ES Midterm Study Guide1

7/28/2019 ES Midterm Study Guide1

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ES Midterm Study Guide

Fences

Identify

- Made in late 1630s by European colonists who settled in New England- Composed of wood, later switched to stoneHistorical Significance

Cronon: fences created new ecological mosaic that would change New Englandecosystem (pages 119-120, 128-145, 159)

To colonistsrepresented the most visible symbol of an improved landscape John Winthropcolonists denied Native Americans possessed anything other

than a natural right to property in New England because they didnt enclose

crops and didnt keep cattle

Fences and livestock were pivotal elements in the English rationale for takingNative American lands

Colonists held responsible for their animals that destroyed Native Americancornfields (no fences)

o Colonists built fences on behalf of Indian villageso 1653New Haven promised 60 days of labor to build fences for Indians

Gave Native Americans theoretical legal standing Forced Native Americans to conduct their agriculture in a new way

o Adopted fencing as farming strategydifferent from usufruct rights Drew new property boundaries on New England landscape Native plant species didnt survive land that was enclosed for grazing because

animals ate them - introduction of European weeds, grasses, and plants

Deforestationfences initially made entirely of woodo Oak only lasted 6-8 years, chestnut and cedar were longer lasting

Wolvespreyed on cattle because easy to catch in enclosed areaso 1645 - towns offered money to kill themo Created a market for wolves and ensured their extinctiono Colonists used it for justification to drain and clear land

1640 - Fence lawsunfenced properties didnt get legal protection against cattletrespassing

o Increased amount of fences, redrew the New England map Land as a commodity owned by individuals and distinguished between economic

activities and ecological relations

Yeoman Farmer

Identification

Farming as a self sufficient way of life 19th and 20th century - American society changes from agrarian to commercial and

people moved from rural areas to towns


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American citizens became nostalgic about the past, see rural life and farming assacred

Linked to formal philosophy of natural rights to the lando Thomas Jeffersonthe fundamental right to labour the earth

Historical Significance

Change in property valuesoccupancy and use of land are true criteria ofownership so working landholders have special claim to land

Jeffersonians used for strategy of continental development of internal structure ofsmall farms

Recyclic shifting cultivation

Identification

Plots of land cleared for farming or wood harvest, remaining vegetation is burnt,land cultivated temporarily, soil loses fertility, abandoned by humans, reclaimed by

natural vegetation

Used in south for sugar cane (Solomon Northrop reading, pg 209-211)o Land must be ploughed and planted every three yearso Second year produces higher yield and sweeter crop than first year and third

year more than the second

Indians in Northern New England, 1600s (Cronon, pg 45)o No technology to transport fish for fertilizing crop lando Indians abandoned land when soil lost fertility

Indians in Southern New England, 1600s (Cronon, pg 48)o

Mobility of village sites and shift between various subsistence bases European colonists in New EnglandHistorical Significance

Indians use ofRecyclic shifting cultivation in Southern New England, 1600s(Cronon, pg 48)

o Increase available food surpluso Enabled denser Indian populationo Decrease potential strains on ecosystemso Kept overall human burden lowo Clear land for cultivation and concentrating the food base in a specific area

reshaped and manipulated ecosystem

European colonists in New England did not wait as long as the Indians betweencrop cycles, which resulted in:

o Degradation of soil (land) quality and productivityo Deforestation soil erosion because roots no longer hold soil to specific

place, destroys habitat of organisms, loss of biodiversity

o Introduction of exotic weeds


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Native species sometimes arent able to adapt to change in land useo Extinction of some species that inhabited cleared land

Solomon Northup

Identification

Slave of Edwin Epps from 1841-1853 Wrote a first hand account of slavery, crops and life in Louisiana Published 1855Historical Significance

Uses the perspective of the slave to describe life on cotton plantation in Louisiana Primary source, so more trustworthy than Cronon or Spences account of Native

Americans

The detail in descriptions of growing cotton and sugar cane show how that slaveshad a greater understanding of the surrounding environment than the legal ownersof land

o Plantation owners owned more than one plantation and didnt spend asmuch time in fields

Romanticism

Identification

Whoo 1832 - George Catlin in Missouri Rivero 1833 - Thomas Coleo ThoreauWalden

Whato Exalted intuition and personal experience over formalism and scientific

precision

o Celebrated the individual soulthe egotistical sublime Vilified urban life and turned to wild nature for inspiration

o Wild = most direct means for experiencing the Divineo Idea of the natural man as perfect expression of humanity Native

