Taylor began his assessment of the west in a unique fashion: focusing on Russian imperialism in Alaska. \u00a0Despite initial intent to “acquire them [native peoples] through kindness,” (448) Russian colonists (promyshlenniki)\u00a0<\/em>tremendously mistreated and disrespected the native peoples. \u00a0The disrespect was particularly unfounded, as the Aleut people were talented and innovative, aptly demonstrated by the\u00a0baidarka<\/em>, a small boat which facilitated fishing. \u00a0Despite the skills of these people, they were vulnerable when it came to dealing with firearms, and the Russians ruthlessly exploited and intimidated them. \u00a0However, Taylor’s main reason to include Russia in his narrative was to provide a frame for the geographical anxiety felt by the Spanish. \u00a0Taylor noted that Russia’s population consisted of only 400 members in 1800 (456), and considering the vast distance between them and the Spanish, the Spanish took preventative action to secure the Pacific.<\/p>\n

The Spanish first explored California’s coast during the middle of the 16th century (456); however, factors such as the apparent lack of mineral wealth and the distance and difficulty in accessing it led to minimal Spanish interest in the land. \u00a0This changed in 1768 due to misleading reports of Russian and British encroachment (457). \u00a0A lack of Spanish colonists interested in the area led Spanish to attempt a cultural conversion of native people. \u00a0This practice, known as missions, assumed that with the cultural and particularly religious conversion would allow the native peoples to essentially become equal to the Spanish (461). \u00a0However, the soul-saving missions had an extremely significant and damaging impact on the natives, as the missions virtually rendered them incapable of living on the outside in their accustomed ways. \u00a0Contrary to Spanish belief at the time, the native peoples had chronically shaped the land, and the Spanish influence destroyed that.<\/p>\n

I want to build off of and challenge Wells’s comparison of Spanish and British imperialism (http:\/\/sites.davidson.edu\/his141\/the-other-cold-war-imperial-paranoia-in-pacific-north-america\/). \u00a0I find his points of similarity regarding intimidation and forcefulness to be convincing and well-supported. \u00a0However, the similarities only apply to Puritan praying towns, while Spanish missions consisted of a much greater portion of colonization in general. \u00a0The comparison of the two imperial powers ignores the overall focus of the European countries. \u00a0Many Spaniards colonized with the primary goal of soul-saving, while only a very minuscule faction of the British focused on it at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taylor began his assessment of the west in a unique fashion: focusing on Russian imperialism in Alaska. \u00a0Despite initial intent to “acquire them [native peoples] through kindness,” (448) Russian colonists (promyshlenniki)\u00a0tremendously mistreated and disrespected the native peoples. \u00a0The disrespect was particularly unfounded, as the Aleut people were talented and innovative, aptly demonstrated by the\u00a0baidarka, a … <\/p>\n

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