Natives & Newcomers, Chapter 4 & 5

Industrial Revolution

Innovation in manufacturing, mining, transportation, communications, commerce, and society
International trade
More goods available to the masses
Political revolutions
Allowed people to make more $, pay less taxes, trade with more people
Better roads = More, safer travel
Population growth
Farmers move to cities
Less Plague, more people

Agricultural Revolution

In Europe, new plants and growing techniques increased production (corn, potatoes, manure)
Commercial Revolution
1626: 8000 beaver skins sold in Fort Orange and New Amsterdam
1650s: 46,000 skins sold in Fort Orange alone
1620s: 10,000 skins sold by Hurons to Quebec
1640s: 30,000 skins
1750s: Cherokee hunters killed 12 deer/year

Why over-hunt? “Many Things which they wanted not before because they never had them . . . become necessary both for their use & ornament.” (107)
Supply & Demand
“The English have no sense; they give us twenty knives like this for one Beaver skin.” (107)
“The Indians ar[e] now so well seen Into our tradinge Commoditiies, that heare is litle to be got by yt.” (108)
Natives first wanted precise metal tools: axes, hatchets, awls, chisels, knives, hoes, kettles
Loose-fitting clothing is often not preserved
Natives created jewelry out of coins, thimbles, pins
Alcohol became a vital trading good

Changes

Europe became an Indian Wal-mart. Ben Franklin: “artificial Wants” (120)
Mirrors made men vain
Trade doubled while Indian populations halved
Indian “degeneration”
After raw materials depleted, “natives were left with nothing to sell but their land, their labor, or their military services” (118)
Massive debts; Indian “revitalization”

Chapter 5: Making Do - includes classwork not listed here

Examples of overhunting
Natives purchasing European goods
Mirrors
Clothing
Metal goods
Jewelry
“Artificial wants”

Trading strategies – both sides
Indian debts
Changing traditions
Indian burials
Indian foods
Native “Revitalization” attempts
Why did some Europeans not want to conquer Indian lands?