1) William Cronon uses three kinds of data in his book Changes in the Land, why?

a) To provide amusing information to entertain the reader.

b) To find ways of confirming accounts and obtaining more detailed accuracy than would other
wise be possible with only one source.
c) To provide an insight into the accuracy of how people thought about their environment during the colonial
period.
d) To justify the expenses he incurred undertaken in writing and researching the book.
2) In this class we have argued that environmental problems come directly from
a) overpopulation, overconsumption, and industrial outputs.
b) resource depletion, bad science, and inefficient technologies.
c) imperialism, capitalism and too much government.
d) none of the above.
3) Environmental history
a) combines natural science and social science.
b) explores the way society is affected by nature.
c) explores the way that nature is affected by society.
d) all of the above.
4) What makes Cronons book different from traditional historical accounts?
a) His detailed account of great individual Europeans and their impact in the ecologies of New England.
b) His detailed account of how humans have always impacted the environment.
c) His detailed account of how the Indians confronted and adapted to the European settlement.
d) His detailed account of how human-nature relationships are influenced by both human and by
non-human agency.
5) How does Cronon see humanity in relation to Nature?
a) Separate from nature: humans have a concrete and usually negative impact upon pristine environments.
b) Both separate from and part of nature: even though humans have a concrete impact upon the
environment there is still some untouched and pristine natural environments.
c) Humans are part of nature: humans have always modified, and been affected by, ecological
conditions.
d) In the colonial period humans were more a part of nature than we are in modern times and that the
question is an awkward one to ask.
6) When there is only one physical space and two different cultures with two different social ecologies, the
likely result seems to be:
a) harmony between the cultures and environments.
b) compromise between the cultures.
c) conflict between the cultures.
d) two separate and distinct cultures in the same space.
7) Among all the commodities produced in colonial New England, the one that served not only as a means of
consumption but also as a primary source of trade, income, and environmental transformation was
a) Crops.
b) Fur.
c) Timber.
d) Cattle.
8) Sachems are important because
a) they are the bags Indians used to carry furs in.
b) they were the important Quaker justices that interceded in property disputes between the Northern New
England Indians and the colonial settlers.
c) they embodied Indian political authority.

d) these were Indians that obtained great wealth and stored it in permanent lodges in the permanent
settlements.
9) Which terms best describe that condition when people have access to the common use of land based on
custom, tradition, and history?
a) Land held by title and deed.
b) Communal property.
c) Usufruct rights.
d) The grants given by King George to the colonist.
10) The Indians held little property but the rule of usufruct meant that
a) they had access to all property held by other Indians.
b) they had access to property improved by the colonists.
c) they could appeal to the King of England for help during the ecological crisis of 1646.
d) they could count on using any portion of natures resources provided they werent in
immediate use by another person.
11) The fundamental difference in the notion of wealth between the Indians and the colonialists was
a) that Indian notions of needs were exclusively based on the natural cycles of the seasons and the
availability of resources.
b) that colonist notions of needs were based solely on the accumulation of material belongings and was
therefore more sedentary.
c) as Sahlins says Wants may be easily satisfied either by producing much or desiring little
(80) and the colonists sought to produce more and the Indians to desire little.
d) that there is no fundamental difference.
12) Among other things, what did the colonists NOT understand about New England?
a) There was abundant nature, but scarce society as they knew it.
b) That natural wealth varied widely across space and time.
c) That either a different kind of society, or a different kind of nature, would have to be produced for New
England to become a sustainable colonial settlement.
d) All of the above.
13) Rising population leads to increased ecological damage
a) always.
b) according to Cronon.
c) everywhere.
d) sometimes.
14) Sovereignty and property are
a) two sides of the same ecological relationship.
b) political and economic terms, respectively, for control of spaces and resources.
c) social and political terms , respectively, for control of spaces and resources.
d) all of the above are wrong.
15) Indians made collective decisions as
a) a tribe.
b) a people.
c) a nation.
d) a village.
16) Place names served the peoples of New England as a means to
a) create a mental map for identifying natures bounty.
b) as boundaries for different kinds of activities to took place.
c) as a reference for what could be obtained at different places.
d) all of the above.

