Ecological History of New England
William Cronon's Changes in the Land William Cronon's, Changes in the Land, attempts to answer questions surrounding the ecological history of colonial New England. The inhabitants of New England consisted of Indians, who lived in various tribes, and the arrival of new English colonists. The movement to the Western Hemisphere by Europeans, lead to interaction of two completely different types of people. Cronon developed questions about the difference in the precolonial ecosystems of New England with those that existed at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Cronon then shifts his thought to answer the questions about the relationship of precolonial native communities with those of the newcomers, Europeans. The environment of New England was portrayed to Europeans as land that had laborless wealth. The depiction of New England was at times true, but many times untrue. This misconception develops Cronon's major question, why New England habitats changed as they did during the colonial period of which Indians and Europeans were its inhabitants. "The great strength of ecological analysis in writing history is its ability to uncover processes and long-term changes which might otherwise remain invisible." Cronon establishe
Excluding the military powers of the Europeans, the changing environment of New England was extremely effected by the arrival of colonists and the interaction that was soon to take place with the natives. Indians did not live in permanent regions, they were economically driven and packed up their villages and moved to another region where they though there was even more opportunity. To colonists, only Indian women appeared to do legitament work; the men idled away their time by hunting, none of which seemed likely genuinely productive activities to the Europeans. (Cronon 159) The colonists expansion into new lands led to unhappiness of the Indians. Indeed the land was full of seasonal wants and plenty, but not all of this want was true. The newcomers came to New England invaded the Indian territories and put in place a concept of private property that still exist in the modern world. Capitalism and environmental degradation went hand in hand. The change must focus on the difference between the human communities that existed on the opposite sides of the ocean. The difference between Indians and Europeans was not that one had more property and the other had none; rather, it was that they loved property differently. New England in eighteen hundred was far different from the land the earliest European visitors had described. The earth of New England was left with soil that was still intact and therefore erosion was kept at a minimum. The transition to capitalism alienated the products of New England as much as the product of human labor, and transformed natural comminutes as profoundly as it did human ones. Most important was land that Indians and colonist had to work changed with the seasons. Those living in the north were entirely dependent on the natural abundance of the ecosystem. The Indians who had been the first inhabitants were reduced to a small amount compared to their former amount, and had been forced onto less and less desirable agricultural lands.
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