European movement throughout history is a topic of great interest. When comparing Europeans to native life, European success against the native people came from advancements in the fields of technology, warfare, and a better idea of how a society should work. In Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900, author Alfred Crosby notes these advancements as important, but looks at European expansion through a biological perspective to explain why the Europeans became vastly superior to the native people in all parts of the world. Crosby takes the reader all the way back to the separation of Pangaea to explain how this naturally evolving phenomenon started and would continue through history. Crosby dives deep into all ecological realms of flora and fauna to decide exactly what might have been the causes of European expansion across the New World, Australia, and New Zealand.
So how does Crosby come to a logical conclusion that biology is the reason for European history and not areas such as warfare and superior technology to the native groups of people? Crosby first begins with the separation of Pangaea into two super continents and then later separating into landmasses that look began to move into the familiar shape that we view the world in today. With the break-up of the super continent, all varieties of flora and fauna slowly began to change. The causes of this was due to climate changes as some forms of plant and animal life could no longer cease to live in their new (and sometimes harsh) living arrangements while others slowly became well suited to their new climate. Crosby’s analysis really takes off when arguably the most dominant of any type of species is introduced. Man’s introduction into Ecological Imperialism brought along one of the necessary factors of European expansion later down the line for Homo sapiens. Slowly through time, the evolution of man moved through several revolutions that evolved his skills into the forms of hunting and gathering. As we fast forward through history, man eventually forms the first civilization of Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. A lot has changed in time from the Neolithic revolution to the formation of man’s first society, but it really is not until travel on a worldwide scale changed flora and fauna for the scope of transatlantic history.
Once man was able to cross ocean and seas, biology took off and really changed the shape of history, perhaps even more than the original changes that happened due to the shifting of continents. This movement of man (specifically Europeans although other groups would move over time by their own will or not) to the new lands of the Americas, Africa, and the Pacific realm of Australia and New Zealand brought a host of new plant and animal life to these new lands. As well as new domesticated plant and animal life brought to the new lands, disease finally had a way in which to travel. Disease could easily flourish on these new lands due to the lack of natural immunities built up by the native people. Ultimately while all areas of movement were keys to man and European domination in later history, man eventually took evolution out of the picture and made himself the key biological player that evolution and natural changes of the planet had been earlier in history.
On the grander scale of whether or not Ecological Imperialism is relative to the course of transatlantic history, is some ways yes, in others no. For the most part the entire set-up of Crosby’s book (mainly the split of Pangaea and Neolithic revolution) hold no weight in the idea of transatlantic history. On the whole, this is important as it sets up the thesis for Crosby’s work and also sets up natural history for the eventual idea of a study for transatlantic history, but ultimately, Ecological Imperialism does not get important for the field until man starts moving himself around the Atlantic and other bodies of water bringing along new plants, animals, and disease to the New World and elsewhere. The thesis idea that biology is the reason for European dominance in later history is a very good analysis from Crosby. While biology is not the sole reason for this explanation, it does however go with the idea of superior technology and idea of civilization that helps the Europeans. This natural evolution Crosby touches on can be used to explain the superiority of the Europeans in that man developed a highly adaptive brain and European lifestyle moved at a much faster rate of expansion that it is no wonder that by the time of colonization Europeans were advanced in almost every field compared to the natives. Crosby’s work is ultimately a very important study of history, but for the field of transatlantic history, perhaps only bits and pieces should be used to further explain the field.
