What is Adas's core argument? How does he frame American imperialism? (broad questions I know, but it's important for us to understand how Adas interprets the projection of American power)
Saturday, January 15, 2011
HIST300F: Technological Imperatives and the Wilderness
Hey guys--here are some questions just to get you thinking about this week's reading. You don't necessarily need to respond directly to them, and please, if you have your own questions or thoughts about the reading, feel free to get us started.
What is Adas's core argument? How does he frame American imperialism? (broad questions I know, but it's important for us to understand how Adas interprets the projection of American power)
What is Adas's core argument? How does he frame American imperialism? (broad questions I know, but it's important for us to understand how Adas interprets the projection of American power)
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I though Adas convincingly argued that although Americans at the time justified their efforts as "natural expansion," at its core, the movement westward represented the first signs of imperialism in America. Adas' argument that the settlers viewed the Amerindians as lazy and wasters of America's vast resources reveals why Americans believed they were entitled to Amerindian land. Adas' analysis of the paintings during the time period illustrates American perception that the Amerindians and their barbaric ways were "obstacles" that Americans simply had to overcome to realize their manifest destiny. I thought it was especially fascinating that Americans associated sedentary societies with civilization and hunter/gatherer societies as savage. Americans clearly saw their approach to social construction as unique and superior to any other in the world, and thus necessarily imposed their system upon the Amerindians they encountered.
ReplyDeleteThe discrepancy in the perspectives between the Euro-Americans and the Native Americans contributed to as much of the imperialism as the physical actions. Adas mentions a few times that it is the Amerindians own fault of not utilizing the land for a more static form of production that violates the natural purpose and God-given right of increasing domination over nature. Yet the Amerindians had a culture that prevented overuse of the land. Each group of people was confronted with striking differences in culture, but the colonizers had more education and industrialization abilities to force their views onto the Indians. Another main point was the “English sense that colonial domination involved advancing in space rather than exerting control over people (45).” This is an interesting statement because while there seemed to be a desire of assimilating the Native Americans into the English culture, time shows that the eventual removal was the only solution to the problem of conflicting ideals. Adas seemed to emphasize that imperialism through expansion was the natural course of settling the America’s and that a society must always be moving forward or lack of progress would ruin a country. The Amerindians were seen as a threat to this forward progress.
ReplyDeleteFocusing on the book as a whole and the idea of U.S. imperialism throughout history, on page 8, in the second paragraph I read what I believe to be the core argument or thesis of “Dominance by Design.” “…America’s emergence as a global power has been consistently driven by a sense of can-do confidence, a faith in scientific and technical solutions, and a missionary certitude that the United States was destined to serve as a model for the rest of humanity. Each of these cultural predispositions has been grounded in foundational American myths and ideals that coalesced in the first decades of settlement and have persisted with varying degrees of intensity through centuries of cross-cultural exchanges until the present day” (p.8). We see the emergence of U.S. imperialism with the colonization of America and the relationship between the settlers and the indigenous population. However, this one scenario can’t define or frame imperialism throughout history because it is merely one example of many that will be explored throughout Adas’ text. In this example, readers will see the initial conception of America’s civilizing mission begin to take shape.
ReplyDeleteSpecific to the first example in “Engins in the Wilderness,” we are able to see the formation of the mentality of the settlers that will bring about what we now identify as U.S. Imperialism. “In each case, the colonizers’ mission in the wilderness was informed by their determination both to convert the heathen Indians to Christianity and to rescue them from their savage state (p.35).” Adas cites several examples of what brought the colonizers to the conclusion that the natives were inferior in relation to the settler’s ideas of what was considered, in their view, to be “civilized.” Major examples included lack of social organization, conception of private property, and material and technological advancement.
Adas interprets much of America’s power to span from its technological advancement. “I explore the effects of technological development on the ways in which Americans perceived and depicted, interacted with and sought to influence-and very often dominate- nonwestern peoples and cultures” (p.7). On page 9, Adas goes on to remark that “technological pursuits and material achievement have strongly influenced the construction of American identity, on both an individual and a collective basis.” Adas comments in the text that U.S. expansionism has evoked some positive changes over time, but in several accounts, Adas seems to give his opinion on Imperialism and U.S. ideals. I believe the following is just one quote that uncovers Adas’s interpretation of the projection of American power. “…all too often the agents of U.S. expansionism have evinced scant concern for the anxiety or outright opposition of nonwestern peoples who have become objects of America’s civilizing projects. And American expansionists have often reflected far too little on the possible long-term consequences of the changes their intrusion have set in motion” (p.16).