17) Liebigs Law describes the process where

a) fire and water interact to create phlogiston.
b) smaller animals working in packs can reproduce more rapidly than solitary creatures.
c) that the capacity to support a population is dependent on the resources available during the most
abundant period.
d) that a population will only grow in relation to the least amount of resources seasonally
available to an environment.
18) Which factor contributed to the high death rates among the Indians?
a) their use of domesticated animals.
b) their low population densities.
c) a lack of acquired immunity passed from mother to child.
d) their cultural practices that included bonding through shared blood.
19) What were the results of high mortality following epidemics in Indian villages?
a) as many as 80 to 90 percent of the people died.
b) often whole villages were destroyed.
c) the Indians were left spiritually and emotionally devastated.
d) all of the above.
20) Diseases did not have which of the following consequences?
a) Recognition by the Indians that Europeans were responsible for their death rates.
b) Reorganization of political alliances between villages, that contributed to Indians moving to more dense
and less mobile settlement patterns.
c) The loss of faith in traditional religious practices and the demoralization of Indian survivors.
d) Sympathy on the part of colonist that recognized the inalienable rights of Indian usufruct
over the land.
21) Prior to colonial contact, Indian social life did NOT generate which of the following kinds of economic and
ecological life?
a) Living in small political units, the Indians were able to reach consensus on usufruct that guaranteed
access to the land by village members.
b) The Indians sought to balance their needs and efforts, restraining themselves from over-consuming the
bounty of the land.
c) The Indians sought from the land only those things that they could use.
d) The Indians hunted and grew products primarily for exchange in order to accumulate
commodities for the purpose of gaining prestige.
22) The epidemics brought many changes to the land. Which of the following is an accurate description of
the changes?
a) Fewer Indians meant the ecology could return to a natural state, which was good for the forest and the
animals.
b) Fewer Indians meant that the norms and sanctions governing the use of nature disappeared,
and that new leaders sought prestige through economic exchange with the colonists.
c) With the exchange of products a value was placed on the animals and forest products that made their cost
prohibitively expense, and thus lead to their conservation.
d) Colonists were finally able to see the beneficial things the Indians had done for the land, and appreciated
them more fully.
23) Beavers, white pines, and other natural goods were commodities traded between Indians and colonists.
How did this change the land?
a) Colonists couldnt afford to attain them, thus it didnt change the land.
b) Enterprising colonists entered into exchange with Indians so everyone could share the wealth. And the
Indians served as protectors of the land in this interaction.
c) Colonists, seeking to pay off their bills, put pressure on the Indians and Nature to expand

hunting. The land was hurt by the exchange of goods previously protected by Indian customs,
values and norms.
d) Indians resisted the entreaties for exchange of goods. Thus they limited the impact on the land for as long
as possible.
24) Cronon compares land rent and labor between England and New England to explain the greater waste of
agricultural lands in New England. He concludes that
a) New England had high land costs, and low labor costs.
b) New England had low land costs, and low labor costs.
c) New England had high land costs, and low labor costs.
d) New England hand low land rent costs, and high labor costs.
25) According to Maurice Godelier, natural resources are a result of broad social definitions. What defined the
natural resources in colonial New England?
a) The individual familys needs.
b) The extended familys desires, up to and including all the colonists of a village.
c) The needs that both the colonists and the Indians had for clothing, food, and other items.
d) The entire host of nations and peoples that came into contact with colonies through trade, up
to and including African, Europe, and the islands of the Caribbean.
26) Cronon argues that changes in the New England ecology were
a) solely the result of European capitalism.
b) purely the result of natural forces set in motion during the Ice Age.
c) a complex interaction that had multiple causes fostered by agricultural practices and unique
historical conditions for the production of commodities.
d) not really significant and had little real impact on the land.
27) Before Teddy Roosevelts Presidency there had been no conservation laws in North America.
a) True, Roosevelt wanted to stop the hunting of wild game.
b) False, the King of England and Parliament established such laws.
c) True, Roosevelt was a deep ecologist.
d) False, private property leads land-owners to conserve resources.
28) Deforestation did NOT have which of the following effects?
a) Increased soil erosion from wind and water.
b) Increase in sedimentation rates in rivers and streams.
c) Replacement of some tree species for others.
d) Increased absorption rate for rain.
29) The settlers saw deforestation and predator hunting
a) as a bad thing.
b) as progress towards civilizing New England.
c) as the root of their ecological problems.
d) as connected to the emergence of colder winters, hotter summers and more flooding.
30) Garret Hardin explained that the tragedy of the commons was
a) the breakdown of the family in colonial New England.
b) the loss of romantic love with the passing of Queen Victoria.
c) the environmental destruction of land held in common because no one owned it.
d) the habit of poor people to hang out with people of their own kind.
31) Cronon argues that domesticated animals were useful to the colonists for all of the following except
a) expanding cultivation of the land.
b) obtaining hard currency through trade.
c) bring goods to market.
d) fox hunting during the winter.

