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European Perspectives of the U.S.: 1610-1835

ion of the sunrise to rule over these lands." The first accounts of the Americas came from adventurers and opportunists associated with the most profoundly hierarchical European power. The accounts established a pattern of dominance that persisted as the indigenous peoples were pushed aside to accommodate the Europeans

Sir Walter Raleigh's first voyage to America, more exactly Virginia, took place in 1584, and he made several voyages there until on his last return in 1618 he fell victim to court intrigue on the part of the Spanish ambassador and was beheaded for treason. By and large, Raleigh's accounts of Virginia focus on the abundance of the land that could furnish permanent settlements. He cites flaxe, hempe, furres, deers skinnes dressed after the maner of Chamoes, or undressed, wine, cedar, oile, iron, copper, pearle, sweet gummes of divers kinds, and many other Apothecary drugges, and so on. Raleigh even reports the abundance of silkworms and predicts "but if arte be added in planting of Mulberie trees . . . for their feeding & nourishing . . . there wil rise as great profit in time to the Virginians, as thereof doth now to the Persians, Turks, Italians and Spanyards." When Raleigh speaks of the "nature and maners of the people," he cites their "want of skill and judgement in the knowledge and use of our things." After describing the belief system of the indigenous Virginians, he hopes that "if meanes of good government be used, that they may in short time bee brought to civilitie, and the imbracing of true Religion." However, in a later account of a voyage to Guiana, which includes an episode of battle with Spanish explorers, Raleigh notes: "Where there is a store of gold, it is in effect needlesse to remember other commodities for trade." In other words, whatever else the New World was, it was also very much conceptualized as something available to the Old World's discretion.

The value of the earliest accounts, then...

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European Perspectives of the U.S.: 1610-1835. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 07:47, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1709580.html