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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, Australia and New Zealand. The military successes of European imperialism are easy to explain because in many cases they were achieved by using firearms against spears. Alfred Crosby, however, explains that the Europeans' displacement and replacement of the native peoples in the temperate zones was more a matter of biology than of military conquest. Now in a new edition with a new preface, Crosby revisits his classic work and again evaluates the ecological reasons for European expansion. Alfred W. Crosby is the author of the widely popular and ground-breaking books,The Measure of Reality (Cambridge, 1996), and America's Forgotten Pandemic (Cambridge, 1990). His books have received the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize, the Medical Writers Association Prize and been named by the Los Angeles Times as among the best books of the year. He taught at the University of Texas, Austin for over 20 years. First Edition Hb (1986): 0-521-32009-7 First Edition Pb (1987): 0-521-33613-9
- Sales Rank: #181258 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Cambridge University Press
- Published on: 2004-01-12
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.98" h x 1.10" w x 5.98" l, 1.20 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 390 pages
Features
- Used Book in Good Condition
Review
"In telling this very readable story, Mr. Crosby combines a historian's taste for colorful detail with a scientist's hunger for unifying and testable generalization...[He] shows that there is more to history than kings and battles, and more to ecology than fruit and nuts." The Wall Street Journal
"Crosby argues his case with vigour, authority, and panache, summoning up examples and illustrations that are often as startling in their character as in their implications. Ecological Imperialism could not ask for a more lucid and stylish exponent." Times Literary Supplement
"Crosby has unfolded with great power the wider biopolitics of our civilization." Nature
About the Author
Alfred W. Crosby is a Professor Emeritus in American Studies, History and Geography at the University of Texas, Austin, where he taught for over twenty years. His previous books include America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918, 2nd edition (Cambridge, 2003), Throwing Fire: Projectile Technology through History (Cambridge, 2002), The Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society, 1250-1600 (Cambridge, 1997). The Measure of Reality was chosen by the Los Angeles Times as one of the 100 most important books of 1997.
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Ecological imperialism: The biological expansion of Europe, 900-1900' ...
By Annavictoria
Ecological imperialism: The biological expansion of Europe, 900-1900', by A. W. Crosby, is a cogently argued and well written book. The main thesis of the book is that the expansion by Europeans to the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and a few other enclaves (what Crosby calls the Neo-Europes) wouldn't have succeeded if the biota the Europeans brought with them had not succeeded. This biota included not only humans, of course, but pathogens, weeds and grasses, and horses, cattle, goats, and pigs, among the most important. Crosby addresses the reasons why this biota was so successful in the new territories, and concludes that, in general, the climatic regimes there were sufficiently similar to those of its European origins and the indigenous biota was so 'naive' that 'victory' was almost assured to the invaders. To be sure, this is not an original conclusion, but the wealth of data Crosby uses, along with his synthetic power and sense of humor, makes of this book an enjoyable and thought-provoking read. People interested in searching for the biological causes of the successes (and failures!) of Europeans in the world should read this engaging book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
He differentiates the Neo-Europes from a place like South Africa
By Ayure-Inga Agana
In his book, “Ecological Imperialism: the Biological Expansion of Europe 900-1900”, Alfred Crosby gives a robust historical account of European imperial conquest in the places he calls Neo-Europes. He defines the Neo-Europes as places outside Europe, where European flora and fauna, including humans, supplanted native once, as a result of European colonial incursions between 900 and 1900. He differentiates the Neo-Europes from a place like South Africa, where Europeans only dominated politically, but could not transform the entire landscape to resemble that of mainland Europe. The crux of Crosby’s account is that European imperialism was successful in the Neo-Europes – North America, parts of South America, Australia, and New Zealand – in the scale that it did, not because of European military and technological might – as has been the dominant explanation – but because of ecological and geographical fortuity.
Crosby tries to answer the questions why and how people of the European race – unlike other races who are sited within given spatial gamut – are settled in various places, distant to each other, across the globe. Obviously, scores of people must have crossed the seams of Pangaea to these continents, but how? Crosby answers this question with a good history of navigation, which involves the discovery of the physical geography of the sea and an understanding of the global wind system – the key to the success of navigation. The discovery of the behavior of the oceans by the ancient explorers and the marinheiros made mass immigration possible.
With regard to how European flora and fauna came to dominate the Neo-Europes, Crosby gives credit to the climate as well as European weeds, and feral animals. Once the New World’s ecology had been disturbed, weeds of European descent shoved the native flora aside and created fertile grounds for European organisms to thrive. The argument is that weeds do well in lands that witness dramatic disturbances; hence, the grazing of European animals and the felling of trees for timber disturbed the new land – erosion. Weeds then took over these disturbed lands and stabilize them by covering up the soil against erosion and the scotching sun, creating much more fertile soil for European plants and grazing fields for European animals.
According to Crosby, the coup d'état that led to the obliteration of native populations in the Neo-Europes, and led a successful demographic take-over by Europeans, was not successful because of the brutality and superior weapons of the imperialist, but it was a concealed lethal weapon –disease – which they carried unknowingly that brought them victory. Native populations in the Neo-Europes lived in pockets of sparsely populated settlements, and largely engaged in hunting and gathering. This way of living made them vulnerable to new germs and diseases. The lack of success of European imperialism in places such as Africa and Asia, According to Crosby, was due to their resistance to European germs, and the presences of equally deadly disease, which the Europeans stood the chance of contracting. The explanation given for this is that Asians and Africans, like Europeans, lived in compact settlements with domesticated plants and animals, which exposed them on a constant basis to germs and diseases that developed from that way of living. As a result, they eventually developed some resistance to these germs and diseases. This comparison of the Neo-Europes with Africa and Asia, in my opinion, makes Crosby’s argument more plausible. If indeed, it was the superior weapons of the colonialist that led to the creation of the Neo-Europes, why was the situation different in Africa and Asia? According to Crosby, the natives of the Neo-Europes, already thinly populated, succumbed to European disease such as small pox, measles, dysentery, catarrhal jaundice, whooping cough, mumps, tonsillitis, and host of other diseases. Already weaken by diseases; the natives could not put up any meaningful resistance to European imperialism. In a nutshell, Crosby gives credit to European organisms – weed, feral animals, and pathogens – for the European imperial success in the Neo-Europes. He described these organisms, which he calls portmanteau biota, as working as a team to usurp the native biota for the eventual Europeanization of the Neo-Europes.