Americans before contact with western civilizations

o Emotional, passionate response to life WhereIn Europe and Western part of America Whensince 18th century, impacted US in 1810sHistorical Significance (Spence pg. 10-12)- Cultural/national idea of wilderness- Differed from European romanticism movementmore distinct kind in America

because of the War of 1812

o Gave a sense of nationalism


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- Had to abide by American cultural ideals of wildernesso Forced to leave when they were no longer a partYellowstone,

Blackfeet, Yosemite- Preserved areas still here today

o Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota-

Ideal wilderness used as symbolism for general unhappiness about Americao No unity among classes and raceso Resultsocial and economical reform

Columbian Exchange

What: -Dramatic widespread trade of exchange of crops, animals,

diseases, human populations, and culture between the New World(The Americas, Pacific & Atlantic islands) and the Old World (Europe,

Africa, Asia).-New World received crops that included corn, avocados and potatosand animals such as domesticated animals such as donkeys, horses,chickens, sheep, dog.-The Old World received crops such as rice, wheat, barley, rye,turnips, tomatoes, maize, etc.-Exchange of diseases: Old World diseases (i.e. smallpox) had adevastating impact on Native Americans (who lacked immunity) in

New World, causing major deaths. The smallpox epidemic wasestimated to decimate 80-95% of Native American populations in aspan of 100-150 years (after 1500s).

Significance:-Introduction of horses in New World changed Native American lifestyle.Horses allowed Indians to travel long distances and hunt Bison and otheranimals-The deaths in New World caused by European diseases paved the way forthe European domination of the New World after the 1600s.

-Increased diversity of foods caused increased trade and activity

First nature/second nature

What: The transformation and reshaping of nature from its natural state(first nature) into commodities (second nature) that are bought, sold and


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traded.4 Examples:(1) Wheat is transformed in Bread, (2) Beavers are made into beaver hats,(3) Sea otters are turned into waterproof coats and otter pelts (4) Whalesare used to produce Ambergris, Baleen and Whale Oil.

Significance:-Nature is turned into commodities that are traded in global markets andsupply demand of a commodity (Sea Otter pelts in New World supplieddemand for otter pelts in China)-At times, can disrupt ecology of an area (Sea otters are keystone speciesand when removed from ecological system, causes cascade reaction andfundamental changes)-Demand and trade of second nature goods caused populations of

animals/plants to go extinct or be severely affects (i.e. Beaver skins in the1600s in Cronan)

Rice plantationsWhat: -Rice plantations were the main crop of the South. Plantations were

set up in orderly grids-Flow of nutrients from the North allowed rice to be grown all yearround without needed crop rotation system as seen in the North-Used a Tidewater rice irrigation system that made use of the coastal

tides-Used a Task system of slavery where workers are given tasks tocomplete, which can vary and have a wide range.-After Civil war, plantations collapsed due to lack of cheap labour andslaves expert knowledge

Significance:-Because Europeans lacked the expertise for rice cultivation, slaveswere brought over from Africa for their knowledge of the tidewatersystem and rice cultivation, and to meet the large labour requirement

of this system.-This brought about class differences between blacks and whites, andquestions of morality since Africans had dire living conditions. Thesetensions paved the way for the civil war

Henry David Thoreau


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What: A writer, naturalist and environmentalist. His writings reflect on thenatural surroundings and often contain personal experiences,observations and themes about simple living in nature. He writesabout the Maine Woods in Ktaadn where he reflects on his journeythrough the woods using vivid descriptions and a focus on the naturalsurrounding.

Significance:-Thoreaus extensive writings on nature, natural history andenvironmentalism inspired the preservation of nature and put forth the

idea that nature is of beauty and value.

Pastoral

What: -A type of farming that involves domesticated animals or livestock(such as pigs, sheep, oxen, cows) grazing pasture. Europeans broughtover domesticated animals to North America in the 1500s and Pastoralfarming dominated the landscape from the 1600s to the 1700s.-Pastoral farming required fences to keep livestock from damaging crops

The Cornel Farm by Edwards Hicks depicts pastoral farming and displaysthe immense valued livestock had in the 1600s.

Significance: -Was key in transforming the land from a patchwork/maizelandscape to a World of fields and fences where the land was dominatedby running fields of pasture-Introduction of domesticated animals allowed fields to be plowed at amuch faster rate, therefore transforming the land-Pastoral farmers were required to build fences, which affirmed theEuropean ideology of property rights in North America.

