Contrast Horses essays

Contrast Horses essays Horses have been an important and influential part of North American and European history. In his book, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, Alfred W. Crosby argues that horses helped to bring about European's successful colonization of a number of temperate regions such as North America, Australia, New Zealand, and some parts of South America. He argues that the profound success of horses in these regions resulted from the filling of an empty biological niche, and that the arrival of horses on the plains in North America resulted in profound changes in the lives of North American Indians. In his article, The Rise and Fall of Plains Indian Horse Cultures, Pekka Hmlinen argues that the common view that horses brought success to Native Americans is fundamentally oversimplified. He suggests that the common focus on only the successful incorporation of horses by the Lakota people has distorted modern understanding of plains history, and obscures the damaging impact of the arrival of horses on native American culture and ecology. In Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, Crosby argues biology played a large part in the fact that Europeans displaced the native people of many temperate zones in the world (including North America, New Zealand, temperate South America and Australia). While the success of European imperialism is commonly thought to stem from military might, and advanced technologies, it can be better explained by other factors, notes Crosby. Essentially, Crosby argues that the native biology of these conquered temperate places (including humans) was not equipped to deal with European invaders. European diseases like smallpox decimated native populations, and European weeds and agriculture brought large scale Overall, the animals, weeds, and diseases that Europeans brought to the New Wor...