The First Frontier and ‘individualism’

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”.