Colonial Ecology, Atlantic Economy: Transforming Nature in Early New England (Early American Studies)

__Colonial Ecology, Atlantic Economy__ focuses on New England's largest watershed to explore how the participation of Native nations and English settlers in local, regional, and transatlantic markets for colonial commodities transformed the physical environment in one corner of the rapidly globalizing early modern world. __Colonial Ecology, Atlantic Economy__ focuses on New England's largest watershed to explore how the participation of Native nations and English settlers in local, regional, and transatlantic markets for colonial commodities transformed the physical environment in one corner of the rapidly globalizing early modern world.

Focusing on the Connecticut River Valley—New England's longest river and largest watershed— Strother Roberts traces the local, regional, and transatlantic markets in colonial commodities that shaped an ecological transformation in one corner of the rapidly globalizing early modern world. Reaching deep into the interior, the Connecticut provided a watery commercial highway for the furs, grain, timber, livestock, and various other commodities that the region exported. Colonial Ecology, Atlantic Economy shows how the extraction of each commodity had an impact on the New England landscape, creating a new colonial ecology inextricably tied to the broader transatlantic economy beyond its shores.

This history refutes two common misconceptions: first, that globalization is a relatively new phenomenon and its power to reshape economies and natural environments has only fully been realized in the modern era and, second, that the Puritan founders of New England were self-sufficient ascetics who sequestered themselves from the corrupting influence of the wider world. Roberts argues, instead, that colonial New England was an integral part of Britain's expanding imperialist commercial economy.

Imperial planners envisioned New England as a region able to provide resources to other, more profitable parts of the empire, such as the sugar islands of the Caribbean. Settlers embraced trade as a means to afford the tools they needed to conquer the landscape and to acquire the same luxury commodities popular among the consumer class of Europe. New England's native nations, meanwhile, utilized their access to European trade goods and weapons to secure power and prestige in a region shaken by invading newcomers and the diseases that followed in their wake. These networks of extraction and exchange fundamentally transformed the natural environment of the region, creating a landscape that, by the turn of the nineteenth century, would have been unrecognizable to those living there two centuries earlier.

Focusing on the Connecticut River Valley—New England's longest river and largest watershed— Strother Roberts traces the local, regional, and transatlantic markets in colonial commodities that shaped an ecological transformation in one corner of the rapidly globalizing early modern world. Reaching deep into the interior, the Connecticut provided a watery commercial highway for the furs, grain, timber, livestock, and various other commodities that the region exported. Colonial Ecology, Atlantic Economy shows how the extraction of each commodity had an impact on the New England landscape, creating a new colonial ecology inextricably tied to the broader transatlantic economy beyond its shores. This history refutes two common misconceptions: first, that globalization is a relatively new phenomenon and its power to reshape economies and natural environments has only fully been realized in the modern era and, second, that the Puritan founders of New England were self-sufficient ascetics who sequestered themselves from the corrupting influence of the wider world. Roberts argues, instead, that colonial New England was an integral part of Britain's expanding imperialist commercial economy. Imperial planners envisioned New England as a region able to provide resources to other, more profitable parts of the empire, such as the sugar islands of the Caribbean. Settlers embraced trade as a means to afford the tools they needed to conquer the landscape and to acquire the same luxury commodities popular among the consumer class of Europe. New England's native nations, meanwhile, utilized their access to European trade goods and weapons to secure power and prestige in a region shaken by invading newcomers and the diseases that followed in their wake. These networks of extraction and exchange fundamentally transformed the natural environment of the region, creating a landscape that, by the turn of the nineteenth century, would have been unrecognizable to those living there two centuries earlier.

Focusing on the Connecticut River Valley-New England's longestriver and largest watershed- Strother Roberts traces the local,regional, and transatlantic markets in colonial commodities thatshaped an ecological transformation in one corner of the rapidlyglobalizing early modern world. Reaching deep into the interior,the Connecticut provided a watery commercial highway for the furs,grain, timber, livestock, and various other commodities that theregion exported. Colonial Ecology, Atlantic Economy showshow the extraction of each commodity had an impact on the NewEngland landscape, creating a new colonial ecology inextricablytied to the broader transatlantic economy beyond its shores.

This history refutes two common misconceptions: first, thatglobalization is a relatively new phenomenon and its power toreshape economies and natural environments has only fully beenrealized in the modern era and, second, that the Puritan foundersof New England were self-sufficient ascetics who sequesteredthemselves from the corrupting influence of the wider world.Roberts argues, instead, that colonial New England was an integralpart of Britain's expanding imperialist commercial economy.

Imperial planners envisioned New England as a region able toprovide resources to other, more profitable parts of the empire,such as the sugar islands of the Caribbean. Settlers embraced tradeas a means to afford the tools they needed to conquer the landscapeand to acquire the same luxury commodities popular among theconsumer class of Europe. New England's native nations, meanwhile,utilized their access to European trade goods and weapons to securepower and prestige in a region shaken by invading newcomers and thediseases that followed in their wake. These networks of extractionand exchange fundamentally transformed the natural environment ofthe region, creating a landscape that, by the turn of thenineteenth century, would have been unrecognizable to those livingthere two centuries earlier.

Contents 5 Introduction. Conflicts, Choices, and Change 9 Chapter 1. Hunting Beaver: The Postdiluvian World of the Fur Trade 29 Chapter 2. Raising Crops: Feeding the Market 66 Chapter 3. Gathering Firewood: Scarcity Amid Abundance 105 Chapter 4. Felling Timber: Profits and Politics 135 Chapter 5. Keeping Livestock: A Commerce in Beasts Domestic and Wild 170 Epilogue. A New Era in the Life of the River 209 Notes 219 Index 265 Acknowledgments 277