What Is The Second Chapter Of Ronald Takaki A Different Mirror Imperialism

In the second chapter of Ronald Takaki’s A Different Mirror, he begins to elaborate on the fundamental principles many settlers sought to possess: expansionism. “The whole earth is the Lord’s garden and he hath given it to the sons of men [to] increase and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it. Why then should we stand starving here for the place of habitation…and in the meantime suffer a whole continent as fruitful and convenient for the use of man to lie waste without any improvement”. In fact, these principles justified and empowered many imperialist countries to conquer lands of beneficial resources. Settlers also believed by colonizing a territory they were contributing to the improvement of the native civilization. Throughout

In doing so, many British settlers carried over their negative perceptions of the natives. The Irish was perceived to be people who lacked knowledge of God or good manner and thus remained to be uncivilized. The lack of agriculture and/or advancement in towns supported their perception. Rapidly, British settlers established the social separation between the groups. The natives could no longer own or purchase property. The natives were now inferior to the settlers. English settlers also acted on violence to redefine Irish values and customs. English settlers burned and destroyed villages as a means to relocate them on reservations. It was said Sir Humphrey Gilbert promoted terror throughout Ireland by beheading all of his victims. In the end, Ireland was left an empty void for English settlers to claim and

Settlers appreciated the existence of the Native Americans well sustained cropping system. According to the reading, the settlers valued the methods used by the Native Americans in maintaining their rich soil and their fertilization practice to produce sufficient amount of crops. In addition, expansion didn’t come entirely from the means of violence, European diseases managed to eliminate a large Native American population. “The colonizers interpreted these Indian deaths as divinely sanctioned opportunities to take the land”. In response, many colonizers did in fact take over the lands or territories ridden of Native American leadership or population due to the disease. Colonizers continued to rid Native American land by claiming the inhabitants lacked the proper work ethic to maintain the land and thus were relieved of ownership. These components certainly justified the colonizers means of