32) Soil compaction had consequences for the land. Which of the following is NOT one of them?
a) The soil became harder and thus held less oxygen.
b) The soil was able to concentrate nutrients and maintain the same level of productivity.
c) Harder soil created toxins that made the land less useful.
d) The soil was much easier to erode.
33) Colonial agricultural techniques had which of the following effects on New Englands ecology?
a) Their techniques brought the best out of the land as they used scientific farming practices.
b) Their activities had the consequence of increasing the numbers of valuable native New England plant and
animal species.
c) Their activities consciously remade the New England ecology into something entirely different.
d) Their activities create a different ecology through multiple causes which had both intended
and unintended consequences.
34) In New England, two different property regimes confronted one another: that of usufruct and private
ownership. What does usufruct imply for the Indians?
a) The right to alienate the land and its products in the name of commodity exchange.
b) The right to use the products of the land in a socially, as opposed to economically
determined, way.
c) The right to set clear and unchanging boundaries along different political units.
d) Both b and c are correct.
35) From our discussions of the population issue in the case of New England we can conclude:
a) when population goes up, environmental degradation goes up as well.
b) when population goes up, environmental degradation goes down.
c) when population goes down, environmental degradation goes up.
d) when population goes down, environmental degradation goes down as well.
36) The use of wampum as an universal exchange (money), which arose after the arrival of the settlers,
meant which of the following things for the Indians?
a) The possibility of social mobility due to the symbolic power associated to wampum.
b) The disruption of their political system due to the increased number of individuals with
wampum, previously a possession of only a few, high status Indians.
c) The barging power necessary to confront the colonlists in trade relations.
d) Both a and c are correct.
37) Because of low settler populations
a) industrial technological innovations were developed in colonial times.
b) the Indians embraced domestic livestock as a labor-saving device.
c) sawmills and flour mills were frequently set up along rivers.
d) environmental changes were very limited during settler times.
38) Why was white pine so important for the English?
a) It was needed to use it as fuel, which was extremely scarce in Europe.
b) Since it was one of the tallest trees in New England it was highly valued for the construction of houses in
both England and New England.
c) Since it was one of the tallest trees in New England it was highly valued for the construction
ships.
d) It was highly valued because it provided one of the finest sources of wood for furniture in Europe.
39) What is the basic structure of Cronons book proposed by Prof. Rudy?
a) Nature, Society, Politics, Economics.
b) Economics, Society, Politics, Nature.
c) Nature, Politics, Economics, Society.
d) Economics, Nature, Society, Politics.

40) Cronon says the ecological changes connected with European livestock populations and diseases
a) are directly connected to the rise of capitalism.
b) are part of the relationship between ecological and economic imperialism.
c) cannot be connected to capitalism in any way.
d) are a result of the inability of Indians to adapt to colonist lifeways.
41) By European standards, the Indian
a) approach to agriculture was disorderly.
b) approach to hunting was lazy.
c) women were underworked and their land overworked.
d) a and b are correct.
42) English technology was generally superior to Indian technology. Which of the following is also true:
a) The English were better fur hunters than the Indians.
b) The English had a more sustainable agriculture than the Indians.
c) The English settlers often relied on Indians for food and furs.
d) The English traded throughout the New England ecologies and the Indians did not.
43) After reading Cronon, environmental problems can be said to simply emerge from
a) capitalism.
b) bad technology.
c) livestock.
d) none of the above.
44) The deforestation of New England
a) was driven primarily by agricultural and firewood cutting.
b) was unique among the European colonies in the Americas.
c) resulted from settler greed.
d) was intended to eliminate the places where Indian warriors could hide.
45) Timber stands in New England had trees of small diameter by 1700 because
a) the soils were bad.
b) erosion had undermined the root systems of the large trees.
c) of naturalist misinterpretations.
d) the large trees had been cut first and foremost during colonial times.
46) Agriculturalists cleared forest primarily
a) by girdling, summer felling-spring burning, and firewood cutting.
b) with girdles, spring cuttings, and pasture manuring.
c) by cutting and clearing swamps.
d) none of the above.
47) Both the Indians and Colonists grew corn and consumed grazing animals.
a) False, because the Indians had no livestock.
b) False, because the colonists grew wheat for flour.
c) True, though they grew corn the same way but ate different animals.
d) True, though they had different kinds of agriculture and the Indians had no livestock.
48) The Indians actively embraced fencing their fields.
a) True: to protect their monocrops from rampaging pigs and cattle.
b) False: since the settlers often force them to have fences or built them for the Indians.
c) True: because they were too weak from disease to defend their crops.
d) False: because fences meant they couldnt kill marauding livestock but would have to hold it before theyd
get paid for crop damages.
49) Insect pests, animal pests and weeds

