Europeans in the New World

• European and Native American views on land owernership
  • America had sparsely inhabited wildness.
  • Europeans thought that N Americans were wasting the land
  • Sedentary lifestyle > nomadic lifestyle
  • Europeans used this as justification for taking "unused" lands
• The Myth of the Ecological Indian
  • Were Indians "environmentalists"? - No.
  • Today there is the view that Indians never over hunted or were harmful to the environment. Not true!
• "Pristine" myth
  • Similar to the myth of the Ecological Indian
  • Western view of american nature untouched
  • Natives managed the landscapes
  • used forest fires
• The Columbian Exchange: this is a big deal people
  • Europeans gained (New-Old)
    • diseases
      • syphilis
    • corn
    • tomato
    • beans
    • potato
    • peanut
    • vanilla
    • chocolate
  • Native Americans gained (Old-New)
    • diseases
      • small poc
      • measles
      • flu
      • plague
      • typhyus
      • cholera
    • cattle
    • pigs
    • horses
    • sugar
    • tea
    • coffee
• Effects of Disease in the New World
  • followed the trade routes
  • population crash
• The Fur trade era (1600s- 1700s)
  • made alliances and created issues and escalated intertribal wars
  • brought materialistic way of life
  • caused over-hunting and over-trapping
  • BEAVERS
  • horses and guns arrived:( made it worse for Indians
• Book
  • Changes in Land by Cronon
  • Ecological Imperialism 1491 (pre columbian time) by Alfred Crosby