Response to Changes in the Land

“Economic and ecological imperialisms reinforced each other” (Cronon, 162). Changes in the Land is about environmental history; however, William Cronon focuses on economics more so than the environment. Cronon does, without a doubt, give a voice to the land unlike most authors we have read. However, the agent of change in the book is economics. The land does not simply change overtime by itself. The land changes by the Europeans using it for monetary value. Cronon addressed that the changes of Indian to European dominance in New England entailed changes in the ways those people organized their lives. The Indians used the land to survive, while the Europeans used the land to survive and make money. Therefore, the Europeans were taking more from the land than necessary.

Bloch in Feudal Society does not give a voice to the land; however the land is just as important to the Europeans. The land is cultivated for monetary value, to the lord of course, but still is used to make money. The same can be said about Prescott in History of the Conquest of Mexico. Prescott describes the land in more detail than Bloch simply to give the reader imagery, but the land yet again is used for money purposes. Cortes looked at the indigenous people as backwards like the Europeans looked at the Indians, but they were backwards because they did not use the land to make money. They used the land to survive.