Crosby: How did New World life forms challenge European understandings of the natural world during the fifteenth century and under what terms (i.e. systems of understanding) were these challenges explored?
Bradford: At the micro-level, what is Bradford's lens for understanding his new environment? How does this lens, for instance, shape his view on the indigenous populations of New England?
Anonymous: According to the author, what are the advantages of growing tobacco in the British colonies by 1775?
First repsonse (I swear I have a life) ... here goes nothing.
ReplyDeleteCrosby: New World life forms challenged the Europeans because they were entering completely foreign environments, where nothing seemed to be the same as in Europe. They were forced to view the natural world as alien and needed to find ways to survive without the staples of their European lives. They had problems with the natives at first, but the native population quickly plummeted due to disease. The Europeans also had trouble adapting to the New World because it lacked many of the European’s food sources and they were not particularly fond of native food. This problem was eventually solved by the introduction of Old World plants/crops into the New World and experimentation in growing environments. Domesticated animals were also introduced that provided food as well as transportation and manpower. I know this response doesn’t explicitly focus on the 15th century but hopefully it’s okay.
I think it would be interesting to explore how Old World life forms challenged native understandings of the natural world and how they adapted to the radical changes in their environments.
Bradford: Bradford is trying to understand his environment in comparison with his home in Europe; he is looking for something familiar and welcoming, but upon arrival in Cape Cod the only aspect that is remotely comforting is the land itself, where the Europeans feel is “their proper element” (67). Through this lens, Bradford’s first impression of the natives was that they were a savage and hostile people. Upon further contact, the natives were the saving graces of the Europeans, teaching them how to survive in the New World. Bradford’s lens creates this “saving grace” view of the Indians because had the Europeans come prepared to find the unfamiliar and unwelcome, rather than searching for the familiar, they may not have needed to rely so heavily on the natives for survival.
Anonymous: According to the author, it is advantageous to grow tobacco because it is almost guaranteed to sell. This doesn’t necessarily guarantee a profit, but with the proper amount of investment and resources, profits are easier to make. Tobacco is also relatively easy to attend to, especially because plantations owners made use of slaves. Also, there is a gap of time between the harvesting of tobacco and planting that allows plantation owners to grow other crops, such as corn.
In regards to all readings I think is worth looking further into the long-term changes new flora and fauna had in the old world. How economies and beliefs changed and how these changes altered world relations. It would be interesting to discuss Specific examples like the impact of Tobacco in European laws.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing worth talking about is the European tendency at the time to try and control everything in the natural world. Belief that plants and animals were put on the earth to serve man was common, so when they arrived at an untamed wilderness they saw it as an opportunity to further this practice.Because the land was left largely uncultivated by Native Americans, Europeans wrongly assumed they were inferior and less "human" than Europeans, They took it upon them selves to take control.
Crosby included the Europeans understanding of the Biblical creation as their basis of questioning the new world’s inhabitants, which was much different from the old world. Columbus for example could not comprehend why the new world’s plants and animals were so different from the old world, if Noah had saved all the animals that they believed or knew about. The Europeans came up with the explanation that during a brief time frame human beings, plants, and animals could have entered this new world on dry land through the Bering Strait. Crosby also discusses Darwinism and evolution as means for explanation of the difference from the old and new world.
ReplyDeleteBradford illustrates the harsh conditions of the new world in comparison to their old world. Their perspective was limited as they had not moved inland to get a better understanding of this new world that seemed to be a desolate wilderness. The Europeans had limited resources to sustain life when struck by scurvy and other diseases. These were diseases unknown to most Europeans. If not for a few Europeans that were able to take care of their fellow European friends more might have died. The Europeans did not communicate with the natives and found them to be barbarians who stole their tools. Then with the arrival of the two Indians, Samoset and Squanto, the Europeans chances of survival increased drastically, which brought about improvements in their relationships and communication with the non-English speaking Indians. Samoset and Squanto taught the Europeans how to plant crops.
Anonymous: According to this author the advantages to growing tobacco in the British Colonies in 1775 was made quick and easy to sell due to the implementation of an inspection law, which allowed planters to go anywhere and sell his tobacco sight unseen.
