Ecological Imperialism

Similar to “imperialism,” ecological imperialism concerns the deliberate act of expanding power, control, and authority by one country over areas located outside its borders—areas that become part of the empire. Whether referring to direct rule, indirect economic control, or ideological or cultural domination, and whether applied to the ancient or modern worlds, imperialism involves the conquest of the powerful over the less fortunate for gains in land, resources, and/or some form of tribute. Ecological imperialism, however, extends understanding of imperialism to include ecological factors for explaining the successful conquest of empires and the demise of the conquered. The phrase is also used to help explain the eventual decline of empires as a result of dismissing the ecological constraints of imperial expansion. Concurrently, ecological imperialism often refers to the act of European powers transferring plant and animal species from one part of the world to another, and subjecting those species and regions to European-style agriculture, which has had immensely negative effects on local ecosystems. In the contemporary period, ecological imperialism manifests itself through the privatization of plant varieties originating primarily in the global South by agro-industry and biotechnology institutions.

[Page 126]Imperialism has existed for thousands of years, as have its ecological consequences. As part of his assessment of ecological imperialism, John Bellamy Foster proposed that societies have overstretched their ecological impact since the dawn of civilization. For example, as the result of a combination of constant warfare, salinization of irrigation water caused by unsustainable increases in agricultural production, and a growing population, the Sumerians experienced ecological collapse around 2,000 B.C.E. The Roman Empire also declined in part because of ecological factors—vast agricultural zones of the empire became desertified as agriculture intensified. Deforestation, overgrazing, and improper irrigation led to soil degradation and disease outbreaks, such as malaria. By 200 c.e., Rome experienced life-threatening food shortages and population decline, contributing to the debilitation of the empire.

Ecological imperialism, however, took off with the emergence of the earliest stage of capitalist development, mercantilism. By the late 15th century, European absolutist states had found new worlds to plunder to feed their people, to expand their markets, and to fund their wars for territorial expansion inside Europe and beyond. Colonialism is the type of imperialism by which European powers expanded the reach of merchant capitalism worldwide, dominating territories that would host their colonies. Justified in part by the European call for the “domination of nature,” these colonies extracted natural resources and transformed the land to meet the needs of the colonists and the European markets. By the turn of the 19th century, numerous mammals valuable for their pelts were brought to near-extinction in Europe and North and South America, in some cases leading to severe alterations of the surrounding landscape as a result of their interconnection with the ecosystem. Spanish and Portuguese colonies established in the Caribbean and Brazil to export sugar via slave-based production systems decimated the local environment through deforestation and the de-fertilization of soils commonly associated with sugarcane mono-cropping, while making these colonies dependent on Europe for food.

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