The Ecological Effects of European Colonization
by When Europeans came to the New World, they brought their plants with them. Soon, their as much control over the local ecology as the Europeans did.
In his book, “Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe” Alfred Crosby discusses an often neglected side-effect of European colonization. Specifically, he discusses how Europeans exported their plants, not just themselves and their systems of government, to the places they colonized. In most of those places, native European species have largely replaced local species to the point that those local species are extinct or much less common than they were before the Europeans arrived. How is it possible for a particular kind of plant to dominate an ecology soon after being introduced and force out long establish species?
Europeans themselves were one of the chief reasons that European plants did so well at displacing local plants in the their colonies. Obviously, they brought the plants with them, but they also gave them an environment where they could grow. Sometimes, they intentionally cultivated European plants. Even when they did not intend for the plants to grow as they did, Europeans still created the conditions of their plants’ success.
They brought diseases that killed much of the local population and cleared former villages and deforested areas that the new, European plants could exploit. The Europeans’ animals also had a great deal to do with the ecological changes in their colonies. Although the local plants were often good for grazing, the animals often overgrazed and trampled the old plants. When new plants had to be used to feed their livestock, Europeans often used what they were familiar with. After trampling the old plants, eating the new plants, passing the seeds, and giving them valuable fertilizer, European livestock ensured that the new, European plants would grew well in their new environment.
European farming also played an important role in changing the ecology of the colonies. In many colonies, the Europeans introduced crops that they either farmed themselves or farmed with the help of slave or low-paid labor. Their farming methods went far beyond subsistence agriculture, however. If they had simply wanted to produce enough food for themselves to eat, they could have used the local species. They would not have needed to introduce any new species.
They had to introduce those new species, however, because they wanted to grow those new crops for a profit. European colonists knew, for example, that they could grow sugar cane in Brazil and sell the sugar in Europe. This one-crop system ensured that the Europeans did everything in their power to maintain the commercial viability of that one, profitable crop. If that meant deforesting large areas or letting their livestock destroy all of the local plants, that is what they did.
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