Adas argues that the culture of the Native Americans was the reason for the ever expanding European settlements and that the stark differences between themselves and the Natives became a reason to remove them. This is nothing new in history, those who wish to have control over something always find something about their counterparts that will give them reason to "help" them in some form by calling them barbarians or inhuman. As Jessica stated the thought seemed to be the Natives were lazy and wasting the resources they had, thus the Europeans wanted to use those resources. Too often colonialism turns into imperialism as a justification to gain control. The beginnings of US imperialism, acording to Adas seems to come about with the idea that the natives as barbarians or savages can be transfromed into "useful" peoples by converting them to Christianity as a way to tame them. Throughout history those we do not understand seem to be labled as such. The natives were just one more obsticle to overcome to spread America as far as could be taken.
ReplyDeleteAsas’s core argument is to focus on the effects on the technological developed that influenced Anglo-American and U.S. expansion, with respect to, how they interacted with nonwestern people and cultures, and also, how they sought to influence their ideals on nonwestern people and cultures. The first example of the book, Perry opening trade with Japan, illustrated Asas’s core argument. This expedition illustrated the U.S. technological innovations that transformed the U.S. economy making it possible to make it international. Businessmen, merchants, and entrepreneurs saw a diplomatic relation with Japan as advantageous to them. They also saw Japan as a stepping -stone to China. Japan could be used as a “pit stop” on their way to China. This illustrates their expansion economically and expansion to go internationally which was made possible by the technological advancements of the time.
ReplyDeleteWhen the first settlers arrived, they believed that land was sanctioned by God. As they observed the Native Americans around them, they began to think their ways of doing things was backwards in nature and therefore savages. This thinking permitted the colonist to take over Indian lands. In the 19th century, ideology changed. It went from divine mandate to natural law. Industrialization made the central focus of American society science and technology driven growth in productivity and increasing consumption. This can be seen by the paintings listed in the text. The paintings suggest that technology was the focal point, for example the painting on pg. 83. Even when the U.S. was a young nation, one can see that their attitudes and ideology reflected the technological advancements of the time, and the never-ending idea of moving west.
Adas' main argument on Imperialism was based on expanding the use of technological advances from one country to another out west. A prime example that Adas used to support his argument was the Japanese borrowed technological ideas from the Americans. The main reason that the Japanese used their ideas was because the Americans have superior technological and naval commodities, which the Japanese were fascinated with. One of the technological advances that the two countries exchanged with each other was weapons. A prime example that Adas used in the book was the Japanese created an improved version of the sharps' rifle, which was first used by the Americans. Another technological advance that America sent to Japan was the ships. During the 1840's and 1850's, the Americans brought steam powered and Ironclad and Swift Clipper ships to Japan, which give them an 75% increase. The main person that set up most of the trading of America's main commodities to Japan was Matthew Calbraith Perry. Perry's contributions to Japan not only made them to improve technologically, but also improved their naval advances, as well. America's contributions out west had made Japan into one of the most powerful technological and naval countries of the world.
ReplyDeleteWhen referring to U.S. imperialism, Adas seemed to emphasize the expansion of land and the spreading of the civilized way of life. In the chapter “Engins” in the Wilderness, he described how the settlers were mainly worried about advancing into space. They were land-hungry settlers who wanted to exploit the resources and make permanent homes unlike the Native Americans. The settlers thought that the Native Americans were uncivilized, lazy, relied too heavily on hunting, and were continuously on the move. The settlers wanted to help them become more civilized by introducing them to their advanced technology and farming techniques. The settlers were too confident that the Native Americans would be eager to acquire their technology and adopt their farming techniques in order to advance beyond savagery. In the second chapter, Machines and Manifest Destiny, the rationale for many expansionists was natural law. Americans believed that they had the natural right to take full advantage of the resources that nature offered. There was an abundance of resources left untouched by the Native Americans out west. Technological innovations helped speed up westward expansion and helped Americans develop western regions. Americans had the mentality that by doing this, they would be benefiting all of humankind. Although the Native Americans in the west were treated as obstacles, Americans tried to exemplify how to be civilized. Americans believed that the failure of Native Americans to develop the territory that they occupied justified relocating them. Nothing was going to stop Americans from expanding west.
ReplyDeleteSince the arrival of European settlers to America it has been their nature to expand and exploit both the land and the native populations. Adas attributes this expansionist mentality to the advanced technology of the west and the notions of white superiority over other non western groups. Self ordained in their mission the force behind the white settlers expansion was to shine light on the dark represented through the untamed wilderness. The wilderness was viewed much like the natives who inhabited it as uncivilized and barbaric compared to the western example which was the pinnacle of human civilization. This expansionist idea merited on the spread of civilization and American idealism led to the eventual trans-Atlantic push of manifest destiny and dominated the rhetoric and urge to expand the republic in its early days. It is also evident that the expansion of the United States would not tolerate any roadblocks whether indigenous people, geography, or foreign powers based of the virtues of the republic and the divine.
