The Ecological Change Brought on by the Europeans by
Dan HellerImagine yourself coming from an overpopulated, intensely manicured development (typical of many Americans) to an Island of immense vegetation and overgrowth. Your job is to develop a productive colony using these unknown plants. Your only guides are the natives of the land - if they are gentle and willing to help. Now forget all you know about ecology and the importance of cultures and think about what you would probably do. What if you had one more chance to go to your native land and bring back with you a few simple things to make your life easier? What would you bring? Most would probably react the same way the Europeans did, bringing seeds and machinery for cultivation with them. The Europeans may have even gone further than needed in their search for a productive product. Europeans were fearful and distrustful of the wild, natural areas. For example, many Europeans considered mountains to be hideous. This was said of the Alps, and many mountainous areas of Europe (Sale 77). They had this agenda to control whatever they could. If the land looked wild it needed tamed to their ideas, even if this made the ecosystem unstable or less productive. The results of their need for control and their lack of knowledge on ecosystems resulted in a reflux of new plants being imported. The most influential plants were the forage or grazing crops. These were brought because the Europeans wanted their own familiar crops to be in the grazing yards. These plants included white clover and "Kentucky" bluegrass. Ironically the Kentucky bluegrass was named so because it preceded west at a faster rate than the colonists, so when they arrived in Kentucky they found it in abundance and named it so. These plants were introduced at least as early as 1685, when William Penn was noted for trying some in his courtyard (2 Crosby 157). These plants spread with the equivalences of weeds. Imported, overgrazing European animals helped in the quick dispersal of these plants. The effect of these new grasses is hard to determine. Many of the indigenous grasses all but disappeared, except for small-untouched areas. The introduced animals helped to pave the way for many of these new plants (2 Crosby, 157). The animals first overgrazed the native plants, which were not adapted for heavy grazing, and then continued overgrazing created a new niche or specialization. This may alone have wiped the native plants out, or only made the way for the imported grasses that were adapted to heavy grazing. One of the earliest known plants introduced was the Old World Peach. This of course, being a tree, was not as quick to overtake any areas. It did however affect the Native Americans. When the English first entered the interior of Carolina and Georgia, they found the Old World peach thriving in the Natives orchards (2 Crosby 156). This also makes it possible to categorize the Natives as a vector for the spread and growth of non-native plants. The Indians responded in many ways to this influx of new plants. In general the easiest and sometimes only possible way was to accept and, if possible, use the plant to their advantage. Another example of this was of a red-stemmed filaree found in the Sacramento Valley in 1844. John Charles Fremont noticed that the Native squaws ate it with some relish (2 Crosby 153). Before I go into more detail on how these plants affected the Natives I must tell you more about the Native culture. The Indians practiced a sophisticated method of horticulture. It is believed that this horticulture first developed in the rainforest when the Native populations exceeded the carrying capacity. Most of the crops of the Caribbean thrived using their methods. Many of the natives were vegetarians and still had a life of plenty. The Arawak, who were vegetarians, were named so because Arawak means "meal eater". As the name indicates they ate very well (Holubowsky 1). The Indian's culture and governing was very dependant on the plants of the area. Most tribes were ruled by a chiefdom, meaning that the Natives were ruled by someone in their tribe of higher birthright. This created a need for some kind of tax to be enforced. Therefore since plants (mostly squash) were so excessively used, they had a kind of currency among the Natives. Plants that had the most uses in daily life where also often used in religious ceremonies as well. Certain plants were thought to have a spirit within that could increase other crop yields and so on (Holubowsky 2). As you can see the crops and plants around the Natives were wound very deeply into their culture. When the Europeans came they not only changed the plant fauna, but they forced the Natives to grow crops that were not part of their society. This not only destroyed the backbone of their society, but also, in many cases, destroyed their very successful methods of horticulture. The five most commonly cultivated species of squash cultivated by the Natives no longer grow in the wild (Holubowsky 1). Many of the Europeans who brought new plants with them thought it was a gift from God that their plants grew so well. It was merely that the new plants were "created" by human abuse over a larger amount of time in Europe, and therefore were hardy and weed like. The native plants had been affected very little by the careful horticulture practices of Native Americans. This caused the plants to have very specialized and intricate ecosystem making them very sensitive to change. A more complete list of plants brought by the Europeans is as follows (Crosby, 155):
