Rating: 
Summary: Biological losers and winners
Review: 'Ecological imperialism: The biological expansion of Europe, 900-1900', by A. W. Crosby, is a cogently argued and well written book. The main thesis of the book is that the expansion by Europeans to the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and a few other enclaves (what Crosby calls the Neo-Europes) wouldn't have succeded if the biota the Europeans brought with them had not suceeded. This biota included not only humans, of course, but pathogens, weeds and grasses, and horses, cattle, goats, and pigs, among the most important. Crosby addresses the reasons why this biota was so succesful in the new territories, and concludes that, in general, the climatic regimes there were sufficiently similar to those of its European origins and the indigenous biota was so 'naive' that 'victory' was almost assured to the invaders. To be sure, this is not an original conclusion, but the wealth of data Crosby uses, along with his synthetic power and sense of humor, makes of this book an enjoyable and thought-provoking read. People interested in searching for the biological causes of the successes (and failures!) of Europeans in the world should read this engaging book.
Rating:
Summary: Biological losers and winners
Review: 'Ecological imperialism: The biological expansion of Europe, 900-1900', by A. W. Crosby, is a cogently argued and well written book. The main thesis of the book is that the expansion by Europeans to the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and a few other enclaves (what Crosby calls the Neo-Europes) wouldn't have succeded if the biota the Europeans brought with them had not suceeded. This biota included not only humans, of course, but pathogens, weeds and grasses, and horses, cattle, goats, and pigs, among the most important. Crosby addresses the reasons why this biota was so succesful in the new territories, and concludes that, in general, the climatic regimes there were sufficiently similar to those of its European origins and the indigenous biota was so 'naive' that 'victory' was almost assured to the invaders. To be sure, this is not an original conclusion, but the wealth of data Crosby uses, along with his synthetic power and sense of humor, makes of this book an enjoyable and thought-provoking read. People interested in searching for the biological causes of the successes (and failures!) of Europeans in the world should read this engaging book.
Rating:
Summary: Wide-ranging and intriguing
Review: ...A fascinating tale about how and why Eurasian plants and animals were able to out-compete the local fauna in most of the rest of the world--Not just the Americas, but in other places as well, such as New Zealand. Many specific examples. It helped re-ignite a long-dormant interest in natural history that I'm still pursuing today. Very readable, and covers the chosen topic in just the right amount of depth.
Rating:
Summary: Dazzling
Review: Alfred Crosby is one of the few historians who have changed the way people think. Back in the 1960s he got the crazy idea that the *biological* expansion of Europe into the rest of the world was the real story of the last few centuries. His book, The Columbian Exchange -- Europe sent over people and germs and got back the biological wealth of the Americas -- was rejected by a dozen publishers. This book is a restating and resharpening and amplification of this thesis, which by now is so well accepted in its basics that I was amused to see some of the Amazon reviewers say there was not that much new here. In a way, I guess they're right, but this book is nonetheless full of wonderful historical connections -- why smallpox caused the slave trade, why corn changed the history of Eastern Europe -- that you would never think of otherwise. I would also want to single out Crosby's writing, which is dryly humorous and even moving on occasion. Altogether amazing stuff, this book.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: Alfred Crosby's "Ecological Imperialism" is a provocative, well-written and definitely fascinating book. Crosby examines the reason Europeans were able to defeat the Indigenous people in American, Australia and New Zealand. Crosby argues that the biology and ecology factors played tremendous roles in their win. Crosy argues that the weeds, animals and the Europeans best allies, the germs or diseases that they brought with them to the New World dominated the Indigenous people. The Europeans sought to make the New World as similiar to that of the Old World. It was interesting for me because we were taught that the military superiority of the Europeans was the main factor. In addition, Crosy also examines the unsuccessful attempts of the Europeans at dominating Asia and Africa. "Ecological Imperialism" definitely is a groundbreaking book in the field of environmental history.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: Alfred Crosby's "Ecological Imperialism" is a provocative, well-written and definitely fascinating book. Crosby examines the reason Europeans were able to defeat the Indigenous people in American, Australia and New Zealand. Crosby argues that the biology and ecology factors played tremendous roles in their win. Crosy argues that the weeds, animals and the Europeans best allies, the germs or diseases that they brought with them to the New World dominated the Indigenous people. The Europeans sought to make the New World as similiar to that of the Old World. It was interesting for me because we were taught that the military superiority of the Europeans was the main factor. In addition, Crosy also examines the unsuccessful attempts of the Europeans at dominating Asia and Africa. "Ecological Imperialism" definitely is a groundbreaking book in the field of environmental history.