Crosby In his discussion of the Old World’s effect on the New World brings up many of most drastic changes that affected the New World. I found the discussion of the many invasive species that the Europeans introduced and the impact of Old World to be mirrored histories. Both have some positive changes but what feel like at least in Crosby’s depictions a negative effect on the New World society.
ReplyDeleteThe positive changes between the old and the new world tended to be directly linked to technological and agricultural advancements. Crosby shows this through his discussion of the Natives introducing the people from the Old World to tomatoes, corn, and potatoes. The Europeans would go on to introduce to bananas, cotton, and sugar cane. The most important change that Crosby mentions is the introduction is cattle. The cattle seemed to give a positive effect of new meat and means of food, but also presented a problem in that the cattle tended to have a problem of over graving.
While positive things did occur from the cross-culture between the old and the New World, the negative result are for more numerous then the positive outcomes of Old World invasion of the New World. For instance, Crosby mentions smallpox as a huge component of the Conquistadors triumph over the Aztecs in Tenochtitlán. This smallpox disease was unbelievable damaging to the native populations. The other major problem that came with the linking of the Old World and the New World was the number species that were introduced to the New World and made survival harder for the creatures of the New World. These species ranged from the hog to the cattle.
Some of the questions that occurred to me while reading the sections from Crosby’s work is why did Smallpox emerge as the major killer of the Native Americans as opposed to yellow fever or the bubonic plaque? Also would the Natives really have been able to go toe-to-toe with the Conquistadors if smallpox had not been an issue?
Crosby:
ReplyDeleteEuropeans had assumed that the climates would not be vastly different, and that they would not have to make extensive dietary changes with their change in location. However, New World life forms reacted completely differently than Europeans were accustomed to, or expected. One prime example is the attempts of Europeans to grow Old World crops in Central and South America. While some crops did flourish, others had to be planted in multiple places before it was discovered which areas had similar climates to those of Europe. Crops such as bananas and sugar cane grew well, while wheat was a much more difficult to grow in humid areas. The differences between the Old World and New World were amplified by the change in diet, and the Europeans saw the differences as a division in both class and race. The social implications from these variations continue today, with maize being seen as a lower class food, and wheat as for the upper classes.
Bradford:
Bradford seemed to view his environment as being threatening and unwelcome to humans. This is understandable, as there was not a large native population in the Plymouth Bay area in 1620. He views the situation through a more religious lens, citing that the natives were more affected by disease only by the grace of God. He also makes it clear that the harsh New England climate was a place God had not yet made civilized, and that it was not welcoming for settlers.
As he, like most of the Pilgrims, embarked on his trip to the New World for religious reasons, his comments are reasonable. Interestingly, when he discusses the disease stricken natives, he mentions them as equals, and details the actions taken by the colonists to aid the native population. It appears that unlike many other European settlers, Bradford recognized that without the assistance of natives such as Squanto and Samoset, the colonists would not have survived the first winter. Considering this, his compassion for their suffering is not surprising.
Anonymous:
To this author, the advantages of growing tobacco include profits and the ability to be versatile in what crops they grew. It was easy for a tobacco farmer to cultivate other plants, such as corn and lumber to supplement their income. Also, because of the laws on inspection, it was possible for merchants and farmers to buy and sell tobacco without actually bringing tobacco to a market, and instead they could exchange promissory notes without problem. The article stressed that the owner had no part in cultivation, that it was solely the responsibility of the slaves and help to grow and tend the crop. This made tobacco a worthwhile investment for those whom already possessed large amounts of land and slaves.
Foreign explorers found the size of mammals especially unusual. Also, reptiles like the iguana were especially fascinating and apparently so foreign that one explorer compared it to the Old World myth of flying serpents. However, there were also some similar animals like the jaguar and the leopard. These contrasts undoubtedly piqued European curiosity while also challenging past beliefs, especially Christian cosmogony.
ReplyDeleteQuestions: What kinds of conflicts did New World discovery cause for the Old World?
I also found the section on disease in the New World especially fascinating and shocking. On pg43 particularly, “One must remember that people of the sixteenth century were not statistically minded, so their estimates of the numbers killed by epidemic disease may be more accurate measurement of their emotions than of the numbers who really died.” The estimates of deaths are extreme, and even though the numbers were in fact huge, I found that statement interesting.
