Environmental World History Essay

Uprising,Climate, and Disease

Agenda

• Medium writing assignment
• Lecture
• Discussion: Ross introduction

1. Watch “Thursday, October17 Lecture” posted toBlackboardCourse UnitsWeek 8
2. medium writing assignmentdue Oct 31stat 11:59 pm

Due Date

Thursday, October 31, 201911:59 PM

PointsPossible

40

• 1.Howwould you rank revolution, colonization, and industrialization inimportance for understanding our modern world when you considerour current relationship with the environment? [40 pts]
• 2.Uses specific examples fromlectures in weeks7, 8,9,&10[15pts]
• 3.Uses specific examples from McNeill'sIntro, and Marks chapters 4 and 5 [15pts]
• 4.Take into consideration not only our current social, economic, and politicalstructures but also our relationship with theenvironment[10 pts]
• 5.You can cite lectures (Mevissen,Meiji Japan) and book material (McNeill3) or(Marks 110),etc

Background to Revolution

• 1500-1800: trade united world
• Power disparity between large and smallstates increasesfewer states exist
• Challenges to authority–in thought andbelief
• Some areas specialize in goods production(in colonies, this was coerced)
• Increased speed and expansion ofcommunications

Ecological Transformation in Colonies

• Sugarcane needs good soil, lots of sunlight, fuel (timber), andlabor
• Caribbean islands: lots of fuel but few people

• Populations soared with slavery

• Transformation:

• trees cleared for fuel and cropland: many local plants/animals wentextinct
• Soils eroded or depleted
• Eroded soils created marshesmosquitos flourished
• Large populations + favorable conditions also suited mosquitos

Questions for video

• Who are the main powers in Latin America? What other powershave colonies in the New World?
• If we fast forward 100 years from 1750 to 1850, how do thingslook? What is different?
• What happens from 1807-1830?
• What does “creole” mean in context of Latin Revolutions?
• Name two countries that gain independence thanks to Bolivar.
• After Diderot publishes the Encyclopedia in France, who borrowsheavily from his political ideas?
• In this context of Enlightenment and American Independence,what else influences revolts in Latin America?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6lIgVSvizk

Latin AmericanRevolutions(1810-1825)

AmericanRevolution

(1775-83)

French Revolution(1789-99)

HaitianRevolution

(1793-1804)

The Colonial World Ready for Independence

• Europe slowly lost control of NewWorld colonies
• Fighting for liberty/freedom
• Aided by disease and the climate

American Revolution

• Americans fighting political liberties
• Same ethnicity as Europeans
• Differential immunity: colonists accustomed tomalaria and yellow fever, Brits were not

• most Brits immune to smallpox (colonists weren’t)

Decisive siege of Yorktown/Cornwallis (Sept 1781)

Anophelesquadrimaculatus(mosquito carrying malaria)

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PputhGHu0Io/WQskEsMwkNI/AAAAAAAAgNk/Qjd1lVGou5EddyUJ1K6hX2Ic5C1k4C5hACLcB/s1600/sugar-america.jpg

Haitian Revolution

• St.Domingue90%slaves, and10% white middleclasses,landowners, freed slaves, and mixed-racepersons
• sugar + coffee = $$
• Millions depended on it for livelihood in France
• Super brutal
• French Rev. + uprisings = French initially left

• Brits tried to occupy
• ToussaintL’ouverture(ex-slave)led revolt againstBritish
• Worked with French andSpanish
• keptBrits where diseasespread fastest
• 1793-98: Brits’ occupation=loss of15,000men (60-65% oftotal population) to yellowfever
• 1802-3:When French tried tore-control, lost 50,000-55,000(80-85% of troops) to yellowfever

https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/shipinteriorembed.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&strip=all

Consequences of Colonial Wars

• In the end, Europeans lost 180,000troopsin Caribbean
• Brits recruited ‘locals’ (mostly ex-slaves)to man garrisons
• end of slave trade, British blacksoldiers liberated
• French sold Louisiana
• lost interest in French Empire in WesternHemisphere

Ross,Introduction

• 1.What is the modern-day issue that the introduction’s first paragraph outlines? Starting in the second paragraph,what is driving this process? According to that paragraph, who is purchasing the land?
• 2.Why does Ross say that this process is a study in “ecological imperialism”? Explain with political economy andpolitical ecology.
• 3.What is the “concern of the following pages”? What is the point Ross is going to explore?
• 4.Why was European imperialism such a huge feature of global environmental history?
• 5.On the top of page 4, does Ross think that this is just a story of exploitation and destruction? Why or why not?

Ecology and Imperial History

• 6.Rather than considering colonialism a “social project with ecological consequences,” how does Ross want tovisualize it?
• 7.What are the four inter-related themes that caused New Imperialism in the late 19thcentury?
• 8.Pages 6-7: What is the scale of this book? Will the author be focusing on one empire or many? Do we know thetime period he is studying? Why?
• 9.What did contemporaries believe about the new age of empire-building? What was the reality?

Empire, Industry and the Global Environment

• 10.What are the two opposing narratives between Europeans and subalterns about colonialismandwhat new ideasattempt to correct these two perspectives?
• 11.How does Ross characterize the Biological Old Regime? What are examples he uses to describe this?
• 12.How did empires affect trade or globalization?

Coverage, Themes, Organization

• 13.What areas is Ross studying? Which areas is henotstudying and why?
• 14.Starting on page 19, what are the book’s three main parts, structures, and arguments?
1. Watch “Thursday, October 17Lecture” posted to BlackboardCourse UnitsWeek 8
2. medium writing assignment dueOct 31stat 11:59 pm