a) invaded New England aggressively, following the path of deforestation.

b) invaded New England aggressively, following cattle and agriculture especially.
c) invaded New England aggressively causing the extinction of large numbers of insects, animals and plants.
d) a and b are correct.
50) Science is concerned with controlling the duration of events. It is generally LESS concerned with
a) control groups and reproducibility.
b) reducing all variables to an absolute minimum.
c) holism and social science.
d) many of the issues in this class.
Although the Indians, particularly in Southern New England, did practice agriculture, it was a semi-nomadic form of agriculture that
depended on land use more than land ownership. The Indians tilled a particular field only for a few years before moving on and
clearing another field, allowing the previous one to lie fallow and become overgrown. The Indians also made great use of controlled
burning to clear fields. This prevented the decrease in soil fertility caused by overfarming, as well as creating great areas of
borderlands between woodlands and fields, areas particularly hospitable to various berry plants and wildlife used for food and hides.
These practices created the conditions for the great abundance of food, trees, and wildlife which so astounded the colonists.
Unlike the Indians who saw this "natural" abundance as simply a means of sustaining life according to the season, the colonists saw
each particular resource as a commodity to be owned, used, exploited and sold for profit. Trees, for instance, were in great demand
for building houses and ships, fuel for warmth during the long winters, and export especially because of England's tree shortage at
the time. The means by which the colonists claimed, harvested and transported these resources, however, ultimately undermined
the conditions necessary to supply such resources in such abundance. Trees were rapidly cleared to create fields, thereby leaving a
dearth of trees for other purposes. Fields were planted at maximum levels with single crops year after year, thereby depleting soil
fertility. Beaver and other animals were hunted to near extinction, at least within New England.
In the 5,000 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, Europe had been transformed from a thriving wilderness to a
scarred and battered land, thanks to soil mining, forest mining, fish mining, mineral mining, and a lot of crazy thinking. During the
same 5,000 years, the Indians of northern New England kept their numbers low, and didnt beat the stuffing out of their ecosystem,
because it was a sacred place, and they were well adapted to living in it.
In the south, where the climate was warmer, Indians practiced slash and burn agriculture. Forests were killed and fields were
planted with corn, beans, and squash. Corn is a highly productive crop that is also a heavy feeder on soil nutrients. After five to ten
seasons, the soil was depleted, and the field was abandoned. The Indians had no livestock to provide manure for fertilizer. Few
used fish for fertilizer, because they had no carts for hauling them.
Indians hunted for dinner, not for the market. They did not own the deer, elk, and moose that they hunted, so nobody freaked out if a
wolf ate one. These wild animals had coevolved with wolves, so a balance was maintained. Colonists introduced domesticated
animals that had not coevolved with wolves. The slow, dimwitted livestock were sitting ducks for predators, which boosted wolf
populations, which led infuriated settlers to launch wolf extermination programs.
1.a. How much of New England did the first colonists see? 19 b. To them, what was a "merchantable commodity" in
New England? 20
2. What factors played important roles in determining what vegetation or animal life existed in a certain place
(landscape) in New England? 27
3. How did the natural ecosystem of New England differ from Indian or European environments? 33
4. What "central fact" of temperate ecosystems like New England's forced humans and animals to move around the
adjust? Explain. 37
5.a. Why did Indians in northern New England eat little in winter? 40 b. What was the benefit of fasting? 41
6. Why did tribes in southern New England have greater population densities than tribes in the north? 42
7. In the non-agricultural north, what work did women perform? What about the men? 44
8.a. How did Indian women clear forest land for planting? 48 b. Why did Indians experience fuel shortages just like
the colonists? 49
9.a. Why did the Indians burn extensive sections of the surrounding forests once or twice a year? 49 b.What were
the other purposes of these fires? 50
10. What was the Indians' "edge effect? 51
11.a. How did English colonists use the Indians' hunting and gathering culture as an excuse to take their land? 56
b. How did Indians determine ownership rights? How did it break down by gender? 61

