Settlements in the Americas: Cross-Cultural Perspectives

This collection consists of the eleven papers presented at a University of Maryland Symposium in March 1986. The central purpose of this volume and the conference it records is to exemplify the benefits of cross-cultural and cross-scholarly perspectives on settlements and urbanism, and so to encourage more such efforts.
The theme of settlement and cultural expression pervades the presentations. The most striking contrast offered within the group of essays is between the English and Spanish examples: five of the papers deal with Spanish colonial cities and towns and five with settlements originating in England; one illustrates the French colonization of Canada.
The various forms of settlement developed in the implementation of the Spanish Conquest are outlined in George Kubler's essay. Sidney Markman illustrates the large scope of second-tier settlements for the indigenous populations in Central America. The broad cultural religious meanings brought by the Spanish and grafted onto local traditions in Lima are shown by Humberto Rodriquez-Camilloni as exemplifying a new culture whose urban development was a centerpiece.
The Roman-based Spanish urban models that were brought to the New World are described by Dora Crouch. Graziano Gasparini shows that many Spanish colonial city plans were more closely related to settlements in place when the Spanish arrived than may have been previously thought.
The cultural diversity of the non-Spanish settlements can also be noted in these essays. Lois Carr, for example, traces the agricultural and economic features of the first century of English settlement of the Chesapeake. Other contributors look at Providence Island in the Caribbean, the Pennsylvania Quakers, and the Tory refugees from the American Revolution who found themselves in the Bahamas as cultural transplants from the American Colonies.
Several of the papers chronicle the economic bases of settlements as well as their physical form. Topics include the role of Indian labor in the Central American Spanish colonies, the Quaker agricultural economy, the frail agricultural base of the Tidewater, and France's North American colonies. Also included are discussions of the Spanish tradition, the Charleston city plan, and the French tradition of territorial control in Europe and its export to North America.
The settlements described by these papers are important because, to their settlers, the enterprises were as vast as could be imagined at the time - and were in many cases life-consuming. Many of the essays give poignant witness to the courage and persistence shown by New World settlers.