ReplyDeleteI think the Adas' core argument was that the United States' ability to expand was greatly influenced by technology, especially the movement west with easier farming tools and most importantly the railroad. The settlers also justified their expansion through technology. They knew how to deal with land that the Natives just let sit. Technology was also used to make Native populations rely on the settlers. To the settlers technology equaled power.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that the English settlers were superior was supported by the fact that they had better technology, so therefore everything about the English settlers was superior, but in the beginning the superiority had little to do with race, which I found interesting.
The other thing I found interesting was the notion that Natives treated their women badly by making them do work in the fields etc. and how the settlers thought they need to protect and safe the Native women. This idea has been used a lot recently in relation to our involvement with the Middle East, and I didn't know that it had roots going back to colonial times.
In the first chapter, “Engins in the Wilderness,” Adas contextualizes the colonization of the new world through the scope of technology and demonstrates how technology was both motivation and justification for the settlers. Europeans saw the native population as unambitious and backwards and characterized the ways in which they used the land to be hugely wasteful and, by their Christian estimation, sinful. Civilization to the settlers meant the triumph over wilderness with technology, and as the possessors of this technology, they felt it was their right and responsibility to tame and exploit the wilderness of the new continent and in doing, gain possession of the land according to European customs. The second chapter, “Machines and Manifest Destiny,” turns to the push westward, the drive across the continent. Adas includes a number of paintings and lithographs in this chapter that demonstrate the assumption of a “divine right” in the move west (although, my copy doesn’t include any images of paintings by Innesse or Rossiter, which I’d have been interested in seeing).
ReplyDeleteI am extremely impressed with Adas and his explanation of my buddy Matthew Perry and his excursion with the Great White Fleet to Japan. Adas gives an impressive introduction where he explains the United States and her ability to execute pomp and circumstance. Adas explains that Perry's actions, while choreographed showed the Japanese that the US was a serious nation that wished to do business. Furthermore, Japan was watching the United States very carefully through this ceremonial endeavor, sizing up the nation. This was a perfect introduction to an argument that will explain the United States Imperialistic nature and it's transition into an empire.
ReplyDeleteAdas' argument moves forward as he speaks about the settlers and their general perceptions of the New World. Winthrop is mentioned (this man is still honored today with a statue in the US Capitol) as a pioneer who believed that God set this Land aside as a City Upon A Hill for His glory. But this attitude is reflected with the other settlers as well as Adas molds his argument fashioning the Natives as evil creatures that don't know what to do with their wasted land. The explanation of private property is an integral part of Adas' argument, because it contrasts the difference's between the indigenous and the foreigners as clear as Good and Evil. Furthermore, Good and Evil was personified with Technology.
The Native Americans had very "primitive" utensils, using simple rocks, shells and other tools to plow fields. Their slash and burn method (to the Europeans) was a crime against humanity. Furthermore, because they were "wasting" valuable land and time, the "newcomers" believed that God had blessed them to take over the land. A terrible conclusion, but an excellent observation never the less.
I can't help but see this argument (that God has blessed us with a mission) used a few years ago with the Bush Doctrine. While the two are eerily similar, it can only be authentically American, because as Adas points out: this "God-told-me-to-nature" is rooted in our history and blood.
Adas states in the introduction of his book that his focus was on “the motivations technological imperatives supplied and the means they provided for Anglo-American and U.S. expansion.” I believe that he adequately sticks to that initial declaration of his intent by providing stringent, concise, and easy to read narratives about the development and expansion of America. Likewise, I appreciate his own interpretation of the American “empire” and his ability to explain that it does not fit neatly into the predefined definition of empire that many in this country and abroad would like attribute to the U.S. Instead, his ability to show the steady and continually changing application of western expansion in America, on the part of the early colonial settlers and the latter generations of Americans, is extremely useful in understanding how America does not fit the preconceived definition of empire. Adas is also extremely adept at showing also how the early settlers and latter generations also did not feel that they were necessarily building an empire but instead their definition of what their expansionist policies were differed greatly from person to person and generation to generation. I am deeply enjoying this book so far and hopefully it continues to provide great evidence to promote Adas’s initial thesis and outlook on empire.
ReplyDeleteIn the opening introduction, Adas gives an exemplary illustration of one instance in the history of America in which it achieved its goal. Commodore Perry left on a mission to achieve better diplomatic relations with the Japanese and in doing so, he made sure he was aware of their customs and traditions so that he might entice them to oblige. Regardless of these, he made sure he was also well armed and backed by the United States naval fleet and over 100 U.S. marines. He also made sure that he flaunted the technological advancement of the U.S. so that the Japanese were completely aware of what they may be up against if relations went sour. Although this is an example of a peaceful expansion, it is imperialistic in nature given that the U.S. was displaying the inevitable force they could use if necessary.
