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In her last post Chelsea Creta (chcreta) quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson on his description of nature.\u00a0\u201cNature never wears a mean appearance\u201d (28) After reading Alfred W. Crosby’s book\u00a0Ecological Imperialism\u00a0<\/i>I would strongly have to disagree. Nature is an unforgiving force that always poses a potentially deadly threat. One of the major focuses of the book is the impact that European imperialists had on the Neo-European lands both ecologically and socially on the indigenous cultures. When thinking about impacts of Old World civilization on Neo-European lands the impact of Old World diseases must be at the forefront of that discussion.\u00a0Disease was such an important factor in the decimation of many indigenous populations in the Neo-Europes. Crosby makes a very good point in describing the successful spread of disease as a dual team effort. Europeans would plant crops or import items that would assist in the spread of foreign pathogens. However, the benefit of their actions outweighed the cost of refraining from their actions, which was to the mutual benefit of the pathogens as well.<\/p>\n
In retrospect it would have been to the benefit of many of the indigenous populations to attempt to isolate themselves and retain their native identities for their immune systems lacked exposure to the vast majority of pathogens that the Europeans had endured for hundreds of years.\u00a0In some ways the Neolithic revolution in the old worlds had prepared the Europeans well to become the leading imperialists in the world. Old World history had conditioned European civilizations and individuals to withstand some of nature\u2019s harshest obstacles.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the natives of Neo-European lands lacked the same conditioning. Even worse the circumstances of the natives helped amplify the effects of the epidemics that would come to play an important role in their histories.\u00a0While European efforts to improve their circumstances paved the way for the spreading and cultivation of pathogens in the foreign lands the native embracement of European ideals and practices brought them into closer contact with the foreign pathogens that would lay waste to major percentages of the native population. Crosby uses the example of the Maori in New Zealand to illustrate this point. To some extent the Christian missionaries are responsible for encouraging the Maori to strive to become more European.<\/p>\n
The success of the Pakeha lifestyles further prompted a want to become “European” but placed the natives within closer confines with both European immigrants as well as European pathogens resulting in deadly consequences. In a strange manner the Maori acceptance of Europeans perhaps was the most beneficial occurrence for European success. Not only did they adopt many of the ecological habits and customs of Europeans such as the farming of certain plants and raising of old world livestock but their want to be closer to Europeans helped eliminate competition due their decimation by disease. That allowed the Europeans to further flourish. Nature can be a leveling factor in the conquering of one civilization over another and in the case of European imperialism the Neolithic Revolution was an important factor is providing the Old World inhabitants with biological tools that made them most suitable to world expansion. In the several examples of Neo-Europe that Crosby discussed nature has played a crucial role in permitting Europeans to succeed and it would not be a stretch to say that nature can have the meanest of appearances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In her last post Chelsea Creta (chcreta) quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson on his description of nature.\u00a0\u201cNature never wears a mean appearance\u201d (28) After reading Alfred W. Crosby’s book\u00a0Ecological Imperialism\u00a0I would strongly have to disagree. Nature is an unforgiving force that always poses a potentially deadly threat. One of the major focuses of the book … <\/p>\n