Ecological Imperialism

Ecological Imperialism

• This is the story of how a few Europeans…

C. Columbus Hernan Cortes

Ecological Imperialism

• …with some nifty but basically cheap weapons…

Ecological Imperialism

• …were able to conquer a powerful empire of 10-12 million people in a few years.

Ecological Imperialism

• It is the story of diseases like smallpox that killed more Indians than any Spanish gun…

Ecological Imperialism

• …and it is the story of plants…

Ecological Imperialism

• …and animals that transformed the American ecosystem and undermined Indian society and resistance.

I. The Role of Geography

30-12,000 BC, Ice Age30-12,000 BC, Ice Age

Global Warming in reverseGlobal Warming in reverse

Mostly, though: probably boat (sites in Florida before Alaska)

A. Invaders from Mars

• When the Indians arrived in the Americas they might as well have been from Mars: biologically the two worlds had been separated for millions of years no competition, stupid prey early success and pop. growth

B. The Environment Strikes Back

• Global warming (hot, starving mammoths)• + Hungry and effective hunters (high-tech

spears)• = Pleistocene overkill (extinction of almost

all megafauna) transition to agriculture (less healthy

Indians, complex societies + class divisions; developed + spread by women) + no domestication of animals (wait for it)

C. Adaptation

• Indians adapt to diff. climate zones (diversity between groups)

• Trade between groups individuals specialized on talents (diversity within groups)

D. Examples of Diversity

1. Mississippian societies: trade societies built around rivers; dominate Wisconsin to Louisiana– Urban centers– Mound builders– Tied to Great Lakes (Algonquian + Iroquois;

Atlantic)

Cahokia (30,000 in 1200 AD)

Animal Mounds

• Cahokia collapses from over-farming, drought, competition from neighbors disperse to plains and prairie villages– Replaced by Coosa metropole (GA)– Rise + fall of metropolis-based societies:

“Cycling”

2. Anasazi

• Ancestors of Hopi and Zuni in Southwest

• Some of most populated areas in the world at their height: Chaco Canyon and Bandalier Mountain

Chaco Canyon

Bandelier Mountain

Anasazi: Collapse

• Chaco Canyon collapsed in part because of a sustained drought inadequate food surplus unable to mobilize labor, religious ceremonies, trade dispersion to smaller villages nearer water (Pueblos)

II. Europeans: How did they do it?

A. The Traditional Explanations:– 1. Superior technology:

• Steel weapons (swords and armor)

• Guns (flintlock muskets, cannons)

– 2. Written language• Superior communication abilities

– 3. Conquest Religion• Catholicism motivated the conquistadores to

conquer in the name of God

Problems with the Traditional Story

• Spanish armor was as much an obstacle as an aid in the dense forests and heat of Mexico; Aztec swords could decapitate a horse

• Spanish guns were inaccurate and often misfired• Cannons were dramatic but ineffective against an

enemy that did not fight in tight formations• The Aztecs had very effective communication

systems developed over hundreds of years of conquest

• Many of the conquistadores were not particularly religious men and were in it for the gold, not God

1. Aztec Confusion

Cortes and his men seemed to fulfill the Aztec prophecy of the return of Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec feathered serpent god

B. The Socio-Cultural Explanation

• Cortes used this misperception to his advantage. The Aztec emperor, Montezuma, upon hearing that Quetzalcoatl had returned, actually invited Cortes into the capital city of Tenochtitlan.

2. Divide and Conquer

• Perhaps more importantly, Cortes used the Quetzalcoatl myth to recruit Indians to help the Spanish.

• The Aztec empire, like all other empires, was built by conquering other peoples. The Aztecs demanded tribute from these conquered peoples, sometime in form of human sacrifice

• Just as the Algonquians in the Great Lakes region eventually joined with the French for protection against the Iroquois (who then sided w/the English), thousands of conquered Indians joined Cortes in attacking the Aztecs.

• Among those who joined Cortes was a woman named Malinche who served as guide and translator for Cortes.– Mayan princess, enslaved by Aztecs

– Bears Cortes’ children; believes saving Indians from Hell + disease via conversion

Unlike peoples in the Old World, Native Americans did not domesticate very many animals (Pleistocene overkill); in particular they did not have pigs or chickens.

C. Biological Warfare: Invaders from Mars Redux

• Big germ killers—influenza, tuberculosis, measles, smallpox—originally animal diseases that mutated and got picked up by humans who lived close to their food source.

• Europeans eventually got immunity (after Black Death); Indians did not have the time virgin soil epidemic

• 1580, Thomas Hariot, Roanoke: “[The Indians] began to die very fast, and many in [a] short space; in some townes about twentie, in some fourtie, in some sixtie, & in one sixe score, which in trueth was very manie in respect to their numbers....The disease also was so strange that they neither knew what it was, nor how to cure it; the like by report of the oldest men in the countrey never happened before, time out of mind.”

• 1663, New England colonist: "it pleased God to visite these Indeans with a great sickness, and such a mortalitie that, of 1000, above 900 and a halfe of them dyed, and many of them did rott above ground for want of buriall."

Impacts of disease:1. Aztec leaders overwhelmed by 1) confusion of

Quetzalcoatl myth, 2) “treason” of tributaries, and 3) massive deaths from disease

2. War on the Beaver: historian Calvin Martin argues near-extinction beaver Great Lakes result rejection of taboos as inexplicable disease, conversion, and loss of elders undermined Micmac society kill beavers as enemy bringing on devastation

3. Expansion of Indian wars: some tribes largely unaffected prey on weaker need for new alliances (e.g. Iroquois + Algonquians or Powhaten or Squanto)

Important Note about Biological Warfare

Because this devastation was unintentional (they wanted slaves and converts), the term genocide does not technically apply, even though the results were essentially the same:

Upwards of 90+% of all Native Americans pre-1492 killed by Europeans (upwards of tens of millions of people)

III. Ecological Imperialism

Q: How did a small number of Spaniards hold on to their conquest?

A: With a little help from their friends

A. Weeds

Any plant that spreads rapidly and out-competes others on disturbed soil.

Native plant life had no resistance to the plants—especially weeds—that the Europeans introduced to the New World.

Example: Kentucky bluegrass, introduced by English around 1685 now covers entire SE

What’s the problem with weeds?Weeds replace native plants less

food for native animals (toxins) less food for Indians starvation and further Indian population decline (vicious cycle)

(20th Century San Joaquin Valley: introduced plants 63% of grasslands, 66% of woodland, 54% of chaparral)

C3 vs. C4 plants

B. AnimalsEuropeans brought barnyard animals with

them to the New World: horses, sheep, goats, domesticated dogs, chickens, cows, and pigs

Europeans let animals forage free for food compete w/native animals (Indians severely punished for harming) + tear up the soil more weeds (see above vicious cycle)

C. Shock Troops

• Animals, weeds, and disease traveled ahead of Europeans clearing the way: Europeans often discovered empty lands because Indians had died/moved away

• Europeans (esp. English) used emptiness to justify further conquest: Indians didn’t use the land, so why should they have it?– False assumption about the “wilderness”

D. Keystone Species

• Indians manipulated environment (fire) in ways necessary for them to thrive Americas more a garden than wilderness

• Weakening of Indians further disruption of eco-system vicious cycle

Conclusion• Europeans were able to conquer the New World

and maintain control over it in large part because of certain environmental advantages—disease immunity, opportunistic plants and animals—that increased the limited cultural and technological advantages that the Europeans brought with them.

• Neo-Europe– Proof: Africa