ReplyDeleteIn “Dominance by Design”, Adas’s central theme throughout is the ways in which the United States achieved expansion and Imperialist status. When the European settlers first came to the “New World”, they were motivated by the endless possibilities that lay ahead of them, including religious freedom, economic advantages and the ability to have a new start. Upon arriving and discovering that this land was already inhabited, the settlers attempted to push their European ways on the Natives. They viewed the natives as being “barbaric” and “savage”, and they classified them in the same categories as the “Mongols, the Turks and other nomads who threatened Christian Europe”. Religion played a major factor in the colonist’s view of being far more superior and advanced than the natives. It has been prevalent throughout history that different cultures clash because of these key elements, and any culture that might be considered different from those of European values or not easily understood are commonly labeled as being inferior, primitive and sometimes even dangerous.
The “Amerindians” maintained a simplistic way of life. They were of a hunter/gather culture, and according to many Europeans, this instilled them as being “primitive” because they hunted their food in the wild as opposed to a more organizational way of raising and herding their own animals. In Chapter 1, Adas refers to two categories of “exotism”, one being the Amerindians and Sub-Saharan Africans and the other being the Mughal Empire in India and the Ming Dynasty of China. As opposed to the more “barbaric and savage” cultures of the Amerindians and the Sub-Saharan Africans, the Asian cultures were viewed as being culturally rich in the aspect of being able to progress over time and contribute culturally to human civilization.
Industrialization and the emergence of new technology paved the way for cultural shifts and to further the notion that white Americans felt far more culturally superior and advanced than those of lower status, including the natives. Adas attributes the process of American expansionism through the use of assimilation. According to the colonist’s view of the natives, they were not making good use of the land that was provided to them by God so in essence it was God’s will for the colonists to acquire and cultivate the land themselves.
From what I can tell, Adas illustrates American imperialism as stemming from some very widespread beliefs held by the English colonists. First, he explains that the English already had what he described as, "deep-seated prejudices against peoples who led a peripatetic existence." Also, he states how the English likened the Indians the Mongols, Turks, and other nomads; peoples that th English considered barbarians.
ReplyDeleteWith this being said, Adas makes the point that it was natural for Americans to feel that it was their right, to some perhaps their duty, to take the land from these barbarians that had failed to utilize its abundant resources and bring "civilization" to these wild lands. By civilization they meant their Western, Anglo-Saxon civilization, which they considered to be the best.
Overall, I found Adas’ argument to be mainly regarding the strategic nature of the United States’ assurance of dominance in the world. According to Adas, the means to which the United States achieved a nearly empire status through manipulation and false promises did not justify the ends in any case.
ReplyDeleteBeginning with the story of Commodore Perry’s mission in the 1850s to Japan, Adas displays the desperation the US had in procuring Japan as a trade partner and how flashy the US is with its technological advances. When Perry rolled up into Japan, he came with over 100 marines, a naval fleet and was well armed. He lured the Japanese into trusting him with knowledge of their culture, when in reality he was metaphorically flexing his muscles. In this way, he was showing that positive relations with the US were in Japan’s better interests, whereas negative relations could end horribly wrong for the Japanese.
With the Native Americans, something similar occurred, as can be evidenced by the United States’ relations with the Native Americans over time. Everyone has heard the story of Thanksgiving. The Europeans/those who would grow to be the foundation layers of the United States became great friends with the Native Americans; however, upon learning about Manifest Destiny and the “right” to expand westward, it is apparent that these relations were really not too pleasant for the Natives, whether it be the commercial from the 70’s of the Native American man crying upon seeing litter or even if you’ve ever seen the play from “Addams Family Values”.
Per Jill's comments:
ReplyDeleteAddams Family Values Thanksgiving:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF_F_zuL4Ik
1970s Anti-Litter Campaign Ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R-FZsysQNw
Adas argued that although Americans at the time warranted their labors as what they thought to be natural expansion, technology was the core belief that the movement westward represented the first signs of imperialism in American westward expansion.
ReplyDeleteOne of Adas’ first examples was Admiral Perry's opening mission to Japan. Adas states that Perry believed US technology would intimidate the Japanese during their conquest. Perry made sure that he paraded the technological advancements of the U.S. so that the Japanese were completely aware of the strengths of the U.S. if relations went awry. Although, this is a situation where passive expansion occurred, it is imperialistic because the U.S. was exhibiting the foreseeable might that would have been used if warranted. I also believe that the pictures were meant to illustrate the technological attraction of U.S. society and the policy makers.
Adas does an excellent job highlighting the methods and methodologies behind America's initial forays into imperialism.
ReplyDeleteHe focuses heavily upon America's near-fanatical devotion to the idea of subjugation and expansion, such to the point that it dictates politics, daily life and nationalistic tendencies. I think it is interesting that he emphasized this aspect of America's spread across the continent and about how the homogenization of natives and other countries into white culture. The desire to see the world remade in an American image was another of the driving forces behind America's Manifest Destiny.
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