Rating: 
Summary: Swarming across the seams of Pangaea
Review: Always lively and perspicacious, this clever book seeks to solve a seemingly trivial puzzle: while historians have mustered a host of plausible explanations (weapons, diseases, horses, etc.) for why Europeans spread so thickly into North America, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina (the lands Crosby labels "Neo-Europes"), what could possibly explain why the dandelion did so as well? The question doesn't appear so innocuous when it is pointed out that not just the dandelion, but the European housefly, and feral pigs, and a horde of other weeds, pests, crops, diseases and livestock from Europe followed suit. Quite often these organisms, even the domesticated ones, raced ahead of European explorers themselves, rapidly proliferating into vast herds and stands that the settlers themselves could not fathom. Why was this so? Why didn't, say, Australian weeds, their seeds inadvertently shipped back to England, eventually carpet the meadows and fields of Europe? To answer this odd question, Professor Crosby begins his story with Pangaea--the great supercontinent that began to split apart about 200 million years ago into the continents we now have scattered about the globe. These "seams of Pangaea" then forced a radical divergence in the terrestrial flora and fauna of the planet, and set the stage for the equally radical convergence initiated when European mariners crossed these now mid-oceanic seams. Crosby details case after case in each category: weeds, pests, livestock, diseases and crops. He forcefully illustrates how sudden and overwhelming the ecosystem takeover was until the suspense is too much to bear. What is the answer? He drops clues every now and then, and the most explicit one is in the form of a quote that begins one of the final chapters: if weeds are to be defined as those organisms that thrive on the disturbances caused by humans, then humans themselves must be considered the primary weed of all. Here, then is the answer: all the opportunistic fellow-travelers of the European diaspora are exquisitely coadapted to the scale and pace of the continuous ecological disequilibrium characteristic of the Old World civilizations--and they, in turn, furthered and helped generate that very disequilibrium. Together--humans, horses, cattle, pigs, rats, clover, peaches, measles and, yes, dandelions--comprised a potent self-replicating system, dimly discerned by its contemporaries, that could not be stopped once it spilled across the seams of Pangaea.
Rating:
Summary: loved it, strongly recommend it
Review: Cogent, thorough, poignant. Masterful expansive work. Enough adjectives -- it was simply a marvellous trip through history of earth and man, both in large strokes and in small detailed case examples.
Rating:
Summary: loved it, strongly recommend it
Review: Cogent, thorough, poignant. Masterful expansive work. Enough adjectives -- it was simply a marvellous trip through history of earth and man, both in large strokes and in small detailed case examples.
Rating:
Summary: What is a weed? No, really - What is a weed?