Couch grass Shepherd's purse Dandelion roundsel Sow-thistle Wild arrach Night shade) Nettles stinging Mallowes Plantain Black henbane Wormwood Bloodwort Adder's tongue Knot-grass Cheek-weed Compherie, with the white flower May-weed The great colt-bur Mullin, with the white flower These plants of course are not the complete list. These plants are considered weeds by most or all botanists. Of these the Nettles were the first to be noticed, probably because they caused an uncomfortable stinging to all who touched them. Weeds, of course, are relative to the environment in which they grow. Peach trees were considered weed-like in some areas because of their fertility in those soils. It is also noted that when Columbus made his second journey to the Americas he brought with him the following: wheat, chickpeas, melons, onions, radishes, salad greens, grape vines, and sugar cane (1 Crosby, 67). Except for wheat and sugarcane, these are not widely followed because they were usually contained in smaller, personal gardens. Wheat, being the dietary staple of many Europeans had a very large effect on the ecology. Not because it was weed-like but because of the way it was harvested. Wheat was needed in very large quantities, therefore much woodland was destroyed to create fields for this plant. This not only destroyed native plant habitats, but also created a prime area for new weeds to prosper and go to seed. Sugar cane also had a large effect in much the same way (Wilson, 1). The spread of the new plants, of course, varied. In some cases the plants literally spread like wild fire into the mid-west where they waited for settlers to pick them up and carry them to the west coast. Settlers' animals provided the means for this. Black mustard is one plant that is known to have spread to California this way. "As late as 1769, according to the evidence of plant materials embedded in the adobe bricks of California's oldest colonial buildings, only three European plants were growing there: curly dock, sow thistle, and red-stemmed filaree" (2 Crosby, 152). In 1629, Captain John Smith noticed that most of the wood in and around Jamestown had been cut down and converted to gardens and pastures that contained the same grasses and herbs as in England (2 Crosby 157). From the knowledge of his lifetime we know that this was very early in the settling of the colonies. Plants of the Old World were and still are some of the most effective weeds. "In January of 1832, Lewis D. de Schweinitz, after much research, announced to the Lyceum of Natural History of New York that the most aggressive plants in the northern states of the United States were the foreign weeds, and he provided a list of 137 of them" (2 Crosby, 158). He may have been the first to notice the ignorance of the introduction of new plant species. These foreign plants were just as aggressive in the majority of areas. These weeds generally serve as an intermediate in a recently disturbed land. They quickly take over, but are eventually pushed out by grasses-brush-trees. One example of a very aggressive plant that we all should recognize is the Old World crab grass. This plant, to many green-thumbs horror, takes over many of our yards during the dry summer months. This causes Americans to spend millions of dollars trying to prevent its growth. This shows that our European need for control is still very present. Grains, as I mentioned earlier were brought over by the Europeans for a recognizable, staple crop. The most aggressive weeds were brought over as a result of this. Some weeds were certainly transported along with the wanted seeds, while other were transported by animals, either in the fur or by earlier indigestion. Other seeds were believed to have been brought by accident in the folds of textiles. As I mentioned earlier the grazing or overgrazing practices of the Europeans created a perfect haven for these imported seeds. The idea of burning grasses was practiced by the Natives, but with the introduction of these aggressive weeds this practice also served the weeds well. One weed seeding may produce thousands of seeds, so it did not take much land for these weeds to proliferate. It is easy to criticize the European lack of ecological practices and their poor long-term judgment. I do believe that many knew better than what their actions showed, but it was simply an unorganized expedition. It seemed that no naturalists were taken to the New World or if they were, they were not given hearing. This would have been for all of their eventual benefit. Typical of people of every age, there were many who wanted to quickly satisfy their own needs, unfortunately this time they outweighed and out voiced those who would have been better stewards of this new land. Works Cited
Crosby, A. (1972). The Columbian Exchange. Westport, Conn., Greenwood Pub. Co.
Crosby, A. (1986). Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Holubowsky, Jaymie. (1996). Plants in the New World. http://marauder.millersville.edu~columbus/papers/plants/html
Sale, Kirkpatrick. (1991). The Conquest of Paradise. Plume Books, New York.
Wilson, Matt. (1996). Ecological Impact of the Age of Discovery on the New World. http://marauder.millersville.edu/~columbus/papers/wilson-1.html