Ecological Imperialism

1. Ecological Imperialism

2. Ecological Imperialism • This is the story of how a few Europeans… Hernan Cortes C. Columbus

3. Ecological Imperialism • …with some nifty but basically cheap weapons…

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

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

6. Ecological Imperialism • …and it is the story of plants…

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

8. I. The Role of Geography

9. 30-12,000 BC, Ice Age Global Warming in reverse

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

11. 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

12. 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)

13. C. Adaptation • Indians adapt to diff. climate zones (diversity between groups) • Trade between groups individuals specialized on talents (diversity within groups)

14. 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)

15. Cahokia (30,000 in 1200 AD)

16. Animal Mounds

17. 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”

18. 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

19. Chaco Canyon

20. Bandelier Mountain

21. 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)

22. 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

23. 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

24. B. The Socio-Cultural Explanation 1. Aztec Confusion Cortes and his men seemed to fulfill the Aztec prophecy of the return of Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec feathered serpent god

25. 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.

26. 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

27. 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

28. C. Biological Warfare: Invaders from Mars Redux 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.

29. 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

30. 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."

31. 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)

32. 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)

33. III. Ecological Imperialism Q: How did a small number of Spaniards hold on to their conquest? A: With a little help from their friends

34. 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

35. 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

36. B. Animals Europeans 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)

37. 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”

38. 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

39. 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