William Cronon Changes In The Land Summary

William Cronon’s Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England mainly talks about how the arrival of the Europeans made dramatically changes to the new world with their arrival. In his thesis Cronon expresses the main effects of this changes, "the shift from Indian to European dominance in New England entailed important changes well known to historians in the ways these peoples organized their lives, but it also involved fundamental reorganizations less well known to historians in the region's plant and animal communities" (Cronon vii). Cronon teaches us the ecological history from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century in the New England. When the Europeans arrived in New England they found “a landscape endowed so astonishingly with abundance” (Cronon 33). When they saw New England so rich on natural resources they were amaze to why the Indians lived the way they did. Indians knew the land better than anyone. They only owned what they could carry with them. This was much easier for them to travel, as they had to migrate during the warm and cold months. That was the only way they could survive. Indian’s and Europeans have major differences in their cultures. These differences were seen through how they used the land and the reasons for that …show more content…
It’s so interesting to know how the natives use the land to survive. One main difference between the two groups was agriculture. The southern Indians had a warmer climate then the northern Indians. The southern Indians relied heavily on their agricultural life style. The northern Indians use to gather in small groups during winter so that the food they had hunted could last them longer. On the other end the southern Indians had the knowledge of agriculture, and they also knew how to hunt so they would gather more food, and were able to feed a bigger crowd during