The anonymous author believes one of the advantages of tobacco was that it was easy for farmers to maintain and also was beneficial because farmers could grow it among other crops. Tobacco also fueled plantations with a lot of slaves. Mainly because the cultivation of the crop was left to the slaves. This is was backed by an article around at the time that stressed the owner of the tobacco farm had no part in the cultivation.
To answer the question from the Crosby reading was that the explorers believed that the new world would be akin to their world. They thought that the food, animals, and the people would be similar. Crosby wrote about the story of Noah saving all the animals in his ark, and the explorers thought that only those animals that Noah rescued in his ark would be the only creatures adapting in the world. They were shocked to see iguanas, different plants, and smaller animals when the infiltrated the Americas.
ReplyDeleteNow, to answer the second reading's question, it was similar to reading Crosby's book because Bradford wrote about how many Indians have died due to diseases. The odd fact that I found was that the Explorers were immune to the disease. The only interesting thing that Bradford found when he landed in Cape Cod was the immense land.
Finally, the anonymous reader believed that one of the advantages of tobacco was that it was simply sold. People who cultivated tobacco had to grow it on rich lands, and they had to go through a long process in order to get a lot of profit. What also benefited the growth of tobacco was that slaves would cultivate the product, and the owner of the tobacco plantation would attempt to sell his product for a reasonable price. Tobacco was easy to maintain for the farmers, but it did not guarantee that it would be a good profit.
Crosby: For a long time, Europeans were convinced that the world was only a few thousand years old, gathering their evidence almost exclusively from Biblical evidence. In The Columbian Exchange, Crosby shows how the New World helped to change this belief. On page 15, he mentions the work of Sir Charles Lyell published in the 1830s and how it helped Europeans to begin to understand just how old the world really was. Expeditions to the New World exposed explorers to countless unknown plant and animal species. For this reason, both the explorers and the people back home who heard the tales and saw samples and drawings of these mysteries were forced to consider the world in a slightly different light. The beginnings of trade between the Old and New Worlds formed a sort of mutualism. The realization of so many new possibilities coming from nature made many westerners greedy, leading to much wastefulness.
ReplyDeleteBradford: Bradford thinks of the world from the perspective of what he has always been used to. Anything different from the way he has been accustomed is evil in his eyes. He is a pessimist. Anything that requires some effort is not an opportunity; it is a chore. Yes, the conditions under which he lands in the New World are clearly harsh, but the impending hardship is increased tenfold in his mind. Many European explorers had a similar mentality.
Anonymous: The author argues in favor of the sale of tobacco mainly because of its “quick, easy, and certain method of sale” (107). He writes about its cultivation very precisely, which better shows how efficiently tobacco can be grown. It is clear how dependent tobacco farming is on slavery, which overall would increase the profits for the farmer. The author does note that this crop requires very rich land, and that is something the colonies have in the 1750s.
Crosby: People coming from the Old World were astounded at the exotic flora and fauna of the New World. Explorers had discovered a world which challenged many popular beliefs that Europeans had held. The New world life forms were nothing like the creatures and plants Europeans had become accustomed to. Many critical animals and plants were absent from this land, but rather than learning to adapt to this new world and learn the ways of the natives, Europeans quickly began forcing their own way of life on to the land and its people. This lead to many negative ecological consequences later on.
ReplyDeleteBradford: At first Bradford saw his new environment as harsh and unforgiving filled with cruel natives. Bradford focuses on the fact that nothing he encounters is familiar, and the luxuries of Europe are no where to be found. As the seasons change so does the crew's outlook. Rather than focusing on bringing the old world to the new they were able to learn and adapt to their new environment. Of course this would have never been accomplished without the help and friendship of the Native Americans.
Anonymous: The main benefit of growing tobacco was profit and ease. If a farmer was already tending to a few crops it was no problem to add a crop of tobacco and sell it for a hefty price.