12.a. What types of land did English understand to be necessary for farming? 72 b. How did white land ownership
differ from the Indian approach? 72
13. Why did the ancient Indians (who arrived in America 20,000-30,000 years before the Europeans) and their precolonial descendant tribes not suffer from many diseases? 85
14.a. How did disease promote European conquest and expropriation of Indian lands? 90 b.How did declining Indian
populations affect animal species in "edge" habitats? 91
15. Did the capitalistic Europeans introduce the subsistence Indians to trade? Explain. 92 b.What were the
advantages of European brass and copper pots? 93
16.a. How did the Indians increase their production of wampum? 95 b.Why did control of wampum become crucial
to Indians and whites? 96 c.How did trade increasingly link different Indian and white groups with prices? 97
17. How did Indian settlement patterns begin to change in the 1630s once the Puritans arrived? 101
18.a. Why did the Indians have to stay in the same villages after 1630? b. How did nearby whites change traditional
Indian life? 163
19.a. Why was the fur trade far more active in northern New England than in the south? 104 b. How did the white
fur trade change traditional Indian hunting patterns? 104
20. How did copper and brass kettles promote Indian mobility? 104
21. How had the Indians traditionally and unintentionally "conserved" animal species? 105
22. How did the elimination of beaver populations promote agriculture? 106
Cronon Part II (white colonists)
1. For what purposes did white colonists use different species of trees? 109
2. Why were "lumberers" not the "chief agent" in destroying New England's forests? 114
3.a. How did trees affect and promote good soil? 115 b. What was "girdling" and how did it promote good soil? 116
4.Why was the burning of dead trees in spring more advantageous than girdling? 117
5.a. How did the destruction of forests affect brooks and streams throughout New England? 124 b. How did it affect
disease? 125
6.How did the Europeans' approach to "their animals" change New England's landscape? 128
7. What was the value of hogs and goats? of cattle? oxen, horses, and sheep? 129
8.a. What form of land distribution did communal distribution give way to? b. What land uses did every family farm
have? 138
9. In comparison to the Indians, how did the colonists' livestock affect the land? 139
10. a. How did the October-November city market for livestock help to destroy forests? 140 b. Why did profitable
meat markets act as "centrifugal force" that drove compactly settled towns apart? 141
11.a. Why did native grasses die off? b. Why were European (Old World) species better suited to survive? c. How
did these species get to America? 142-143
12.Who brought weeds to America? 142
13.a. How did cattle shift the species composition of any forest they pastured in? b.What animals could help to clear
this field undergrowth to allow farming? 144
14.a. How did livestock contribute to the long-term deterioration of New England forests? 145-146 b. What were the
effects of plowing? 147
15. Why did the lands that whites farmed often have to be turned back to pasture within 10 years? 149-150
16. Since white farmers' failure to keep their livestock in barns and thus collect dung (fertilizer) made it difficult for
them to fertilize their fields, what did the farmers resort to for fertilizer? 151
17.a. Why did farmers' efforts to increase hay yields cause disease? b. How did the building of iron furnaces for the
production of metal products in Massachusetts damage forests? 155

18. What changes to New England's landscape did the arrival of "colonial animals" bring? 159
19. Why was capitalism not necessarily the cause of livestock destruction of New England's natural ecology? 162
20. How did the Indians adapt to some of the Europeans' practices? 163
21.a. Did the ecological destruction of New England's landscape begin with the pollution of 19th and 20th-Century
cities? b. What caused it to begin and what encouraged this destructive behavior? 169-170