Essay - Civil War Summary: Chapters 1 & 2 of the Boisterous...

Civil War

Summary: Chapters 1 & 2 of The Boisterous Sea of Liberty (pp. 31-83)

The coming ***** the Europeans and Africans to the New World: Issues crucial in understanding this period of time

They have no iron, steel, or weapons, nor are *****y capable of using them" (Davis ***** Mintz 32).This phrase of Christopher Columbus briefly and terribly sums up the attitude of ***** Europeans to the inhabitants ***** ***** New World. European colonialists and explorers regarded the native inhabitants of the Americas as inferior beings. Native cultures were to be judged solely upon how perfectly they embodied a European model of civilization. Unsurprisingly, these indigenous **********, both those of Central as well as North America, ***** seen as lacking. ***** Americans were seen as militarily, intellectually, and therefore culturally defenseless in the face of European might.

When ***** natives were amicable in their attitude towards European explorers, this w***** seen as 'pro*****' of native childishness and their primitive nature. When the native populations defended themselves, ***** was ***** as 'proof' of native savageness. For example, when ***** observed that the first individuals he encountered "invited" his men to "share," t***** was not seen as kindness, but evidence of childishness ***** their fitness as a "potential labor source" (Davis & Mintz 33-34). Thus America was perceived as a kind ***** paradox: it ***** a Garden of Eden, uncivilized rather than possessing a different kind of civilization and ripe for the taking—or it w***** a terrible, foreboding ***** heathenish place that deserved to ***** tamed, that must be tamed in the name of Christianity and progress.

Even those ***** explorers who ********** idealized the original residents of ***** Americas saw them as living remnants of an earlier stage of human development. Those who despised them saw them ***** sources of potential profits. Regardless, the original inhabitants were seen only in relation to ***** ***** ***** terms of European needs, ***** as ***** worthy of equal treatment with a valid claim to the land on which ********** dwelled. The *****s saw America as a place of liberty, freedom from "Old World laws, customs doctrines," where "scarcity gave way to abundance" and part of this myth of American freedom w***** ***** no human being of value or c*****sequence o*****ned that land (Davis & Mintz 32). America was a l*****nd without laws, ********** with ***** laws of different peoples.

One ***** the reasons for the pervasiveness of this ideology in the European consciousness was due ***** the greater hunger for wealth ***** escalated exponentially in ***** centuries after the 'discovery' of the New *****. ***** English poor experienced a r*****pid increase as colonization began in earnest. The enclosure movement ***** England had drastically reduced the availability ***** grazing land for livestock. Thus, by the time of the first settlements in Jamestown, many Englishmen were eager to settle into Virginia, despite ***** fact that the land was unknown and the horrific conditions *****y faced. These early colonists found it difficult to find a feasible