“To seek the high concord a man looks not deeper within, he reaches farther out”
Whitman as quoted by William Least Heat Moon in Blue Highways.
I‘m not sure I sought the high concord in Westward Ho but I did learn some lessons in American technology, social history and geography.
In the study of geography I saw the importance of watersheds, rivers and drainage systems for exploration, economic and cultural development and how the regionalism of the US is influenced by these watersheds.
In technology I learned how .the American settlers’ skills and technological development significantly exceeded the Indians they called “savages” only in the area of weapons. The transportation, communication, agrarian (plowing and irrigation) , sanitation, hydraulics technology of the early settler were really no further along than in Roman times 1800 years before. Medical knowledge was most certainly behind the Islamic world’s 900 AD treaties on differentiating small pox and measles. (smallpox brought by the white man being a major killer of Indian tribes)
In social history I learned that the Indians, who were far more plentiful than modern history courses tell us, had organized their inter tribal affairs and alliances much like the European nations. A balance of power maintained regional security, tribal relations were in a constant state of cold war. The white man never understood this or used it in developing his strategy for conquest, the strategy was to say or do anything to acquire land for the settlers and the tactic was “kill the buffalo” the major food source to force dependance.
By the middle of the 19th century, the telegraph and railroad advanced the white man into technological superiority, overcoming the traditional role of water systems to provide transportation of men and goods and expediting communications to a speed faster than horseback travel. These technological advances made the outcome of the Indian extermination strategy inevitable.
Whitman as quoted by William Least Heat Moon in Blue Highways.
I‘m not sure I sought the high concord in Westward Ho but I did learn some lessons in American technology, social history and geography.
In the study of geography I saw the importance of watersheds, rivers and drainage systems for exploration, economic and cultural development and how the regionalism of the US is influenced by these watersheds.
In technology I learned how .the American settlers’ skills and technological development significantly exceeded the Indians they called “savages” only in the area of weapons. The transportation, communication, agrarian (plowing and irrigation) , sanitation, hydraulics technology of the early settler were really no further along than in Roman times 1800 years before. Medical knowledge was most certainly behind the Islamic world’s 900 AD treaties on differentiating small pox and measles. (smallpox brought by the white man being a major killer of Indian tribes)
In social history I learned that the Indians, who were far more plentiful than modern history courses tell us, had organized their inter tribal affairs and alliances much like the European nations. A balance of power maintained regional security, tribal relations were in a constant state of cold war. The white man never understood this or used it in developing his strategy for conquest, the strategy was to say or do anything to acquire land for the settlers and the tactic was “kill the buffalo” the major food source to force dependance.
By the middle of the 19th century, the telegraph and railroad advanced the white man into technological superiority, overcoming the traditional role of water systems to provide transportation of men and goods and expediting communications to a speed faster than horseback travel. These technological advances made the outcome of the Indian extermination strategy inevitable.
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