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Summary Of Changes In The Land By Cronon

1036 Words5 Pages

Throughout Cronon’s novel, Changes in the Land, he addresses the many ways that the colonists affected the environment of the new world and its inhabitants. He accomplishes this by concentrating on the history of this time period while still including references to the science and ecology that help to fill in the blanks of the information not supplied by historical documents, letters, and other records kept by the colonists living in New England at the time. Using information and documents from the colonists, we are able to get an idea of what the area of New England looked like at that time, but due to inaccuracies and biases on the part of the colonists we can’t be sure that our view of the area is completely accurate. Cronon makes these …show more content…

The deforestation implemented by the new settlers impacted the animals that the Native Americans hunted and even went as far as to alter the climate. It is in this aspect of looking at history that it is important to integrate ecological knowledge into your research. The author sites specific details in the book such as the colonists affect on the soil quality of New England. As they cultivated more and more land they decreased the quality of the soil and the amount of crops that they were able to produce. This in turn forced them to allow their livestock to graze earlier in the spring due to the small amount of hay available for …show more content…

Throughout the book we are given an interesting look into the role that the Native Americans played in the environment. Before the colonist arrived, the Native Americans lived a life of traveling from place to place depending on the season. They had a system of land ownership that was fluid and varied depending on the environment and on their source of food for that season. This was a stark contrast from the colonization strategies of the new settlers that we have seen. As the colonists continued their development of the environment the traditions that the Native Americans lived by began to deteriorate. The animals that they once hunted by the Native Americans began to diminish due to the deforestation of the land. In addition to this the livestock that the colonists brought to raise on their farms caused problems for both civilizations. Hogs that were set free into the wild to freely procreate and increase in population destroyed the crops of both groups. As a result of the colonists, the Native Americans went from being the nomadic groups from the era of pre-colonization to remaining in one place on land that now featured fencing to protect their crops from the wild

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