A Savage Empire, Alan Axelrod

A Savage Empire, Alan Axelrod

This is an excellent historical look at the earlier American continent and the influence of one animal on politics and economics – not to mention ecology.  The beaver and it’s amazing pelt drove the French, Indian, Dutch, Spanish, English and American economy and the quest for lands, allegiance, and trade rights from the earliest interactions between Europeans and Indians through the expansion of the US in the post-revolutionary years when manifest destiny was a matter of Lewis and Clark and the mountain men.

The poor animal was the center of economics, but not a part of any environmental policies.  As it died out and disappeared, the trade just moved further and further north and west and it did die out.  As we encroach on nature conflicts increase with the beaver because its natural place in ecology was not established as a partnership with humans.  As complaints mount we forget that the beaver had to be brought back from the lip of extinction by reintroduction from Yellowstone and the west.

The beaver built the Hudson Bay Company and the amazing wealth of John Jacob Astor, it also fueled the French and Indian war, created a western front to the revolutionary war in Ohio, and continued to influence post war politics and wars. 

The American Indian like the beaver was part of the trade system, but like the beaver, the voracious trade business did not care if the Indian survived either and, in fact, the Indian not only became expendable, but the traders even desired their demise.

The relationship between the French and Indian would be the high point in relationships, but English and Americans did not want a trade that honored the Indian lifestyle and allowed it to go on.  The French lived and loved in the Indian village and were accepted as partners in trade.  The English and Americans were about control – religion, land, and lifestyle. 

Easy to read, fascinating stories that seldom make the history books as we pass over the French and Indian conflict and even discuss the revolution as if it had only one front – along the coast.