Jigsaw Activity: The impact of the British Empire on the Indigenous peoples of North America

Virginia, the area where the British established Roanoke Colony by John White 1585 CE, British Museum (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Activity

Many empires throughout time have had their chance at exploring and simultaneously conquering the globe, often without any knowledge or thought towards the Indigenous populations of the land upon which they invaded. The British Empire is one such empire that had a violent impact on Indigenous peoples.

The aim of this activity is to develop  your understanding of British colonisation and its impact on the Indigenous peoples/Native Americans of the newly formed colonies of North America.

Gather yourselves into groups of 4 to 5 people, these individuals will form your home group.

Topics to research will be assigned to each person in the homegroup:

1. Environmental Impacts of forming new settlements/colonies
2. Trade with Indigenous populations
3. How colonisation took place
4. Conflict with Indigenous populations

Where to find information:

National Geographic – European Colonization of North America

Britannica – How colonization took place

World History Encyclopedia – European Colonization of the Americas

Library of Congress – Virginia’s Early Relations with Native Americans

Next move into expert groups, where students within this group will work together to become experts on your given topic.

Try and find out as much information as you are able to on each topic.

After working together with your expert group, you will move back into your home groups. Each of you will then have the chance to share the information that you have learned with the rest of your home group.

Each group will create a summary sheet of information based on the expert knowledge of everyone in the group. Once fully completed each group will present a certain piece or pieces of information that they found most interesting with the rest of the class.