U.S. Technology: History

Lesson 1: Introduction and Early Technology

European Settlers

Try to imagine that you are a Native American in the late 1600’s and are seeing the first Europeans settlers; they must have looked like aliens from another planet. I can’t help but think they must have felt the way we would if we were witnessing aliens coming off a space ship from some distant galaxy. There were very few similarities between the two groups, except that they were all people of course.

As far as technology is concerned there were no similarities between the two groups. They did not eat the same foods, wear the same type of clothing, therefore, they did not hunt in the same manner or utilize the same methods of cooking. Since they did not wear the same clothes, they did not make their clothes in the same manner.

Europeans brought over technology that must have looked like it came from outer space to the Native Americans. They had books, most especially the Bible, a language with technology embedded into it. They had tools that made it possible to write and print this language, which was something the Native Americans did not have. The Pilgrims also brought axes, hatchets, knives, saws, augers, and hammers. These were all implements made of iron, something the Natives could not produce. They also had a wooden plow, for turning soil, something the Natives had never had a need to do.

The Pilgrims would soon bring over pigs, cattle and other domesticated animals. This, too, must have shocked the Natives, as domesticating animals is not something they would have thought to do. The Native Americans experience with animals was much more along the lines of dealing with deer, wolves, and beavers. They probably never dreamed that an animal could be trained to sit still long enough to milk or pull a plow.

The list of the differences in technologies between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans is vast. Many of these things we probably do not even consider as technologies today. How many of us stop to realize how much of the clothes we have on our backs is the result of technology, and how different this form of technology was compared to what the Natives were wearing? Cowan discusses the European Settlers on pages 10-16. These pages really open your mind to thinking about what new technologies were introduced to the Natives by just the mere presence of the Pilgrims.

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