''Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900'' is a 1986 book by environmental historian
Alfred W. Crosby
Alfred Worcester Crosby Jr. (January 15, 1931 – March 14, 2018) was a professor of History, Geography, and American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and University of Helsinki. He was the author of books including '' The Columbian ...
. The book builds on Crosby's earlier study, ''
The Columbian Exchange
''The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 '' is a 1972 book by Alfred W. Crosby on the Columbian exchange, coining that term and helping to found the field of environmental history. The exchange was of cultivated plant ...
'', in which he described the complex global transfer of organisms that accompanied European colonial endeavors.
In ''Ecological Imperialism'', Crosby seeks to explain why European colonialists were successful in establishing settler societies in temperate regions around the globe. He argues that this was due principally to the "portmanteau biota" – disease microbes, weeds, domesticated plants, and animals – that accompanied Europeans, devastating local populations and significantly re-making local landscapes. The book advanced understandings of the environmental impacts of global
colonialism
Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...
and re-shaped understandings of the colonial experience itself, placing environmental factors at its center. Crosby introduced " ecological imperialism" as an explanatory concept that points out the contribution of European biological species such as animals, plants and pathogens in the success of European colonists.
''Ecological Imperialism'' is considered a foundational text in the field of
environmental history
Environmental history is the study of Human impact on the environment, human interaction with the natural world over time, emphasising the active role nature plays in influencing human affairs and vice versa.
Environmental history first emerged ...
and has been influential in many other fields, including
postcolonial studies
Postcolonialism (also post-colonial theory) is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic consequences of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and thei ...
Crosby begins by pointing out that the populations of what he calls the "Neo-Europes" of temperate zones are primarily composed of
European
European, or Europeans, may refer to:
In general
* ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
** Ethnic groups in Europe
** Demographics of Europe
** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe and other West ...
descendants. He asks why there are such large concentrations of Europeans in these lands which are so distant from Europe. Furthermore, why have these locations been able to routinely produce large food surpluses and why are many of the countries located in these regions able to consistently be among the world's largest exporters of food?Crosby, Alfred W. Ecological Imperialism. Second ed. New York: Cambridge UP, 2004.
Although Europeans as a whole were reluctant to leave the familiarity of their
homeland
A homeland is a place where a national or ethnic identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethnic natio ...
s to start a new life abroad until the early 19th century, the Neo-Europes experienced a great influx of European settlers between 1820 and 1930. According to Crosby, this mass
emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...
was caused by conditions within Europe at the time, such as "population explosion and a resulting shortage of cultivable land, national rivalries, persecution of minorities", alongside "the application of steam power to ocean and land travel". But what was so appealing about the Neo-Europes to warrant being selected as the primary locations for European expansion?
Crosby's explanation for the success of European imperialists is biogeographical. Europe and the Neo-Europes all share similar
latitude
In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at t ...
s. That is, Europe and the Neo-Europes "are all completely or at least two-thirds in the
temperate zones
In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...
, north and south, which is to say that they have roughly similar
climate
Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...
s". This is significant because the plants and animals Europeans have traditionally relied upon for sustenance tend to require a warm-to-cool climate that receives 50 to 150 centimeters of annual
precipitation
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...
to flourish. Therefore, just as
farming
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
was able to spread from the
Fertile Crescent
The Fertile Crescent () is a crescent-shaped region in the Middle East, spanning modern-day Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria, together with northern Kuwait, south-eastern Turkey, and western Iran. Some authors also include ...
, east and west, without much difficulty, replacing the
hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...
lifestyle along the way, so was it able to in the Neo-Europes.
Before this could take place, because the
indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology)
In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...
flora
Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...
and
fauna
Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and '' funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively ...
in the Neo-Europes were different from those located in Europe, the foreign biota brought to the
New World
The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...
by Europeans would have to compete with the local ones to survive. This would ultimately result in the complete devastation of the native floras and faunas. Crosby says: "the regions that today export more foodstuffs of European provenance – grains and meats – than any other lands on earth had no wheat, barley, rye, cattle, pigs, sheep, or goats whatsoever five hundred years ago".
Rather than give credence to claims of