Warning: Undefined variable $num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 126
Warning: Undefined variable $posts_num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 127
The final chapter of Taylor’s American Colonies coincides with the colonization of America’s final frontier, the western seaboard and Alaska. It is also the first time Taylor mentions anything about Russian colonization in North America. “By joining the competition for knowledge and commerce in North America, the Russians hoped to prove that they belonged, culturally and politically, to Europe” (Taylor, p. 447). In my opinion, the Russians always seemed like the odd ones out when it came to European colonial power; this definitely reminded me of all the “Mean Girls” references we made in class. Russia tried extremely hard to fit in with Europe, but prominent countries such as, England, France, and even the Netherlands never viewed Russia as either a formidable competitor, or a civilized European nation.
The promyshlenniki were Russian fur traders who spread into the Aleutian islands of Alaska looking for new trade routes and fur markets. I agree with @JELAWS’ comparison of Russian economic goals to those of the French, while the manner in which Russians treated natives more resembled that of the Spanish “Black Legend” in other parts of America. However, I do believe the promyshlenniki’s cruel treatment of natives in Siberia and Alaska also paralleled the way English settlers treated Native Americans along the eastern seaboard. Excessive hunting of local animals, brutal oppression of their people, and exposure to deadly diseases were all misfortunes natives dealt with in the face of European colonization on both the east and west coast.
In the much earlier chapters of American Colonies, Taylor paints this picture of a menacing Spanish empire known as the “Black Legend.” At the end of American Colonies, Taylor emphasizes the excessive paranoia and fear expressed by the Spanish in response to only minor Russian advancement into Alaska and the Pacific. This gives reason to believe Spain was no longer the colonial power it used to be; Spanish control in North America had been diminished greatly by this point. The thinly spread Spanish population in California relied heavily on the constant import of supplies from Spain. Needing more colonists to support these colonies in California, the Spanish tried establishing missions to convert the natives and force them to adopt the colonists’ agricultural lifestyle. Taylor explains in great detail the environmental consequences of extensive livestock grazing that the Spanish had introduced to California. Because their food source declined rapidly as a result, the natives had no choice but to rely on the missions for survival.