Upon reading Changes in the Land, you can see that William Cronon is trying to let the reader know that the deforestation that has occurred in New England is not and cannot be only the cause of the Colonists who landed there. Cronon said himself that his purpose throughout "is to explain why New England habitats changed as they did during the colonial period" (xvi). There are several causes, and one must look at these carefully. Cronon is right that nature, along with the Indians before the colonists, certainly had an effect on the change of forests in New England. However, as he states, a lot of deforestation would probably not have occurred had the Atlantic never been crossed. (100) We will compare and contrast some of the practices and attitudes of the Indians and English.
             The economic differences between the two groups were relatively noticeable. The Europeans had a lifestyle that was very much dependent on settled agriculture while the Indians had a lifestyle that lived off the resources the land provided. Europeans were driven by capitalism. They were very focused on making money and benefiting the individual while the Indians were focused on communal living. They believed everything belonged to everyone. They were more concerned with the overall tribe as a whole than for the individuals in the tribe.
             The Europeans raised domesticated animals, such as oxen, cattle, and horses, which were used in the fields to help plant and cultivate the crops. This meant the Europeans were able to work at a faster pace and plant more compared to the Indians. By planting more, the Europeans started to expand their areas and kept pushing the Indians further and further out of their own territories.
             Now I would like to move on to the social and political differences between the Europeans and Indian. The biggest difference that I noticed while reading, was the difference between the value of mon
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