Should the european encounter with the indian peoples of the americas be understood primarily as a story of conquest and exploitation, or as one of mutual cultural encounter that brought beneficial as well as tragic results for both?

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The European encounter with the Indian peoples of the Americas should be understood as a story of conquest and settlement of the New World. Even though there were good and bad results for both sides, the Native Americans faced worse results of this encounter. 

The Native Americans suffered the most in this encounter - they were met with strange new people who only wanted to take their lands from them and kill them. The Europeans used the natives as slaves, exploiting them and then murdering them, and that cannot be forgiven.