Cross-Cultural Exchange

Reevaluating the Role of Native Americans in Pre-Columbian and Post-Columbian History

In J.M. Roberts’ book, The New History of the World, he tackles the formidable subject of rewriting a comprehensive history of humanity. In such a work, it is inevitable that debates will arise, and one in particular examines the impact Native Americans had on the environment. Roberts takes the stance that their impact was minimal, concluding that “although the Indian cultures of North America are respectable achievements in their overcoming of environmental challenge, they are not civilization.” In Roberts’ eyes, the natives of America were at most practicing small-scale agriculture, while the majority still practiced hunting and gathering or found ways to fish in extremely limited capacities. He goes on to refer to such empires as the Incans, Mayans, and Aztecs as “no more than beautiful curiosities,” while providing an almost uninterested view of the entire western hemisphere.

On both sides of the debate lie Alfred Crosby, who agrees with Roberts that the native impact on the environment was minimal, and William Denevan, who believes that the natives drastically altered their surroundings to create a thriving society. However, both authors, and Crosby in particular, disagree with Roberts in his belief that the New World had played no major role in world history. In The Columbian Exchange, Alfred Crosby uses biological and scientific studies to examine the cross-cultural exchange of diseases, plants, animals, ideas, and technology between Europe and the “New World.” It is common knowledge that the European entrance into the western hemisphere disrupted the American equilibrium, and through disease, different styles of warfare, and slavery, the Native Americans were quickly overrun. Throughout the book, Crosby clearly shows the American landscape as untouched and isolated. When Columbus first landed in America, he noticed that “All the trees were as different from ours as day from night, and so the fruits, the herbage, the rocks, and all things.” Although "different" does not necessarily suggest anything regarding environmental impact, Crosby argues that the unique fauna and wildlife were due to sparse population clusters and nature’s ability to evolve independently from the rest of the world over hundreds of thousands of years without human interaction. He supports his scientific evidence with several first-hand accounts of explorers who make no mention of anything more than small subsistence farms and hunter-gatherer communities, describing Indian groups as well-versed in sustaining their lifestyle while making minimal impacts on the environment.

In “The Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in 1492,” geographer William Denevan attempts to debunk the “myth” that the Americas were a “sparsely populated wilderness...of barely perceptible human disturbance.” His article argues against the long-held belief that the Indians lived in total harmony with nature and that the lands discovered by Spanish explorers were virtually untouched by the indigenous people. Using primary and secondary accounts from European explorers and qualified experts, Denevan portrays a land with large populations, fires to make way for agriculture, erosion, roads, and modified vegetation. This controversial work contradicts many of the foremost beliefs that society holds involving Indian lifestyle and Spanish settlement. To sum up his abstract, Denevan writes, “A good argument can be made that the human presence was less visible in 1750 than it was in 1492.” While Crosby’s use of biology to portray history represents a growing trend of experts delving into different subjects to strengthen their assertions, Denevan is a geographer who delves into history. He believes that human involvement greatly affected the New World, even before the arrival of Cortez, and that the Europeans actually reverted America back to its original form. For instance, Denevan mentions the great fields of agriculture, massive areas of forests intentionally burned, a greatly reduced amount of large game, extensive erosion, and widespread settlements throughout the New World. While Crosby portrays America as a generally pristine, unexplored wilderness with small pockets of human existence (with exceptions in the areas around the large civilizations), Denevan suggests that the opposite is true. Until disease, starvation, and exploitation nearly wiped out the Indian population, the indigenous people manipulated the environment to their liking, and a Darwinian evolution of species had already been underway but was dramatically sped up with the arrival of the Spaniards. One example Denevan gives is the evolution of hardwood trees. The Indians’ use of intentional fire to clear land destroyed many of the weaker species, yet strengthened the standing of others, such as Oaks, Redwoods, and Maples, all of which are still around today.

Crosby would describe the New World as generally static, slowly evolving with limited contact between species due to the small number of complex civilizations. Accordingly, the New World was simply waiting for dramatic change to come and uproot the current system. On the other hand, Denevan would propose that the New World was heavily dynamic, helped along by indigenous manipulation of the environment, not unlike the European version of evolution. He would also argue that the arrival of Europeans actually slowed the destruction of the environment and is the reason that much of this evidence, such as massive erosion, charcoal, and farmland, no longer exists today. Pre-Columbian America has kept its reputation of being a pristine, untouched land as forests and grasslands were able to quickly recover from the native manipulation as their numbers dwindled due to the European influx, and this rapid change masked most of the obvious impacts. Crosby and Denevan represent both sides of the debate regarding the impact of natives on the environment, and Roberts’ view most closely resembles that of Crosby in terms of environmental impact. However, Crosby and Roberts sharply differ in their discussion of the overall impact of America on the world. To explain the cultural exchange, Crosby writes, “This Columbian exchange between the Old World and the New brought dramatic and irrevocable change to our entire planet’s history.” On the other hand, Roberts holds little regard for the Americas and their impact on the world, an interesting viewpoint given that his purpose in writing the book was to “avoid detail and to set out instead the major historical processes which affected the largest numbers of human beings.” He further explains his decision to leave out a review of pre-Columbian America by stating that “nothing that happened there between very remote times and the coming of Europeans shaped the world as did the cultural traditions of … Buddha, the Hebrew prophets and Christianity…”

While perhaps the natives did not leave as big a cultural mark on the Europeans as vice versa, Crosby eloquently shows the dramatic impact that occurred when two vastly different groups met after thousands of years of separation. Crosby successfully combines geography, science, and history in a way that both strengthens and focuses his argument, while Roberts writes from a purely historical viewpoint, limiting his ability to see many key aspects in the gradual evolution of history.

The subject of history is a vibrant field in which thoughts are changed, positions are shifted, and unlikely fields meet with a common purpose. Roberts' book, The History of the New World, looks at humanity from a purely historical aspect, relying predominantly on cultural artifacts, primary sources, and other scholars’ works. In a book of this scope, there are many controversial subjects to discuss, and the works by Alfred Crosby and William Denevan arguing the impact on the environment in America might seem inconsequential. However, as a scientist and a geographer, these writers look beyond the typical viewpoint of a historian. Crosby’s ultimate legacy shows the importance of incorporating different fields of study to supplement one’s own. Roberts’ inability to expand his knowledge base leads to his failure to adequately address one of the most important events in history: the cross-cultural exchange between Europe and America.