Indian Givers
How the Indians of the Americas transformed the world
By J. McIver Weatherford This paper tries to explain Jack Weatherford's Indian Givers by examining the history of the Native American connection to many agricultural products would not have been produced without the knowledge that Indians gave. Weatherford further stipulates that it is through these advances in agriculture that the United States has remained a strong contender in the global market, that without the influences of the Native Americans on the early settlers those early immigrants to America would not have survived. Through his work, "Indian Givers: How Indians of the Americas Transformed the World", Weatherford brings an insight to a people that most …show more content…

Weatherford starts defending his point using Thomas More's 'Utopia' as an example, stating that he was enormously influenced by the Indians, while he was only excited about the new discovery of a new place. In 'Utopia', very contrary to what Weatherford is trying to describe, we see chained slaves. We see a monogamist system without divorce, a rule broken only in the severest cases of perverseness and adultery, however Indians are known to be, most commonly, polygamist, and in some cases adultery is not against Indian morals. Europeans exploited and colonize the vast continents of the Americas, gave the Indians diseases and Christianity and overlooked almost as much as they took from the Indians.

(From the back cover) "The Indians gave us: "Wealth: The gold and silver from the Americas was the source of major economic and trade expansion in Europe and eventually led to the industrial Revolution. The ore was mined largely with Indian labor—and just getting it out of the earth forced the Indians and Europeans to refine and create undreamed-of industrial techniques and systems. "Food: Some 60 percent of the food eaten in the world today is of American origin. The potato changed Europe's agricultural economy and the nature of society, as well as feeding the large European armies from the eighteenth century on. Chocolate became the taste sensation of Europe; peppers, or chilies, enlivened