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William Cronon Changes In The Land Analysis

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William Cronon’s Changes in the Land shows the effect on the land of widely disparate conceptions of ownership owned by Indians and English colonists. He also interprets the situations occurring in New England with the plant and animal communities and the change from Indian to English take over. As residents of Europe were introduced to North America, the boundaries between the two were unclear. Cronon uses evidence to explain the situation that led to the ecological ramification of contact with New England. The law materialized land, making it material of which the purchaser had ownership. Indian law created possibility of being able to own fish or nuts that land produced and the right to hunt and live on the land because there was no possibility …show more content…

Compared to Europeans, Indians had a lot more, which the settlers were not used to,because the landscape in England was restricted for landowners. Heavy forests covered New England, which was also unusual to the settlers, England had cut down all of its wood for fuel. European settlers were amazed by the lack of domestic animals, which was very common in European agriculture. The European settlers and the Indians had different ways of how they live and different opinions on how they should use the land around them. Cronon expresses, “Many European visitors were struck by what seemed to them the poverty of Indians who lived in the midst of a landscape endowed so astonishingly with abundance” (Cronon 33). The settlers judged the type of labor that the Indian males and females did. The Indian females did most of the farming, which was usual the job of the men in Europe. Although they didn’t farm, the Indian males hunted. To Europeans, hunting wasn’t common since they did not have wild animals in England, except private properties of the wealthy. European settlers began to make adjustments to the land. The Europeans destroyed strips of forest, by girdling, in order to make space for crops. The grass in New England were not very useful for grazing, leading to the trees being cut down. Instead, forests were used for stuff such as fences and fuel. Deforesting New England ruined forest grounds, changing the way Indians live. Cronon states, “the ecological effects of this regional deforestation were profound, extending even to the climate itself” (Cronon

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Cronon’s final conclusion and overarching theme in Changes in the Land was that the ecological alterations made between the 1600’s and 1800’s were directly related to European settlement. I agree with the conclusion made by Cronon because Cronon conveys through his book that the European colonists were greatly motivated by money and used the land as if there was a “limitless availability” (Cronon 169). The land in New England in the eyes of the colonists was simply “a form of capital” (Cronon 169), a way to make a profit leading them to overuse the resources, greatly altering the ecology and depleting resources. The majority of the information in Changes in the Land, and our textbook, Experiencing History: Interpreting America’s Past are equivalent, but it is rather evident that the information is conveyed through different lenses.

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Native Americans who emigrated from Europe perceived the Indians as a friendly society with whom they dwelt with in harmony. While Native Americans were largely intensive agriculturalists and entrepreneurial in nature, the Indians were hunters and gatherers who earned a livelihood predominantly as nomads. By the 19th century, irrefutable territories i.e. the areas around River Mississippi were under exclusive occupation by the Indians. At the time, different Indian tribes such as the Chickasaws, Creeks, and Cherokees had adapted a sedentary lifestyle and practiced small-scale agriculture. According to the proponents of removal, the Indians were to move westwards into forested lands in order to generate additional space for development through agricultural production (Memorial of the Cherokee Indians).

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Throughout the seventeenth century, conflict between Europeans and Native Americans was rampant and constant. As more and more Europeans migrated to America, violence became increasingly consistent. This seemingly institutionalized pattern of conflict begs a question: Was conflict between Europeans and Native Americans inevitable? Kevin Kenny and Cynthia J. Van Zandt take opposing sides on the issue. Kevin Kenny asserts that William Penn’s vision for cordial relations with local Native Americans was destined for failure due to European colonists’ demands for privately owned land.

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7. Europeans were Christian. The land was seen as a commodity, women who worked were considered to be abused. Native Americans believed in spirits, supernatural healing powers, and had religious leaders. Native Americans saw land as a common resource rather than a commodity as Europeans did.

