The Ecological Imperialism as a Very Effective Way of Conquering New Lands - Research Paper Example

Crosby gives a picture of how Europeans have overtaken the world through its ecological existence. The people, plants and animals have been populating all throughout the world and it shows that they have managed to survive alongside other nations, within other nations. This is the European ecological imperialism by which the Europeans manage to dominate and take over most of the ecological systems of the world through the perpetuation of the European life forms. The ancestry of the Europeans has contributed to a large population of the human population. They have managed to perpetuate its kind within other nations and cultures, and this is not limited to the human population, but also in the flora and fauna of the world. A large contributor of trade, it has also brought its products, mostly food, into all parts of the world. The agricultural productivity of the Neo-Europes, lands which are thousand of kilometers apart from Europe and each other, has much to do with the capability of the Europeans to migrate and expand throughout the globe. Though another perspective that explains the perpetuation of the European flora and fauna is the breakup of the Pangaea. These Neo-Europes are scattered around the globe but one common characteristic that they share is the attraction to the temperate zones, zones which ranges from warm to cool climates with an annual precipitation of 50 to 150 centimeters (p.6). Their flora and fauna bear different characteristics from that of the other countries but is the same as of the main European worlds. This is attributed to the similarity in the climates of the Neo-Europe to Europe itself. With this, the imperialism of the European nations does not lie solely on its superiority in arms and organization but also in its biological competitiveness wherein its flora and fauna are able to thrive in the locations where Europeans migrate. The Old World Neolithic Revolution moved steadily and in a fast pace compared to the New World Neolithic Revolution (p.20). This began when humans began developing improvements for agriculture, war and learning. These developments have benefited the European colonists as they adapted these advancements and used them in spreading their own. Also, with the fast-paced developed of the Old World, they learned and they used it to improve their own for the purposes of their expansion. The separations of the Old and New World defined the differences in the lifestyle and developments of the Hemispheres. It also paved way for more improvements on both sides, using the developments of each other. This is the basis for McNeill’s law, in which it describes the process of conquest and invasion through the microbiological aspect. One example of this is the spread of the diseases. Since the different worlds have different diseases, expansion of one nation contributes to the expansion of the disease because it is carried out from one place to another. Aside from the plants that the Europeans brought with them in their conquest, they have also brought weeds. Weeds are not always a bane of the fields, it can also be helpful. Since there are different species of weeds covering the world, the weeds and grass that the Europeans brought with them for the purpose of their agricultural development of Neo-Europe. The flora that these conquistadors brought with them allowed an expansion of the flora of the Europeans and so conquering the new land they have migrated into. Pigs, cows and horses have been a great help in the ecological imperialism of the Europeans (p.173). These animals are able to replicate their efficiencies in different locations. The pig served as a food-producing efficient way of feeding humans. Since they are able to adapt well in different environments, they served a great purpose in producing for human consumption. This is the same with cows. The horses served a different purpose by which it became a means of transportation. Without these animals, the Europeans would have found a hard time adapting to the environment they have chosen to migrate in since the food-producing animals may have been different, or foreign for their taste and there are no means for transportation for them to go about from one place to another. With that, these animals helped them survive and that is the role of these animals in the ecological conquest of the Europeans. These animals, too, are able to conquer other environments and reproduce and replicate their genes adapting to the environment and developing themselves through the native animals. Looking at illness, it also played a great role in the expansion of the Europeans. The Europeans, carrying different kinds of diseases and pathogens that the natives of their conquest lands have not encountered before proved to be damaging for the natives. The pathogens that the Europeans carried with them caused death to the natives, though not to them since they have been exposed to the pathogens of such illness. They might have been immune to it already or they have developed within their immune systems genes that actually guarded or shielded them from these illnesses. And since the natives of the land encountered these pathogens for the first time, they became susceptible to the diseases. Not being able to adapt fast enough to the illness, they died when they contracted the diseases. This proves to be advantageous for the European conquest since the natives feared them and avoided them. On the other side, the Europeans have also came face to face with native illnesses, however, most have managed to develop immunity with them at a fast rate. And with them carrying both the pathogens of their world and the conquest land’s, they prove to be deadly. For Crosby, portmanteau biota is a collective name for the Europeans and all the organisms they have brought with them (p.270). This includes the flora, fauna and the pathogens. Since the new world has been cut-off from the rest of the world because of the way how the Pangaea split, it was able to isolate itself from the rest of the world’s living organisms. Most of the similarities in the flora, fauna and pathogens existed within similar areas in the world, with similar climates, neighboring each other because in this manner it shows how people are able to travel by foot and carry with them very few new organisms. With the conquest of the Europeans, they brought in several species of flora, fauna and pathogens to a world where these animals, plants and diseases never existed. This formed the biological part of the conquest of the Europeans. They sought to establish lands as their own, similar to their homelands. Aside from using the plants and animals for their own survival, as food, shelter and means for transportation, they sought to establish these organisms into the native chain and environment of the new world. Through this, they are able to gain foothold of the land because they made it as familiar and similar to their homeland as possible. Crosby explains that the success of the portmanteau biota and the European conquest was attributed to the cooperation and competition that existed between the organisms that they brought with them in their migration to the new world and the native organisms that settle in the new lands. With this, it can be concluded that the European conquest managed to be successful because it established not only the development and advancement of the human conquest but also of the ecological and biological conquest of the Europeans. Without the establishment of the strength of the ecology and biology that the Europeans brought with them, the quantity of the natives living in the new lands will pose as a problem and as a threat to the Europeans. Even if they brought their advanced armories and weapons, with the strength in numbers, they wont be able to conquer a large part of the new lands as easier as when they have established their environment in the new lands. This shows that ecological imperialism has been a very effective way of conquering new lands. Because of this the conqueror is able to maintain its superiority over the natives of the land. But without the suitable ecology for their own adaptation to a foreign land, they will fail. Read More