Page 14 - Hobe Sound Reflections - October '19

Page 14, Hobe Sound

book REviEW

American Colonies: The learning that the English captured planning war against the other.
One such example was my
But the Indians were wise
Settling Of North America from France the major fortress enough to know this, and they
of Louisburg in 1745, which took full advantage of their
By Nils A. Shapiro effectively meant that Nova own long-established custom
This is not the book I Scotia became part of the English of giving presents as part of
thought it would be when colonies. But Britain returned it every negotiation, then demanding
I purchased it online. to France in 1748 as a bargaining presents from the Europeans, as
Instead, it turned out to chip during another negotiation, well as competitive prices for trade
be very different ... and so to the consternation of the New goods and payments for furs.
much better! England colony. If not for this As for the New England Pilgrims
As regular readers of casual decision, Nova Scotia, just who had come to seek tolerance,
this book review column off the coast of Maine, might well when their number grew to the
have come to know over have been the 14th U.S. state after point that they needed more land
the past 13 years and more the Revolutionary War. for farms, they sent to the West
than 150 issues, I tend What you are most certain to Indies as slaves the Indians who
toward preferring nonfiction, and I find early American take away from this awesomely had initially welcomed and helped
history particularly interesting. The numerous such books comprehensive volume is a view them through their first winters
I have read, and reviewed here, included such bestsellers of American history – indeed, in by teaching them which foods to
as Mayflower, 1776, John Adams, Founding Brothers, as a sense, world history – that is plant, how to hunt and fish the
well as such lesser known but equally informative and rather different from the one we local animals and crustaceans, and
fascinating works as Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions all learned in our school textbooks. shared their first Thanksgiving.
of Jane Franklin (Benjamin Franklin’s sister), and The explorers, and even many of One especially interesting
Reporting the Revolutionary War, an oversized, lavishly our own Pilgrim colonists, do not aspect of early American history
illustrated contemporary view of the war as seen through come off as “heroes” when the facts are laid bare. is the importance that the Europeans placed, beginning
the pages of the colonies’ newspapers of that time. In 1521, the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan had a population in the 1600s, on the West Indies, with their Caribbean
All of these but Mayflower focused on the period of of 200,000 compared to the 70,000 in Spain’s largest city, colonies of Barbados, Jamaica and others for their sugar
the Revolutionary War and events leading to it, while that Seville. When Hernan Cortes’s army entered the city at crops, often far more valuable than any of the 13 we think
volume provided a brilliant background to the founding the invitation of Aztec emperor Moctezuma – who was of today. It was to fill their needs that the West African
of the Plymouth colony in 1620. impressed by these new kind of men with their strange slave trade began and grew rapidly, often encouraged by
So when American Colonies came to my attention beasts (horses), cannons, muskets, steel armor, swords the African chieftains who eagerly sold their own people
as a history of all of the American colonies by Pulitzer – the Spanish soldiers were awed by the cleanliness, the to enrich themselves.
prize-winning author Alan Taylor, I assumed it would be architecture, the fresh water canals, the overall beauty and Soon, the colonization of the Chesapeake, Carolinas
somewhat similar in covering the 13 original colonies organization of the civilization. But Cortes’s greed for and Georgia, ideal for the growing of rice and tobacco so
from early settlement through the Revolution. Wrong! gold resulted in his arranging with nearby Indian tribes much in demand by Europe, increased the need for slaves
The true content of this book is described in its sub- to attack the Aztecs, arrest and murder Moctezuma and to the point where in many places blacks outnumbered
title: The Settling of North America. For this story begins destroy the city. The relevance of this to America is its whites and colonists devised a policy of pitting Indians
about 15,000 years ago, when a land bridge formed by role as the foothold for Spain’s subsequent reach into against blacks, and vice versa, in order to prevent either
the Ice Age allowed humans and animals to cross over what later became New Mexico, and then Baja (Lower/ from joining forces in an uprising.
from what is now Siberia to Alaska and, over time, into Southern) and Alta (Upper/Northern) California. With English, French and Spanish naval fleets
present-day North, Central and South America. Even more harmful than firearms in the long run competing for the rich Caribbean and southern Atlantic
The development of these humans over thousands of was the fact that native peoples had no immunity to the coast trade, the European royal crowns sponsored pirates
years into countless diverse cultures and civilizations germs and diseases brought by the Europeans. By the to interfere with their enemies’ ships. Such famous
– living in different climates; establishing different time the Pilgrims arrived in the early 17th century, about buccaneers as Captain Kidd and Henry Morgan, often
languages; some as hunter-gatherers, others learning to 90 percent of the Indians throughout North America had thought of today as “the bad guys,” had crews that were
grow food – is covered in the book’s opening chapter, died of smallpox and other such plagues! actually comprised of mariners who had deserted royal
and sets the stage for what is to come: As the Age of In this way, the author traces the history of every ships whose captains were loose with their whips and
Exploration from England, Spain, France and Holland territory in North America. The Dutch established the meager with their pay. Pirates instead enjoyed a genuine
beginning in the 15th century overturns the lives of colony of New Netherland, which became New York when camaraderie, and shared their loot equally.
these native, indigenous Americans, the Europeans the English took it over. French fur traders began working From coast to coast, the author presents the vast
will often find, in underestimating the shrewdness and with native Indians on the Atlantic coast of Canada, then panorama of a story that takes us up through Spain’s and
determination of the Indians, that their own attitudes of slowly built small settlements further into the interior Russia’s exploration of California in the 1800s.
superiority and mistreatment will prove costly. until, finally, turning south they built a settlement and As late as 1760, New England colonists volunteered
Apart from the numerous wonderfully helpful maps named it in honor of their king: Louisiana. But each to fight alongside British Redcoats in battle against the
that enhance understanding by showing important places of these was sparsely populated, and overwhelmingly French and their Indian allies in Canada and the northern
and the areas of influence of Indian tribes described in outnumbered by the many Indian tribes that surrounded territories. Yet a scant 15 years later – because the
the text, every one of the 477 pages in the paperback them. English crown had vastly outspent its financial resources
edition offers at least a half dozen interesting facts that I By then, the Indians had come to depend upon the on the American continent and began to increase taxes
had not known, many of them deserving of considerable Europeans for guns, ammunition and such other trade on the colonists – they would be declaring their own
provocative thought. goods as alcohol, cloths and other items, in return for independence and facing those same Redcoats in the
the beaver, otter, deer and other fur skins that they are Revolutionary War. This sweeping narrative is one
adept at hunting and skinning. By tradition in constant that leaves you with a greater understanding of our
war against other tribes, each cannot afford to lose a nation’s history, and – while it does not touch upon the
trading relationship with one or another European partner. Revolution itself, nor the Founding Fathers – it makes
Knowing this, the English and French compete for Indian more abundantly clear than ever the steps that led to it.
allies to help defend themselves, and to have when This is a marvelous and thrilling read.