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By the mid-eighteenth century, tensions between the Native American tribes and English settlers had mounted to an all time high. Mistrust was frequent, as was betrayal. Fighting could break out in a minute, and then be finished the next. Political relationships were broken because of a war and massacre; the economy boomed because of barbaric markets & fur trade. Yet, a lasting effect took place after a war and fruit picking that shattered relations with the tribes for years to come.

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When they did this, adapted plant species were made. Indians caught fish in the flooded grasslands. When they modified the forest, they created fields to grow food, roads to travel on, houses to live in, and towns for needed goods. Earlier than Columbus, the Western Hemisphere was inhabited with amazing cities and towns. Numerous caves in the mountains were sprayed

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Their most predominant difference was that while the New England settlers were seeking religious freedom, the Chesapeake settlers were seeking material wealth. Their differences were the differences in part between the physical and spiritual. Still the New England and Chesapeake settlers had one thing in common, one thing that was applicable to most colonizers of the new world. whatever the price, they were seeking better lives for themselves. 
 The British Settler’s of the new world were ultimately united in their search for a better life.

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No other transformation was more measurable in the west was the Assault on Indian way of life caught by miners and settlers who grasped their homes and federal Government extortion, (Doc C) by the 1890s Native Americans reservations had been the aftereffect on Most Indians, natives effortlessly combated to preserve their assets. Bison and buffalo had been their Linked article commonly utilizing it for food, clothing and trade. Promptly of the millions of

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The settlement on Colonial America was affected deeply by the nature and the environment of what is now known as the United States, and previously known as the Thirteen Colonies. Environment is defined as “the conditions that surround someone or something: the conditions and influences that affect the growth, health, progress, etc., of someone or something” Meaning, things like climate, people, trade, geography, and even demographics helped shape the settlement on Colonial America. The New England Colonies, known as Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, were settled by England citizens who traveled to the New World. The Middle Colonies were known as Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, these colonies became widely known as the “Breadbasket” of North America.

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Historians who practice historiography agree that the writings from the beginning of what is now known as the United States of America can be translated various ways. In James H. Merrell’s “The Indians’ New World,” the initial encounters and relationships between various Native American tribes and Europeans and their African American slaves are explained; based on Merrell’s argument that after the arrival of Europeans to North America in 1492, not only would the Europeans’ lives drastically change, but a new world would be created for the Native Americans’ as their communities and lifestyles slowly intertwined for better or worse. Examples of these changes include: “deadly bacteria, material riches, and [invading] alien people.” (Merrell 53)

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The development of agriculture and the rise of industrialization generated new cultures and innovations in the new world. Native people in early America developed cultural distinct , men were in charge of the fishing, hunting, jobs that were more exposed to violence, and the women stayed closed to the village, farming, and child bearing. The way of life possessed by natives Americans did not compel them to conquer and transform new land. As opposed to European colonizers, Native Americans subscribed to a more “animistic” understanding of nature. In which they believed that plants and animals are not commodities, they are something to be respected rather than used.

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Cronon explains a lumbering technique called griddling that the Colonists used on the trees, causing faster deforestation. The Europeans demolished large strips of forest for crops and pastures. Eventually the damage lead to more unpredictable weather, and the drying or flooding of rivers. Swamps developed in what were once dry areas, promoting disease in those parts of New England. “The ecological effects of this regional deforestation were profound, extending even to the climate itself” (Cronon

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Many tribes had cultural ties to the environment itself. When the Americans established the Indian Removal Act, the Native Americans were forced to leave these cultural grounds. Those who refused to leave their original homeland had to conform to the ways of colonial life instead

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The New World was home to Native Americans before it was ever home to Europeans. Europeans, mostly the English were who began to shape it to their needs and personal identities. New England, for example was considered to be tight knit and as a result of having families developed schools, and churches to fit their lifestyle. New England and Chesapeake were distinct societies during the colonization era of North America with different settlement patterns, motivations, and economies. Patterns of settlement for New England and Chesapeake differed greatly.

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