Both Native Americans and Europeans are guilty of altering the non-human world around them, using the land for food and shelter, but the extent of the changes differ, as well as their motives. Native Americans survived off of the land, hunting and growing their food, but they also held a very strong spiritual connection to it, where the Europeans saw profit, they saw a long history of culture. European alterations to the environment in the New World were more severe than the Native American’s, mainly because they exploited the land for profit, depleting the soil as well as animal populations. Native American culture was entirely shaped by their American surroundings, while Europeans came to the New World with a pre-established culture from
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Once the newcomers learned how to survive in what they viewed as a very wild, uncivilized place, they began to increase in population, as well as greed. In Peter A. Thomas’ article, The Fur Trade, Indian Land and the Need to Define Adequate “Environmental” Parameters, he discusses the relationship of trade between Native Americans and Europeans, but also mentions the land used up by the colonists. According to Thomas, “by 1664, the English were employing over 12,000 acres, divided between agricultural fields, houselots, woodlots, and open pasture.” That sizable amount of land required a large amount of deforestation, turning the majority of the acreage from woodlands into starkly open lots. While the beginning of European agriculture in America was simply to sustain each family, this shifted towards the end of the colonial period when profits could be made with increased production. For instance, Judd indicates how with growing market opportunity “farmers demanded more from the soils, and within a generation or two, much of the land was exhausted.” Because European settlements and fields were not more mobile like the Native’s, their impact on the land could be argued to have been more significant, extending the carrying capacity and depleting the soil
Once the newcomers learned how to survive in what they viewed as a very wild, uncivilized place, they began to increase in population, as well as greed. In Peter A. Thomas’ article, The Fur Trade, Indian Land and the Need to Define Adequate “Environmental” Parameters, he discusses the relationship of trade between Native Americans and Europeans, but also mentions the land used up by the colonists. According to Thomas, “by 1664, the English were employing over 12,000 acres, divided between agricultural fields, houselots, woodlots, and open pasture.” That sizable amount of land required a large amount of deforestation, turning the majority of the acreage from woodlands into starkly open lots. While the beginning of European agriculture in America was simply to sustain each family, this shifted towards the end of the colonial period when profits could be made with increased production. For instance, Judd indicates how with growing market opportunity “farmers demanded more from the soils, and within a generation or two, much of the land was exhausted.” Because European settlements and fields were not more mobile like the Native’s, their impact on the land could be argued to have been more significant, extending the carrying capacity and depleting the soil