Neo-Europe

-Colonists brought with them the belief that man should shape nature to his

advantage. This manifested itself in the accounts of colonists upon arriving in

America, noting the presence of resources that they valued In Europe.

-They saw vast expanses of trees, plentiful game for hunting; items that they could

harvest, collect, and accumulate to enhance their lives and create wealth according

to the European sense of wealth. These commodities were largely seen as separate

from nature, resources waiting to be extracted and put to productive use. This


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reaction to the eastern North American environment was shaped by the resources

that were valuable and scarce in Europe.

-Colonists appreciation for the land and nature was confined to what sorts of

resources the land could produce.

Lowell Mills

-mill town in Lowell, Massachusetts-used young, single women from the MA countryside for cheap labor

-was seen as a social reform, a new kind of capitalism

-a closely supervised, wholesome and moral atmosphere

-mill workers end up missing nature, writing letters home to relatives about how

they miss open space and more natural surroundings

-one of the first industrialized towns in the U.S.

Southern Tradition of Environmental Determinism

-The environmental conditions in the South, such as long summers, the soil fertility,

the type of rain, etc. were ideal for tobacco and cotton

-The environmental determinism view essentially holds that due to the favorable

environmental conditions, southerners were destined to use the land as they did(using land until it was unproductive and moving onto new land) and using slaves

-implies that southerners were forced into the practice of slavery because of env.

conditions, does not give any agency to the slave holders and doesnt deal with

causation.

-a dated tradition that is dangerous to use to try to explain because it removes

culpability on the part of the slave owners

George Perkins Marsh

-Acknowledges the negative environmental impacts that human influence had on

lands in the Roman Empire

-Introduction to Man and Nature is written by him, only 8 pages, worth looking over

-Important because Marsh recognized that humans could be destructive to nature,which could have served as a warning for what would unfold in the United States.

The overwhelming sentiment in the time period was that nature was too big to be

negatively impacted by human activities. Nobody considered long-term

consequences, or considered that they might run out of resource.

Wilderness

-the concept of wilderness is an understanding that there is untouched land, which

is a false reality. In most cases, land considered wilderness is actively used by Native

Americans who have shaped the land.

-as people move westward, they see the Rocky Mountains and are proud of the vast

expanses of land that is seemingly devoid from human influence and disturbance,

uninhabited by humans-there is a deep, intense feeling of nationalism associated with wilderness, people

feel that a connection to the wilderness is an essential part of being an American

-wilderness means different things to different people at different times, it is a social

construct that represents other social issues of the time period.


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Virgin soil epidemic

What: European settlers brought European diseases to Native Americanpopulations that had never been exposed to them before. Native

American populations were profoundly affected, with sometimes an

entire tribe dying off at once. The impact of each epidemic dependedon the location and lifestyle of each Native American group - forexample, Northern Native Americans lived in smaller groups that weremore spread out, so they didnt die off as rapidly as Southern groupswhose farming kept them in larger, more settled communities for at

least part of the year.

Significance: European settlers saw the massive elimination of the NativeAmerican population by disease as a confirmation of European right tothe land. God-given or not though, the virgin soil epidemic definitely

cleared the land of people, allowing new settlers to take over whathad once been Native American land.

Municipal water in Boston

What: In the 1840s the Cochituate Aqueduct was constructed to distributewater around Boston.

Significance: The conception of water as property and power. Water drives

development as it allows for faster transportation.

Cotton kingdom

What: The Southern U.S. became a cotton kingdom in the mid 1800sbecause of the Souths long growing season and cottons non-perishability that made it a valuable export. By 1860, cotton comprisedover half of American exports.

Significance: Cotton expansion prompted the removal of Native American

tribes (e.g. Trail of Tears), and ravaged the soil. Cotton is known as aheavy feeder and a soil miner, meaning it saps the soil of nutrientsvery quickly, forcing farmers to move or turn to outside sources of

fertilizer like guano.

Sublime

What: Wilderness as an awesome and religious experience. Part of the


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transcendentalist view of nature as divine. Emerson and Thoreaualong with other followers of Transcendentalism and Romanticism.

Significance: Pushback against the social and industrial change in the early19th

century. Reversal of the earlier Judeo-Christian thought thatwilderness was evil and needed to be subdued.

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