Another AP US History Question?

Question

What basic attitudes did the English colonists have toward the environment?

Answer 1

The Englished viewed all natural resources as commodities. They came to own, profit from and pass on to the next generation.

That was part of the cultural difference between the Native Americans and the colonists. Where the NA's lived with respect for the land, almost in partnership with it so to speak, the colonists looked on it as property. If they denuded a forest, they moved to another. If their fields stopped producing abundantly, they simply took more. They didn't rotate, to give the land a chance to lie fallow and recoup its strength.

As far as modern thinking goes, the colonists had no regard whatsoever for their environment other than what it could give them.

Answer 2

Take the best and leave the rest.  Survival and sanitation were the main concerns.