Native Americans Response To Colonialism Summary

1. Discuss his description of New England before and after the Europeans.

After Europeans settled in New england, the environment changed. There was less free land because of European colonists so the ability to move about the landscape in search for economical abundance became severely constrained which made food harder to find and because of this, European settlers made animals like beaver, deer, bear, turkey, wolf, and others vanish. As well as these animals, European settlers made many crops disappear because of pest diseases.There was not much forests left so there was a lot of land, but not many trees. Cutting down moist trees caused the environment to be very dry species such as oaks and created drier soils. Also, deforestation made

local temperature more unpredictable and drainage patterns less constant. Flooding became more of an issue and water and wind erosions became more common. Native Americans became overpowered, were forced into inferior farm lands, ran out of food to hunt and fish, and had to make ecological adjustments to reach their ideal setting. Although that may be true, possession of the resources of the New England landscape, has proved itself to be very useful. The colonists in New England proved themselves to be ecologically self destructive in the economic relations of production because they assumed limitless availability of land to exploit.

2. How was disease considered a “sociological fact as an ecological one?”
Disease was considered a sociological fact as an ecological one because if Europeans were responsible for bringing diseases to America, than those diseases in turn helped the European expansion because diseases cleared land of earlier inhabitants and facilitated its conquest by the European settlers.

3.

Discuss the Native-Americans response to colonialism by analyzing “Indian unity” and their use of European ideas/technology.

The Native American response to colonialism was a mixture of economic self-interest and cultural adjustment, but was ultimately described as political resistance. Most villages that once welcomed the English, now chose to fight further colonialism on their territories. They did that by forging alliances with other Indian groups, and responding with creativity to the new diplomatic circumstances in which they found themselves. All of this showed Indian unity when all came together to fight the spread of colonialism in their communities after a man named Miantonomo proposed to ambush all of the enemy colonialists in order to achieve this goal. Native Americans began raising livestock, expanding the size of their corn crops, and practicing more sedentary ways of life. Also, their political communities became more extensive and tribal alliances formed in order to meet the need for Indian unity and resistance which Miantonomo wanted. Native Americans adjusted to what the Europeans brought to New England by modifying their ways of living while still retaining their political and cultural

identity.

4. Compare and contrast the use and value of resources to Europeans vs. the Native-Americans.
Native Americans seemed to have a greater knowledge of what could be eaten and what could be useful in the New England environment whose economy defined a greater range of resources even if most of those resources were used by households or traded for similar items.

Resources were rarely used to show status and class authority was shown more by kin and alliances. The rich and poor were satisfied because of the way ecosystems furnished their economy and its resources. Although Native Americans seemed to be adjusting to the changes, Europeans weren’t doing so well. For Europeans, resources were for exchanging in markets where the act of buying and selling made profit for their owners. No matter what the resource was, Europeans wanted for it to bring them wealth. And social status. European markets became known as markets with unattainable needs. European colonists perceived fewer resources in New England than the Native Americans and committed wider portions of those ecosystems to the marketplace. . European settlers believed had an expectation that the size of the margin would increase, and with it, the value of the

land.

5. Discuss why Cronon describes the Europeans as wasteful.

Cronon described Europeans as wasteful because when New England searched for commodities to allow them to obtain European goods, they applied European prices to the New England conditions of abundance. In the economy, labor was scarce and difficult to hire, and because of this, colonists turned to the land and all it contained. People started working with fish, fur, and lumber because they were assigned high labors because they were scarce in Europe. The labor cost alone, operated as a constraint on their exploitation because colonists could consume natural wealth as a substitute for capital. All of this resulted in an economy which used their natural resources in a “wasteful” way. Cronon also stated that cattle, forests, and fields are treated without care, just to further one’s money and business. Americans tended to farm on huge tracts of land, had a “rage for commerce”, invested little capital in their farmland, and wastefully fed livestock. America was different than England because in America, rents are low and the rate of labour is high while in England, rents are high and the labour is low.