Changes in the land summary. William Cronon Change In The Land Summary 2022-12-12
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Changes in the Land is a book written by historian William Cronon that explores the environmental and ecological changes that occurred in New England during the colonial period. The book examines the relationship between the Native American and European settlers, and how their actions and interactions affected the land and its resources.
One of the major changes in the land described in the book is the transformation of the forest ecosystem. Prior to European colonization, the forest was a diverse and complex ecosystem that supported a wide variety of plant and animal life. However, the European settlers brought with them new plants and animals, which often outcompeted the native species and caused significant changes to the ecosystem. For example, the introduction of livestock such as cows, pigs, and goats led to the overgrazing of grasslands and the destruction of forests, as the settlers cleared land for farming and grazing.
Another significant change in the land described in the book is the alteration of the water system. The European settlers introduced new technologies such as dams and mills, which changed the flow of rivers and streams and affected the habitats of fish and other aquatic life. The settlers also introduced new crops and farming techniques, which led to the depletion of soil nutrients and the erosion of topsoil.
Overall, Changes in the Land is a detailed and thought-provoking exploration of the environmental and ecological changes that occurred in New England during the colonial period. It highlights the complex interactions between human societies and the natural world, and the ways in which human actions can have unintended consequences on the environment. The book is an important reminder of the need to consider the long-term effects of our actions on the land and its resources.
Changes in the Land Study Guide
The book analyses the relationship between Native Americans and the English colonizers who deemed the land their own. The ignorance of the colonists in destroying their own ecosystem is also highlighted over and over again, whether from introducing invasive plant species to introducing diseases that the native Indian population had no immunity against. They also used methods like controlled burning to clear fields with minimal damage, and created borderlands for specific types of plants and wildlife. This way of viewing resources was completely at odds with the way native Indians viewed creating and keeping resources on a seasonal basis. By focusing on ecological history, it is possible to learn more about human history. Colonizers imitated the practice of forest burning from Native people, but instead of restricting this to undergrowth they burned the entire forest. It is easy to attribute all the environmental change that occurred during the colonial period to the capitalist economic system brought over by European colonizers, and indeed, this was by far the single greatest factor that created change during this time.
Women tended to the crops and did other tasks that were compatible with taking care of children at the same time. Yet while exchanging possessions was useful, the same was less often true of land. Overall, Native people believed that they had property rights to the products of the land, which meant that these rights shifted with the seasons. This created a single blast of nutrients in the soil that was ultimately less long-lasting. The southern Indians relied heavily on their agricultural life style. Now actually impoverished and unable to continue their preexisting way of life, many communities resorted to selling their land to survive. There was also a corresponding drying up of streams and springs.
Changes in the Land Chapter 2: Landscape and Patchwork Summary & Analysis
But the differences Cronon outlines here are actually crucial. Maintaining a mobile lifestyle was easy for indigenous communities because all their possessions could be easily transported with them. This meant that women owned things like baskets and hoes, whereas mean owned bows, arrows, and canoes. Colonizers were also impressed by the animals in New England. For a while, colonizers encouraged the use of wampum as currency in trade, but over time it lost value and many Native people found themselves destitute.
Changes in the Land by William Cronon Plot Summary
However, this is actually far from the case. What began as a genuine need timber for ships could escalate in a destructive manner, thanks to the way in which capitalist ideology treated natural resources as infinite commodities. As the land became drier, those working in sawmills found that there was not enough water to keep the mills functioning. Europeans struggled to understand these interlinked concepts. Different views of the Europeans and Native Americans caused a lot of conflict. On the other end the southern Indians had the knowledge of agriculture, and they also knew how to hunt so they would gather more food, and were able to feed a bigger crowd during Changes In The Land By William Cronon Summary The book Changes in the Land by William Cronon explores how the different ways of living â Indigenous and European â caused different altering effects on the New England environments. Capitalism has an entirely different organizing principle profit which arguably clashes with environmental realities.
We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make yourown. For the first time, ship masts could be constructed from a single tree rather than joining two different pieces of wood together. Animals that were abundant and easy to catch were owned by whoever killed them, but those that were rarer or needed to be caught using traps belonged to the person whose trap they were caught in. The book explains how land ownership was a communal effort for native Indian tribes, and that land use was something agreed two between tribes through rights and recognition. Native Americans relied on natural resources to provide their basic need, through hunting and gathering. Europeans thought of themselves as separate fromâand having authority overâthe natural world.
Timber had at first seemed so infinitely plentiful in New England that colonizers used it in an excessive, wasteful manner, to the point that construction came to require untenable amounts of timber. Eventually, different animal species started being kept inside their own respective enclosures. Moreover, the way that any given human population alters their environment is always subject to change over time. The population of wild mammals in New England did not just decline because of the fur market, but also because of the destruction of edge habitats. Perhaps because things seemed to work backwards from their point of view and what they saw as effect was really the cause of Indian behavior.
Changes in the Land Chapter 6: Taking the Forest Summary & Analysis
GradeSaver, 6 August 2021 Web. However, it is important not to let this accelerated change distract from the fact that the landscape was also drastically transformed during the colonial period. Colonizers lumbered as if trees were an infinite resource, engaging in highly wasteful practices in order to access the most high-value timber. Seeing that Native villages had leaders sachems , some colonizers chose to interpret these leaders as equivalent to the European monarchy and aristocracy. Really, right from the start, America has been seen as primarily as a place to sell things to the rest of the world. The book was praised by many, with The New York Times Book Review stating, "Changes in the Land exemplifies, and realizes, the promise of ecological history with stunning effect.
However, this depended on having control of the land, whichâonce the property-obsessed Europeans arrivedâwas taken from them. For example, while remarking on the notable health of the Native population, colonizers likely did not realize that they were bringing new diseases from Europe that would ravage this previously healthy people. Following this summary, the review will delve into the strengths and weaknesses of the book and their ultimate effect on the reader. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. After settlements had already appeared on all the land that was already clear, settlers began clearing the forest in order to farm, a process that depleted the fertility of the soil in these areas.
Changes in the Land Chapter 1: The View from Walden Summary & Analysis
One of the most important sources for this book is the accounts of the environment made by European naturalists in the late eighteenth century. It would be too simple to interpret this passage as meaning that poverty is a state of mind. In the book, Changes in the Land by William Cronon, he describes the drastic changes of the environmental landscapes and natural resources in New England during the Colonial Era. One of the myths about colonial life in America that still proliferates in some forms today is that it was to be a classless society, unlike the rigidly hierarchical systems back in Europe. In 1855, Henry David Thoreau recorded the changes to the environment in his home of Concord, Massachusetts, which by that time had already been a European settlement for over 200 years. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make yourown. Again, the idea of owning animals is very normal in Western society, such that many readers would not question the idea that a person could own cows in a dairy farm or a pet cat.
According to Cronon, European used deforestation and girdling method to provide space for plantation and pasture for their livestocks. They did not rush or overwork themselves and lived a satisfying life. GradeSaver, 16 September 2021 Web. However, some early colonizers failed to realize this and mistakenly assumed that the lush and temperate spring and summer conditions lasted year-round. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community.
