Christopher’s Blog for Transatlantic History

Review of Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900

by

Christopher Woodall

Introduction to Transatlantic History

12 September 2008

Upon first taking on the task of reviewing a book as densely packed with narrative and as full of data as Ecological Imperialism a potential reviewer might initially be daunted. Alfred Crosby is a meticulous and well-spoken historian and writer whose product in this case is a thoroughly enjoyable but highly detailed effort. Fortunately, Crosby is skilled in threading his thesis overtly throughout Ecological Imperialism and this book’s strengths, organization, thesis and contributions are presented to its reader in a very direct manner.

Crosby’s central contention throughout Ecological Imperialism is that European human, animal and plant lifeforms were central to the conquest of what Crosby calls “Neo-Europes”¹. These lifeforms were central to European conquest because they changed the biological landscape of the Neo-Europes and made those new territories hospitable to European colonization. It is here that Crosby’s argument finds its stride and is plainly expressed in the book’s title. Crosby does not argue that other factors were not involved (political developments in Europe, religion, et. al.) but that the role of ecological imperialism facilitated European expansion to such a degree as to warrant central placement among the many factors which led to European success in colonizing certain regions of the world. Indeed, the prologue begins with the question of how Europeans leapfrogged around the world and, more importantly, how they leapfrogged to areas that were much more distant than regions such as the Middle East and Africa.² The purpose of asserting this theory is best expressed in the author’s own words:

The responsibilities of the Neo-Europeans require unprecedented ecological and diplomatic                    sophistication: statesmanship in farm and embassy, plus greatness of spirit. One wonders if their comprehension of our world is equal to the challenge posed by the current state of our species and of the biosphere.³

It is clear that Ecological Imperialism is intended to be a history to call the attention of contemporaries to the ecological challenges we face today as well bringing to the fore the special obligation among Neo-Europeans to heed that call and take action.

Whether or not Crosby’s call is heard, the book’s thesis is strongly argued by its content and organization. Chapter two’s title, “Pangaea Revisited” acts as more than a convenient starting point for the book’s narrative. Ecological Imperialism’s central idea is fleshed out in this early chapter. Key concepts that Crosby exploits later in the book include McNeill’s law⁴, Europe’s better exploitation of Neolithic (and later) technologies⁵ and the idea that invading organisms, whatever form they take, can decimate an invaded region to such a point as to render the that region’s old ecosystem vulnerable to the point of replacement by the invading organisms⁶. In chapter three Crosby examines how a sort of inversion of McNeill’s law led to failed colonization projects in the extreme north Atlantic and the Levant. Opposition to these efforts portmanteau biota (Crosby’s catchall phrase for all European organisms) faced opposition from local disease, local peoples an local climatic extremes (or a combination of them all) depending on the locality examined but this opposition was successful nonetheless. Chapter four similarly examines how the Azores, Madeiras and Canaries contrasted to the Levant and the north Atlantic inasmuch as they were favorable to the invading portmanteau biota.

New Zealand is later situated somewhere between the two extremes mentioned above as an example of a region that avoided having all of its native life annihilated but nevertheless became a Neo-Europe. The intervening chapters explain how plant life (particularly weeds), animals (both livestock and “varmints”) and disease acted as agents of ecological imperialism and facilitated European settlement. Also included are chapters on how Europeans “discovered” and exploited trade winds and why Europeans never fully colonized tropical swaths of Africa and Asia. The latter chapter is the most overt reinforcement of Crosby’s thesis in that it asserts that Europeans and their organisms could not compete with local ecological forces in a manner reminiscent of the European experience in the Holy Land and in stark contrast to the ecological-biological success in the Neo-Europes⁷.

Ecological Imperialism’s strengths are many. Among these strengths are the author’s way with words and that eloquence is evident when he closes his chapter on weeds by characterizing the Europeans who complained about said weeds as ingrates. Crosby’s main strength, though, is the thorough support for his thesis of ecological imperialism as expressed in thirty-eight pages of endnotes. This extensive research combined with an affable but not flippant writing style make this book a compelling work.

The main weakness of Ecological Imperialism is not large enough to weaken Crosby’s overall argument but is worth mentioning. By arguing that Europeans did not have the technological or biological tools to colonize Africa until the advent of “cheap and plentiful quinine and repeating rifles”⁸ nineteenth century seems to ignore some of the implications Crosby himself asserted in regards to the successful Spanish conquest of the Canary Islands. Though he later vigorously defends his contention that European ecological imperialism faced a tougher opponent in tropical Africa and Asia, that defense at the very least questions some of his premises of how the Spanish faced a determined enemy in the Guanches of the the Canaries comparable to the Skraelings of Vinland. Moreover, geographical challenges in the former region in some aspects were more daunting than the physical obstacles presented in the latter. Crosby makes a stalwart defense of this minor inconsistency but, given his oratorical and research prowess, should make deeper observations between his Vinland-Enchanted Isles-Tropical Africa observations.

Ecological Imperialism’s contribution is clear. In this book Alfred Crosby continues developing the theories of such historians William H. McNeill while setting the stage for the later work of Jared Diamond in order to bring the idea of ecological imperialism into a more fully developed thesis. In doing this Crosby opens the ecological imperialism theory to criticism but such criticism only aids in understanding a topic as complex as the ecological interchanges between the the Neo-Europes of the post-Colombian Atlantic world.

~ by christopheraw on September 13, 2008.