970s.