Review: How did a few determined pioneers from a tiny continent, succeed in sailing the oceans, and later on, the takeover of the Americas and Australia? How did the Conquistadors, with few "good" men, bring down the mighty Aztec empire of Central America and plunder its treasures for Spain? How did the escape of a few pious Pilgrims lead to the eradication of the Red Indians? How did the Pilgrims open the New World for the European? The standard reply usually centers around the thesis that Europeans had overwhelming superiority in military might, science, and technology. It is the sexy reply, but in my humble opinion, they are wrong. Guns gave the invaders from Europe, the capacity to conquer. But the stunning success of European colonization depended on much more than guns. Its success ran along a deeper biological and epidemiological basis or disease. How did all this come about? Lets go back to the start, lets begins with the Pangea. The Pangea left a great divide which had left the New World extremely vulnerable. Isolation in this sense would be preferable, but the Europeans managed to create a bridge, cleverly fabricating ocean worthy vessels. The aboriginal, such as the Maoris, though often heavily populated, were stuck in the Twilight Zone of the Stone Age and could not compete with European technology and disease. Some others like the Guanches of the Canary Islands or the Tasmanian, disappeared almost entirely; others like the Aborigines of Australia, dwindled to become, virtually, a non-entity:
Alfred Crosby writes that: "These early humans were about to do something of the same magnitude as moving from earth to another planet. They were about to leave a world - the riven core of Pangea, Eurasia plus Africa - of life forms with which their ancestors had lived for millions of years and go to worlds where neither humans nor hominids nor apes of any kind had ever existed, worlds dominated by plants, animals, and microlife whose forms had often diverged sharply from the patterns of life in the Old World."
As early as 870 AD Scandinavians were trying out island travel. Europeans cautiously, at first, ventured out from their tiny and overcrowded continent and settled in such places as Iceland, the Americas and as far as new Zealand. They chiefly put down roots, as might be expected, not at the empty polar wastes or in deadly equatorial forests, but rather, in the user friendly open spaces of temperate grassland.
Crosby later adds that: "The Neo-Europes all lie primarily in temperate zones, but their native biotas are clearly different from one another and from that of northern Eurasia." and "There is a striking paradox here. The parts of the world that today in terms of population and culture are most like Europe are far away from Europe, they have indigenous floras and faunas different from those of European. The regions that today export more foodstuffs of European provenance - grains and meats - than any other land on earth had no wheat, barley, rye, cattle, pigs, sheep, or goats whatsoever five hundred years ago."
What really happened? The whole of North America, much of Middle America, the pampas of South America, the steppes of Siberia, the southern part of Africa, Australia and New Zealand were ideal for the picking. These locales offered Europeans an environment, very similar to the ecology to continental Europe. This being so, Europeans needed little, if virtually no, getting used to or modification of basic their familiar techniques of grazing and farming. These regions of "Neo-Europe" also afforded and ideal biological ecosystem for the invaders. "Perhaps the success of European imperialism has a biological, and ecological, component." There was no competition for the invading plants and animals.
So, back to my question? What is a Weed? "Weeds" depending on your perspective, spread like wildfire. The Americas and Australia did not have highly distinct ecosystem. Moreover, they specifically lacked powerful and predatory creatures. The pampas, with its flightless birds and Australia with its kangaroos were wide open and exceptionally hospitable to the horses, pigs, cattle and sheep the European brought on purpose, and to the rats and other vermin he brought by accident. European livestock, wild and domesticated, flourished in the Neo-Europes, and ensured settlers, a luxury seat at Natures' cornucopia. What in conclusion, tipped the balance of power, was disease. The invaders and his beast marched into continents which were amazingly disease free. But with them they brought all the killer parasites and pathogens associated with urban Europe. The elite guard of the invaders were TB, typhus, whooping cough, measles. Which Europeans had developed considerable immunity to. These microorganism, proved fatal to Aboriginals, who were exposed to them for the very first time. Smallpox destroyed the Amerindians in the pampas, the Aborigines, the indigenous of Siberia; syphilis ruined the Maoris. The advance team, so to speak, were the Old World pathogens. The New World pathogens where no match for the Old World "pestilence." While great numbers were falling in the New World, little, if no reciprocation, was evident. As we look back, we see that the Europeans never really had a clue as to what kind of an effect they had on the New World. With the introduction of the European ways, there could be no way of knowing that the exported values, technology, animals and pathogens would have such devastating effect on the environment and people. The Europeans where driven by non other than the base longings of greed and where determined that nothing was going to stand in their way. With the help of the pathogens, they got it. What do you think of weeds now? Don't scratch your head - read the book! It will change the way you view the world.
Miguel Llora
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