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People of European descent form the bulk
of the population in most of the temperate zones of the
world -- North America, most of South America, Australia
and New Zealand. They share those lands along with many
species of birds, animals, and plants, and even strains
of disease, that are also European in origin. The military
successes of European imperialism are easy to explain; in
many cases they were a matter of firearms against spears.
But as Alfred Crosby explains in this highly original and
fascinating book, the Europeans' displacement and replacement
of the native peoples in the temperate zones was more a
matter of biology than of military conquest.
By focusing on the ecological side of European
expansion, Crosby shows how the Europeans were able to take
over temperate lands because of the rapid and almost automatic
triumph of the plants, animals, and germs they brought with
them. European organisms had certain decisive advantages
over their New World and Australian counterparts; Europeans
and their descendants shared in these advantages. As a result,
in the centuries after Columbus' voyages, the proportion
of Europeans and their descendants to the rest of the human
species increased, and these imperialists became proprietors
of perhaps the most important agricultural lands in the
world.
The opening chapters of the book establish
the biological and geographic differences between Europe
and the other continents. By exploring examples of pre-Columbian
contact between regions, Professor Crosby demonstrates both
the possibilities for and the limitations upon European
expansion. Other civilizations were technologically advanced
and had built far-flung trading networks prior to the sixteenth
century, but the mastery by Europeans of the oceanic winds
ultimately gave them the power to roam farthest and most
quickly.
The unconscious spread by Europeans among
native peoples of their common diseases -- smallpox, whooping
cough, measles, and others -- granted them their first major
victory over the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas
and Australasia. Those diseases, to which the natives had
no prior immunity, cleared out close to 90 percent of many
native populations and in some cases eliminated them completely.
The diseases were followed by swarms of escaped cattle,
horses, rabbits, goats, sheep, and other animals, whose
populations exploded in lands of abundant grass and few
competitors or predators.
In the final quarter of the book, Professor
Crosby departs from his global vision to focus on New Zealand,
where he shows in close detail the ecological dimension
of a European takeover. Just as the original Maori takeover
of New Zealand had sparked a series of changes in the ecology
of the islands, so the arrival of the Europeans set in train
disruptions to the "order of nature" that the
Maori could not completely comprehend or combat.
More than a study of the history of human
populations, Ecological Imperialism is a first step
toward a history of the world environment. As Professor
Crosby shows us, no human actions are without their effects
on the environment, and the environment in turn is a continual
and active participant tin human affairs. By focusing as
much on weeds, birds, animals, and other organisms that
came with the Europeans themselves, Crosby adds important
new depth to our understanding of the consequences of European
expansion.
Alfred. W. Crosby is Professor of American
Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His previous
books include America, Russia, Hemp and Napoleon;
The Columbian Exchange: Biological Consequences of 1492;
and Epidemic and Peace, 1918.
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