Crosby account does away with the usual misconception that natives lived in total harmony with their environment. Although the scale of native impact on the environment – the first wave of invasion – may have been much less than the European invasion – the second wave – they nevertheless left ecological footprints. This book also gives a background to western economic dominance over the rest of the world, as it talks about how they were able to appropriate resources from distant lands. The holistic approach Crosby adopts in his account, in my view, makes this book appealing and readable across disciplines – as a geographer, the chapter on the winds was particularly very informative to me, as I have known the direction of the global winds, but not the history behind their discovery. I also took some biology lessons from reading this book; particularly, the behavior of weeds and pathogens.
In one of the chapters, Crosby compares European weapons to those of natives, in an effort to downplay the issue of superior weapons as the main driving force of European imperialism. Although the Europeanization of the Neo-Europes had nothing to do with their superior weapons, the military might of the European colonialists cannot be belittled. What explanation will be given for European political dominance elsewhere? I believe Crosby could have still made a strong case for disease without drawing this comparison.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
A quick and fascinating jaunt through 1000 years of history
By Shawn M. Warswick
Alfred W. Crosby earned his BA from Harvard University in 1952 and, after a 2 year stint in the US Army he went on to earn a Ph.D. from Boston University. Over the next 40 years he worked at several universities including Ohio State and the University of Texas, from which he retired in 1999 as Professor Emeritus of Geography, History and American Studies.
In Ecological Imperialism Crosby argues that a major aspect of European imperialism, actually the major aspect, is not their military superiority, which, in some ways, can be seen as over exaggerated. Instead their success in displacing native peoples in the Americas and Australia is due to environmental and biological factors. Crosby notes, “it could only be accomplished by exploiting the ecosystems, mineral resources, and human assets of whole continents outside the lands of the society making the jump.” (xviii) Thus, the spread of Europeans themselves, along with their disease, flora and fauna, over the entire planet, go hand in hand.
To support his argument, Crosby discusses the appearance of virulent disease in the Middle East, something he notes arrives with the Neolithic revolution. Unfortunately for the peoples who would settle in the Americas and Australia (native Americans and Aborigines), this took place after they had become isolated from the peoples of the Eurasian landmass. He then goes on (in Chapter 3) to use the Norsemen and the Crusaders to show the importance of not only technology but disease to the ability of Europeans to conquer large swaths of the world. The Medieval Europeans were unsuccessful in their attempts to conquer Vinland and the Middle East because they were up against peoples with the “advantages of prior occupation and more nearly perfect physical and cultural adjustments to the environment…”(69)
In his chapter on Winds (Chapter Five) Crosby adds details to the story of how Europeans became blue water sailors (a skill even the Vikings lacked), details often left out of the traditional accounts of the Age of Exploration as well as a detailed (and succinct) account of how Europeans unlocked the puzzle of the oceanic wind systems which would help them “close the seams of Pangaea” and bring “all oceanic coastlines and their hinterlands” within grasp. (131-133) Continuing with this story, Chapter Seven is where Crosby begins to detail how Europeans began to make “Neo-European cities of” harbors and shorelines from Sydney to San Francisco. And, as he notes in Chapter Eight, just as the descendants of the Marinheiros learned how to adapt and cross the oceans in mass, the passengers on those ships would have adapt in order to live in the lands across said oceans. However, instead of adapting themselves to their new home, they would adapt the land and make it more Europe-like by brining European crops and animals with them. Crosby does note that some of the side effects of this exchange (such as the spread of feral pigs, cattle and even rabbits in some areas) might have been unintended, but in the end, the neo-Europeans were the ones to benefit, intended or not.
Historiographically speaking, this book is an important contribution to the literature of World History, and its’ influence can be felt from books such as Guns, Germs and Steel to 1491 by Charles Mann. Furthermore, Crosby offers historians another lens with which to analyze world history: ecology. Unfortunately, the influence has not spread too far beyond the profession, as many textbooks (even the World History curriculum in Texas) does little to mention the effects of germs on world history. Having said that, the idea of the “Columbian Exchange” is mentioned in both the Texas World History curriculum and the Advanced Placement curriculum, and as new generations of historians are trained one would expect “ecological and biological” lenses to be used more often.
There is little to criticize the author for in this work. His writing style is such that the book is readable by both professionals and the layperson alike. The most interesting aspect of this book was the intervention the author is attempting to make on how we view European imperialism. Most historians have viewed European success as a result of their military acumen and/or their use of technology. Crosby acknowledges that, to some extent, this is true. However, he notes that one must not dismiss the effects of germs. Finally, his logic is sound. When he mentions the lack of success the Crusaders had against the Saracens thanks to the fact that the latter was used to the harsh climate and virulent bugs present in the Levant, it is easy to follow along and difficult to find any holes in his argument. Thus, the book is easy to read and presents an argument that is solid and, almost 3 decades later, enduring.
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