In the Crosby reading, he expresses how shocked the Europeans were by their surroundings. Entering a completely new environment, they essentially had to rebuild their ideas of the world around them. As far as the life forms of the new world go, some of the fauna were familiar, or at the least similar; for others it was as if they had entered an alien land inhabited by strange creatures. The Biblical understandings they brought with them had to be adapted. Not only were the varying creatures a challenge to wrap their minds around, but they also posed potential threats to safety, if those from the Old World misjudged.
ReplyDeleteBradford's reading described an interaction between the Native Americans and the settlers that was an interesting mutual relationship. Though each group originally looked upon the other with suspicions, and even fear, they eventually came to recognize that they could aid one another. When one side needed assistance, whether due to a lack of preparation and understanding of a new land, or a sweeping case of illness, each reached out, and in turn appreciated, the help of the other party.
Immediately in the Anonymous reading, it was interesting that, as the traveler pointed out, how the Indians no longer planted their own tobacco crops, but instead purchased it from England when the New World introduced this plant. Growing tobacco had been fine tuned to yield maximum results. As the process became more uniform and precise, laws could even be enacted, inspectors sent out. The shift from a simple crop to a booming cash crop is evident in the traveler's description of the entire process, from the field hands to the matter of quality and quantity of tobacco on the market.
Crosby: Europeans were challenged by new life forms in the New World because everything was completely foreign. None of the animals, plants, or people resembled those that they were used to. This in turn challenged their religious beliefs. If all men and animals had been drowned in the great flood, and only the chosen one’s on the Ark had survived and left behind descendents, then how were there different men and animals? Some of them explored the idea of multiple creations but most stuck to monogeneticism. They had to hold onto their Christian beliefs because that is what gave them validity in their quest. It was the Pope who had granted Spain all rights to the land and islands of the New World, and therefore the reason they were there. New plants and animals also created dietary problems for the Europeans. They were not used to the Indian diet of the New World, however early settlers were forced to eat it. They tried to import their own staple food items, such as grapes for wine, olives for olive oil, and wheat for bread. None of these succeeded at first and the Europeans were forced to find alternatives. However, things like bananas and sugar grew extremely well in the. Lastly, Europeans were shocked by the lack of domesticated animals in the New World. The most important animals they brought over were pigs, horses, and cattle. Pigs took to the New World extremely well. They reproduced quickly and created an abundant food source, often finding new places on the mainland before settlers did. Horses had a harder time travelling and adjusting to the New World. However, they gave the Europeans an advantage over the Indians and provided work animals. Cows did extremely well in the New World and mostly provided hides for Europe. In essence, Europeans dealt with this foreign world by recreating their Old World in it. This was possible due to the many diseases they brought that killed the Indians and left the land open to the Europeans.
ReplyDeleteBradford: Bradford is looking at his new environment in comparison with his old environment. He is looking for similarities and echoing the stereotypes of his culture, especially when it comes to the indigenous people. He makes them seem very violent in the beginning. However, we also see Bradford’s views changing as time goes on. Bradford is also looking through a religious lens. He mentions prayer and God several times.
Anonymous: According to the author, the first advantage of selling tobacco is its “quick, easy, and certain method of sale.” One could privately sell tobacco without having to give a sample to the buyer. This allows the tobacco to be sold throughout the country. Second, the tobacco requires rich fertilized land, meaning that rich land is left behind for the planter after the tobacco season is over. Lastly, tobacco is easy to maintain and therefore one can grow tobacco along with other crops, such as corn, to increase their profit.
Crosby:
ReplyDeleteEuropeans of this age viewed everything under the limitations of Christianity. One of the most fascinating aspects of European interaction with the new world is how they distorted biblical teachings to perpetuate the idea of racial legitimacy through the Christian faith. Crosby points out how theories began to develop such as the great flood only happening in the middle-east, or the possibility of creation proliferated by two Adam’s. All valiant attempts to maintain the status quo, for which it apparently did.
Bradford:
The Bradford article is yet another testament to the constraints of Christian thought. Yet one must understand that a European under the protection of Christ rarely fell ill to the disease’s which plagued the native populations. This would without doubt give one the impression of both biological and spiritual superiority, thus establishing the foundation for all racism to come.
Anon:
One thing I found interesting is how the article stated tobacco farming required “fifty acres to every slave hand”! Now that’s a lot of disturbed land.
