Description
Book SynopsisEuropean imperialism was extraordinarily far-reaching: a key global historical process of the last 500 years. It locked disparate human societies together over a wider area than any previous imperial expansion; it underpinned the repopulation of the Americas and Australasia; it was the precursor of globalization as we now understand it. Imperialism was inseparable from the history of global environmental change. Metropolitan countries sought raw materials of all kinds, from timber and furs to rubber and oil. They established sugar plantations that transformed island ecologies. Settlers introduced new methods of farming and displaced indigenous peoples. Colonial cities, many of which became great conurbations, fundamentally changed relationships between people and nature. Consumer cultures, the internal combustion engine, and pollution are now ubiquitous. Environmental history deals with the reciprocal interaction between people and other elements in the natural world, and this book ill
Trade Review...compelling...the book is written clearly and with a lively prose...If you are a British imperial historian , or someone who works in an area of the former British Empire, you need to read this book. Few books are as clearly written, have as broad of a scope, or are as successful at imparting the views of past scholars while also articulating the authors' own version of history. Most importantly, perhaps, not only will you learn from this book, you will also enjoy it. * Brett Bennett British Scholar *
This is an impressive book both for its sweep across continents and themes, and equally so for its lucid and flowing prose. The authors have woven together a complex tapestry of the currents that linked ecological change to the fortunes of the British Empire. It also brings the story up to the present and will be indispensable for historians, ecologists, and lay persons alike. * Mahesh Rangarajan, Professor in Modern Indian History, University of Delhi *
Table of Contents1. Introduction ; 2. Environmental Aspects of the Atlantic Slave Trade and CaribbeanPlantations ; 3. The Fur Trade in Canada ; 4. Hunting, Wildlife, and Imperialism in Southern Africa ; 5. Imperial Travellers ; 6. Sheep, Pastures, and Demography in Australia ; 7. Forests and Forestry in India ; 8. Water, Irrigation, and Agrarian Society in India and Egypt ; 9. Colonial Cities: Environment, Space, and Race ; 10. Plague and Urban Environments ; 11. Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis in East and Central Africa ; 12. Imperial Scientists, Ecology, and Conservation ; 13. Empire and the Visual Representation of Nature ; 14. Rubber and the Environment in Malaysia ; 15. Oil Extraction in the Middle East: the Kuwait Experience ; 16. Resistance to Colonial Conservation and Resource Management ; 17. National Parks and the Growth of Tourism ; 18. The Post-Imperial Urban Environment ; 19. Reassertion of Indigenous Environmental Rights and Knowledge
