Ecological Imperialism is the idea that the true reason European settlers were so successful in the colonization effort was their introduction of animals, plants, and especially disease to new territories. The many pathogens they carried with them adversely affected the native populations of North America, Australia, and Africa, and were infinitely more destructive than guns. It is estimated that disease wiped out 90-95 percent of native people. Ecological Imperialism also involves the physical destruction and disregard colonists had for the environments they were invading. For example, the North American Beaver was hunted nearly to extinction in the 17th and 18th centuries due to the high demand for its pelt. Instances such as this upset the natural balance of the established ecological system.

Cortes and the Aztecs

In the Early 16th Century, Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes de Monroy y Pizarro lead an expedition to what is now Mexico, which resulted in the total desecration of the Aztec Empire. It only took two years (February 1519-August 1521) for the Spaniards to claim victory over the Aztecs. While it is true that Europeans has superior weapons to the native people, weapons were not the only reason that natives fell so hard. It is believed that in 1520, smallpox arrived in the Americas on a Spanish ship, carried by a slave. Having had no prior exposure to the virus (and other viruses such as the flu or measles) the Aztecs were rendered more or less incapable of stopping colonization.

"The New World"

In 1608, English settlers arrived in North America and established the Jamestown colony in Virginia. Though at first it seemed it was the colonists who would not survive the starvation and disease of the New World, ultimately it was the natives who did not survive the diseases of the Old World. "The colonizers brought along plants and animals new to the Americas, some by design and others by accident. Determined to farm in a European manner, the colonists introduced their domesticated livestock--honeybees, pigs, horses, mules, sheep, and cattle--and their domesticated plants, including wheat, barley, rye, oats, grasses, and grapevines. But the colonists also inadvertently carried pathogens, weeds, and rats." The introduction of this foreign life wreaked havoc on the native species, and because native people did not know how to deal with the new flora, it rendered them incapable of dealing with their effects.

The first major smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

 outbreak among natives was between 1616 and 1619 in Massachusetts. Native Americans had never seen a disease like this, and it literally wiped out entire tribes, such as the Abenaki, the Pawtucket, and the Wampanoag. "By wiping out the Indians, smallpox helped the colonists help themselves to land and resources formerly controlled by unfriendly native people. the Europeans could and did colonized virtually unchallenged in some areas." In 1633 there was another devastating epidemic. William Bradford, governor of the Plymouth Colony, had this to say about it: "They lye on their hard matts, ye pox breaking and muttering, and running one into another, their skin cleaving (by reason thereof) to the matts they lye on; when they turn them, a whole side with flea off at once…and they will be all of a gore blood, most fearful to behold. Then being very sore, what with cold and other distempers, they dye like rotten sheep." Syphilis was also extremely devastating, and ran rampant when brought back to the Old World. It was arguably a part of the widespread trade of all things from slaves to disease to spices and animals between the old and new worlds (eastern and western hemispheres, essentially), which was known as the Columbian Exchange

Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange was a dramatically widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, human populations , communicable disease, and ideas between the Eastern and Western hemispheres . It was one of the most significant events concerning ecology, agriculture, and culture in all of human history...

--a reference to Christopher Columbus.

Fur Trade

The fur trade was detrimental to the survival of native people, as well as imperative to the success of settlers, for several reasons. Europeans were hungry for fur, and the demand was extremely high. Trappers employed natives because of their knowledge of the terrain and wildlife. This put native people, who had no immunity to European diseases, in very close contact with Europeans, subsequently spreading the disease rapidly due to the very nature of trade, which involves extensive traveling and interaction with other human beings.
The fur trade also upset the ecological balance of North America. "Restraint wasn't a hallmark of the fur trade. In 1822, in the north western regions of the country alone, the Hudson's Bay Company stockpiled 1500 fox skins, a paltry number compared with the 106,000 beaver skins, but too many none the less. THe fur traders at miscalculated. As predators, they had failed to adapt to their prey, and their prey, in turn, retaliated with denial. Of course, the red fox didn't renter himself extinct. His numbers merely shrank." .

Ecological Imperialism: The Expansion of Europe 900-1900 by Alfred Crosby

Historian and professor Alfred Crosby wrote "Ecological Imperialism: The Expansion of Europe 900-1900" in 1986. He uses the term "Neo-Europes" to describe the places colonized and conquered by Europeans.

Further Reading

Alfred Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe (Cambridge University Press: 1993) 900-1900

Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel (W.W. Norton & Company: 2005)

Sharon Kirsch, What Species of Creatures: Animal Relations From the New World (New Star Books: 2008).

Alan Taylor, American Colonies (Penguin Books: 2002), 280-300

Stephanie True Peters, Epidemic! Smallpox in the New World (Benchmark Books, 2005).