The First Frontier and ‘individualism’
The Mayas, Aztechs, Incas were the original
inhabitant of Americas. The American
Indians were self sufficient and individualist in nature.
The European population in America had
significant members like the French Friars, Spanish Conquistadors, Puritan
missionaries and Quaker
missionaries. The concept of ‘Individualism’
or ‘Self-Reliance’ is also the
by-product of living in America.
The European who went to America realised
that it is indeed possible to live in
close contact with only nature
[without people around] with complete
self sufficiency. The original
inhabitants of America were examples of Individualism. They had lived without written down languages,
ownership of land, larger systematic political structure etc. In other words, they were right opposite to
the European civilisation. This contact
with these natives created a new area of thought.
In France Rousseau wrote ‘Social Contract’
where he analysed the lives of tribes who by-establishing social contract lived
in harmony. Europe came to an
intellectual alertness because of its colonial encounter with other
continents.
‘Romanticism’ itself is an ideology that
arose from the knowledge of other inhabitants of the world who were
“free”. The savage, according to the
Europeans was “free” from the prison of civilization and this is viewed by the
writers form New England as “Individualism”.
