Rhonda L. Tintle from University of Oklahoma, Book Review:

Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe , 900-1900

by Alfred W.Crosby.In his book,

Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900,

Alfred W. Crosby investigates the roots of Europeandomination over the western world. He calls the places where early Europeanssettled "Neo-Europes" with special emphasis on North and South America ,Australia , and New Zealand . In his prologue he ponders whether Europeansdominated their environment and other cultures because of their technology, or whether the consistent “success of European imperialism has a biological, [and]an ecological, component” (7). Crosby ’s thesis is that Europeans were successfulimperialists because wherever they went their agriculture and animals thrived; andthe indigenous populations and local ecosystems collapsed under their biologicaladvance.Crosby begins at the beginning, discussing the one big continent, Pangaea,supposed to have existed in pre-history and the slow development of life formsother than reptilian, in particular

Homo

sapiens

. The break up of Pangaea (thishypothetical super-continent) caused the “the decentralization of the process of evolution,” that is, when the land cracked apart flora and fauna were spilt betweenthe newly created continents. That continental split is the reason similar speciesare found in Europe and North America (11-12).Eventually Crosby brings the reader up to the end of the Ice Age. Tenthousand years ago humans were exploring the islands of the Eastern Atlanticincluding Australia . Once on these islands humansdomesticated plants, piled up

mounds of garbage, spread disease, and hunted animals into extinction. Normallythe despoilment of indigenous flora and fauna occurs over tens of thousands of years. In locations where humans arrived with mature hunting skills a suddenextinction of local plant and animal life occurred. These sudden prehistoric, or Pleistocene, overkills were thefirst concentrated impact humans had on virginecosystems.The virgin ecosystem of Porto Santo Island was the destination of Portuguese settlers during the 1400s. Porto Santo Island was completelyuninhabited and filled with untouched flora and fauna. One Portuguese shipcaptain brought a mother rabbit and her babies to the island. The rabbits lovedPorto Santo and thrived in the island environment. So much so that soon thesettlers were blasting away at the rabbits in an attempt to exterminate the entirelocal rabbit population. It seems the rabbits could not determine the difference between the crops meant for human consumption and the crops meant for bunnyconsumption. The rabbits won in this instance and for a time the settlers movedelsewhere, “defeated by their own ecological ignorance” (75).The experience of Spanish invaders in the Canaries showed them that nomatter where they went, even if they could not out-fight their opponents,Europeans could dominate their enemies anyway. “In all these [new] places, thenewcomers would conquer the human populations and Europeanize entireecosystems.” The Spanish learned from their experiences in the Canaries thattheir livestock and crops would succeed in these new environments; they alsolearned they could easily defeat the local natives without traditional warfare. The

various “plagues” and “sleeping sicknesses,” which the Spanish called

peste

and

modorra

, killed off and weakened natives who had no natural immunity toailments common to the Spanish. In essence, sore throats and colds were thewinning weapons of the conquerors; it was the flu that subjugated the Canaries(92-95).The unfortunate natives of the Canary Islands , the Guanches, did notsurvive their meeting with the Spanish sailors. These previously isolated peopledied rapidly from dysentery, pneumonia, and venereal disease. According toCrosby “few experiences are as dangerous to a people's survival as the passagefrom isolation to membership in the worldwide community that includedEuropean sailors, soldiers, and settlers" (99). When the Spanish conquered theCanaries the Guanches lost their land and therefore their livelihood. SomeGuanches joined the Spanish army and went to fight in the Americas ; the Spanishsold others into slavery. The majority of Guanches however died of disease andthe entire population became extinct (97-99).Unlike the Guanches of the Canaries, the Maoris of New Zealand didsurvive despite great odds. When invaded by Europeans the Maoris assumed theywould become extinct. European rats annihilated the Maori rat, an animal thatwas a food staple for the natives. The Maori fly might have help ward off theincursion of sheep that quickly destroyed the local flora, but invading Europeanhouseflies wiped out the local flies. Clover took over where ferns had been, andthe Maori waited for their own extinction. The Maori population hit bottom in1890 but then began a mysterious recovery and 280,000 people claim to be Maori