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This chapter is about rivers and treason. The chapter starts out by talking about the difficulties that Europeans faced when navigating rivers in the Americas and in Africa. During this, they also go into detail about how these rivers provided the opportunity for exploration and for trade. The chapter then goes on to discussing treason laws, where they came from, and how they were used by various European groups.
During the course of this reading, there is mention of the Europeans making use of native peoples as navigators when journeying upriver. To me, the passages that dealt with this were quite fascinating. The reason is that while the Europeans placed their lives in the hands of these navigators they were very quick to turn on them (Pg. 51-52). I thought it very odd that you would trust somebody with your life but at the same time not trust them at all. It is mentioned by the author that at least part of the reason that the Europeans do not trust the natives is the fact that they are not Christians (Pg. 53). This relates, at least in part, to the concept of imperialism. The Europeans were able to take advantage of the native peoples because they did not trust them and thought of them as being inferior. This thought of natives being inferior is also brought up in the previous readings in regards to culture and technology. Shelby Moore mentions how the Europeans saw themselves as advanced and, looked down upon the natives as being bystanders. She also brings up the point that native peoples were well versed in navigating which by extension can be seen in this chapter when the Europeans call on natives to be navigators.
Overall I found the first half of the chapter to be interesting, but the second half of it did not hold my attention as much.