Changes in the Land by William Cronon
Essay Preview: Changes in the Land by William Cronon
Report this essay
“Changes in the Land” by William Cronon is a study of the impact of Europeans settlement of inhabitant and environment of the early New England. It interprets and analyzes how hardly the environment was changing the circumstances in plant and animals communities of New England. It demonstrates of how the people influenced one another to their own convenient and how it helped New England get shaped up. This book basically speaks about how the inhabitants of Europe were introduced to North America ecosystem. I believed that Cronon’s thesis claims that the shifts from Indian to European dominance in New England gave important changes that are well known by historians, the way these people live their life and also involving how they had to reorganize it as well.
When the Europeans first arrive to New England they were shocked by the environment of how it looked, they were expecting something different since it was the new world. They were not used to seeing so much land, animals and plant life, also back in Europe they were used to seeing that the landscape for hunting was mostly for large landowners and the Crown and on here even some of the poor had land. They were also not used to seeing heavy forests, domesticated animals and that the land was so empty. They both had different values in life and definitely different opinions on how they should use their land and what they were going to do with it. They found the environment to be value to them because they saw all the commodities they had in the new world and they were going to benefit from it in every way possible they could. They just couldn’t understand how a land could be so rich but the habitants were poor and they thought this because of some of the ways they would practice things.
They were very different in many ways, the Indian communities oppressed the seasonal range of their environment by practicing mobility, there houses were portable and they own items that only were essential since everything had to be portable so they were able to move. They were many different patterns between the Indian tribes based on the region they were in. Some Indians had to fish only on the early spring season while the spawning runs and then they had to move to the coast side to catch the no spawning fish by mid/ late spring. They would also hunt birds and pick berries until there was another harvest in the next late summer. For the winter timer they would divide each other into smaller groups so everyone could go out and hunt. All of the Indians had a goal and it was that they would around to where ever they could find food and it was going to be abundant for them and their families.
There have always been differences in the whole world from man and woman. The Europeans only didn’t criticize the Indians of the things they would do or follow but they also criticized them on how they would dive their labor between man and woman. The Indians would burn down forest for a better way to plant fields or to do a better hunting in that area, the Europeans were very impressed when they saw that they had the Indian woman performing a man job. The woman did most of the farming while the males did the hunting but the Europeans were also impressed because for them in Europe that was considered a sport since they didn’t perform much hunting back in Europe. They always consider that the Europeans were lazy because of that matter. This was another difference in the habits from origins were in between the two groups of people.
The Indians and the Europeans view property and land possession very different. The Indians believe only in territorial rights while the Europeans practiced land ownership. There was huge difference those to type of beliefs. From the Indians people could only owned what they made with their bare hands, it could be gathering areas, fishing sites, and/or agricultural fields even though those were used for hunting purposes but that’s what it was meant by territorial rights. On the other hands for the Europeans they could purchase a piece of