HOW THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIST ALTERED THE ENVIORNMENT
How the New England Colonists` Altered the New England Environment In Changes in the Land, William Cronon points out the European colonists` pursuits of a capitalistic market and the impact it had on the New England ecosystem. Native Americans and colonists had different views on the use of land resources. The Natives viewed the land as something not owned, but as a resource to sustain life. They believe in a hunting-gathering system, hunting only when necessary. In the long run Native Americans lost their old traditions and were forced to adapt to the colonists` traditions in order to survive. This change contributed even more to the alteration of the ecosystem during the colonization period. In contrast, colonists viewed the land as capitalistic market in which they used more of the land resources without taking into consideration that one day they would run out of resources. Before the colonists arrived in New England land resources were in abundance. The only ones to use these resources were the Natives, but the type of resources they used where divided in regions. Northern Indians lived entirely as hunter-gatherers, while the Indians south of the Kennebec River raised crops. (p.38) Even though the Indians
As Indians traded with colonists` more and more Natives began to interact with New Englanders. Indians raised crops moderately; they cultivated enough to live off of without exhausting the land. The wind also began to have a great affect in the land. They believed in using all the resources of the land. As more and more colonists immigrated to New England more of them began to bring their domestic animals to the new country. When the colonists arrived everything changed, the land began to be altered. They also set big forest fires during the summer and fall, which in the long run increased nutrients in the soil. Rainfall caused rivers to flood and causing snow to freeze and harden the land. They stayed on the same piece of land until the land was no longer fertile. 130) This lead to the enforcement of territory distribution among Natives and colonists`. This made Southern Indians lives` more complicated, no longer allowed to live in the old traditional ways. Colonists tended to promote New England as best as possible in order to increase the amount of colonists who immigrated to the New World. 122) The land was no longer capable of consuming any water; this caused all the water from the rainfall to over flood the rivers that did exist.
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