L6- European colonisation

Question 1

why can European colonisation be viewed as the beginning of the Anthropocene

Answer 1

christopher columbus landed in the caribean in 1492, began european colonisation of the americas

• estimated 90% of indigenous americans killed, american population was 54-61 million (1492) but had declined to 6 million by 1650
• killed by enslavement, war, famine, and infections carried by europeans
  -population crash led to drastic decline in farming and landscape fire management
• indegnous populations were highly susceptible to introduced infectious diseases, such as smallpox, influenza, measles ect
• had never been exposed to diseases before, so had no natural immunity, introduction by europeans led to devastating epidemics
• majority of infectious diseases have higher proportion of temperate than tropical diseases elicit long-term immunity, most of the temperate disease are acute- patient dies or recovers quickly
• most infectious diseases require, large dense human populations, which can only emergy post agriculture

these features of temperate diseases (eg acute infections, long-lasting immunity) mean that most temperate (not tropical) diseases are crowd epidemic diseases, they occur locally as a brief epidemic, but can only persist in large, dense human populations that arose post agri, half temperate diseases orginated in domestic livestock, whereas galf the tropical disease came from other primates

Question 2

why? most major infectious disease emerged from Eurasia and africa rather then americas

Answer 2

asymmetry is where livestock were domesticated (majority in eurasia)

• genetic distance and time of contact with other primates, twice genetic distance in america than african primates , primates more closely related to people

Question 3

what is the orbis hypothesis

Answer 3

agriculture developed in multiple american regions, 10,000-8,000 yrs ago leading to large complex societies. Large areas under agriculture production
- “unequal exchange” of diseases where Eurasian and african diseases caused american epidemics, not other way round, mass mortality (est 90% from lit review) led to land abandonment from agri and forest regrowth, hypothesis= the enhanced land sink for carbon led to measurable decline in atmospheric CO2

• Estimated 7.4 PG C ish, taken up by regrowing forests, explains the 47-67% of co2 decline observed in 1610, orbis CO2 spike, geological marker for Anthropocene

Question 4

so are colonisation of america linked to climate

Answer 4

colonisation of the americas devasted indigenous population, with an observable effect on carbon cycle

Question 5

what effect did colonisers have on natural resources

Answer 5

their purpose was to appropriate
- natural resources, eg timber, minerals, useful new species
- land to grow cash crops- forestry and agri
- indigenous knowledge about natural resources

colonial exploitation of plants, land and labour
- natural products and their uses were introduced to european colonisers by indigenous people, european commercialised them for profit
- used exploitative labour practises there resources from the wild or to grow them as crops in plantations
-natural resource extraction and exploitation of people for profit became embedded in a globalised economic system
- we live with the modern legacy of those practises in modern economic system

Question 6

what was the intercontinental “columbian exchange” of species

Answer 6

Question 8

what is the rubber case study

Answer 8

Question 9

what was the displacement of indigenous people and land mismangement

Answer 9

• indigenous Australians (aboriginal people) used frequent small fires to create mosaics of habitats for food production (eg yams)
• british colonists removed Aboriginal people from their land and suppressed fires, leading to shrub and tree encroachment
  -wooded Australian landscapes today are at risk from infrequent, high intensity fires, starting to use traditional knowledge to address this problem
• previous societies had enslaved others, but european colonisation is important since we live with its social and political legacies, it can be argues that european colonisation eventually gave rise to todays extractive and exploitative global economic system
• people were owned traded and exploited for labour, european colonisation of americans represented an escalation of extractive practises and exploitation of people in distant countries, the colonisers establish a global world space, full of materials (inc people), to be exploited. the foundation of the anthropocene - people and nature in colonies became resource to be extracted and sold, land and labour became regarded as a private property

Question 10

was 1452 the first commercial use of slaves in a colonial plantation the start of the anthropocene

Answer 10

• enslaved africans were first put to work on sugar plantations in the portuguese colony of madeira

from the late 1400s, sugar plantations and extraction industry were established in S america and the caribbean, from the start, the industry exploited the labour of enslaved indigenous americans and west africans

Question 11

what is the origin of the industrial revolution and capitalism

Answer 11

• histories of the industrial revolution typically emphasise scientific discovery, inventors and abundance of cheap energy from coal
• industrial revolution seen as a cultural development from scientific enlightment, mechanisation increased manufacturing efficienicy and production. domestic consumption of goods increased, which helped to stimulate economic growth

Question 12

how is colonial, the industrial revolution and capitalism linked

Answer 12

colonialisation is often viewed in parallel to industrialisation and capitalism, without drawing connections, but increasinly viewed as inherently connected, via the commodification of people and natural resources, and the profits from their international trade

• commodities produced by enslaved africans in the americas were central to rise to atlantic economy in the 1800s
  low production costs offset the high transport costs, and made sugar, cotton, coffee, and made sugar, cotton, coffee, afforable for domestic consumption in europe

salve-based production of commodities led to the accumulation of wealth that started western capitalism, wealth of slave owners increased in 1833 by 20 million, british goverment “compensation” paid during abolition

Question 13

how was the Atlantic trade was central to industrial revolution

Answer 13

technological innovations in northern england during industrial revolution were induced by the rapid growth of markets for goods and atlantic economy

• britain had high wage costs and cheap energy available in the form of coal
• made it profitable to invest in new machinery to increase efficiency of manufacturing
• led to large scale unemployment in trades as they were mechanised

Question 14

how was wealth central to the industrial revoution

Answer 14

wealth from the salve trade provided capital for the infastructure needed for industrialisation ( railways, mines, factories, financial institutions)

Question 15

so what is the overview of colonisation and todays society

Answer 15

colonisation represents a change in the interactions of europeans with the natural world, where nature, land and people became resources to be exploted and commodified, the over explotiation and extraction of resources from the natural world are not “ human nature” but arise from decisions rooted in colonialisation when europeans first accessed large areas of land on other continents, the trade and wealth arisisng from colonialisation are implicated in both the orgins of the industrial revolution and capitalism