I took Dr. Poska’s History of Latin America class last semester, so I am compelled to comment on how Crosby perpetuated two of the myths of the Spanish conquest. The first myth that Crosby passed off was that of communication. Columbus did not fully understand the Arawaks due to both the unreliability of hand signals and to his own inflated ego. As a result, he mistakenly believed that the Arawaks thought him and his crew to be gods. The other legend that Crosby maintained was the myth of a few brave men. Crosby claimed that a handful of conquistadors defeated the Incas and Aztecs when in fact the conquistadors had Indian and African allies who numbered in the thousands. One thing I found interesting about the book was that multiple diseases were probably at play at once, but smallpox made it hard to detect the other illnesses.
ReplyDeleteBradford seemed to view his new landscape with the eyes of a European who begrudgingly accepted his situation. He believed in the notion of the Indians being subhuman when he referred to them as “barbarians.” In addition, Bradford displayed an emotional detachment when describing the Indians dying of small pox.
I found two things of particular interest from the reading on tobacco. The first is the great height to which tobacco grows; the author describes the mature plant reaching “from four and a half to seven feet high.” Additionally, I am surprised that Virginia instituted the regulation and sale of tobacco as early as 1730.
Crosby: I thought that it was interesting when Crosby talked about how they way that the Europeans portrayed all of the different animals in the new world and how that affected the way that they viewed the people they encountered there as well. The Europeans felt that since the animals they encountered couldn't compare size-wise with animals such as elephant, and because of this the Europeans viewed the Native Americans as inferior. I just thought it was interested to learn about the origins of some of the ideas of racism towards the native americans.
ReplyDeleteBradford: Bradford seemed to view this environment as not being very hospitable for humans or settlers. I also thought it was interesting how they put a religious twist on this saying that since God hasn't been introduced yet to the land through Christianity, it has caused it to be this way.
Anonymous: I think the big advantage to growing tobacco in the British colonies is the monetary benefits. You have to put a lot of money into it with buying the land and the slaves but you also make a lot of money from it which makes it all worth it in the end in my opinion.
The introduction begins with Columbus and his fellow travelers arriving the the new world. With obvious disbelief in the new flora and fauna, the explorers documented their adventures once reaching the new world in a captivating manner. Most things documented are also compared to familiar things in the old world. If unable to compare new findings to plants or animals that existed in the old world, there would usually be justifications or made up explanations as to how or why it was there. A similar method was used in the discovery of Native Americans. As they were described, there was a slight but obvious bias and was written with a sense of superiority. This was clear when Native America were referred to as barbarians.
ReplyDeleteThe second article showed similar biases and favoritism, along with strict and structured Christian influenced opinions. The reading on tobacco was informative and well stated. It described as to why it was the favored crop and also why it worked so well in the new world.
America was an isolated land mass before the Europeans came and destroyed the population of both people and animals. The thirst for wealth and prosperity destroyed what was great about the New World. When thinking about the importation of the Old World plants and animals, it really ravished the essence that the New World had to offer. An untouched landscape and people was almost wiped out by disease and wild hoards of animals. I believe that a more intellectual evaluation of the New World would have been more appropriate, but the thirst for money demolished this idea. It was the idea of the Old World, to exploit, and not embrace the New World.
ReplyDeleteThe new and exotic goods that the New World had to offer gleamed in the eyes of the Old World explorers. This in turn resulted in the distruction of what could have been a more suitable way of life, to live for life itself, and not the riches you could obtain.
The first chapter really showed how strange the new world must have seemed to the Europeans. The environment was a huge factor in the colonist life and the conditions were extremely harsh. The climate was nothing like in Europe the winter was much longer and the summers were much hotter than the Europeans knew what to do with. This had extreme impacts on the colonists survival in the new world. The second chapter really made the dissemination of the native americans really seem catastrophic. The brutal conditions the native americans were under made them extra vulnerable to the diseases from the new world. The introduction of so many new species to the old and new world really changed the world as known before. The value of both american fauna to Europeans and the sheep, cattle and horses to native americans had tremendous impacts on the relationships between the two groups.
ReplyDelete