Environment and Empire (Oxford History of the British Empire Companion)
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; Oxford University Press
Published: November 9, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 320
ISBN-13: 9780199260317
Subjects: Imperialism; Social history; The Environment; History; History - General History; History: World; United Kingdom, Great Britain; Europe - Great Britain - General; Human Geography; Public Policy - Environmental Policy; History / Great Britain; Great Britain; Human ecology; Natural resources; Plant ecology
Description: "Environmental history deals with the reciprocal interaction between people and other elements in the natural world. This study illustrates diverse environmental themes in the history of the British empire. It concentrates initially on the material factors that shaped patterns of extraction and environmental change. But a core theme throughout is the tension between exploitation and conservation. India needed forests for its railways; Australia required pastures for its sheep. Soil erosion was seen to threaten African agriculture. Conservation aimed to preserve resources by exclusion, as in wildlife parks and forests, or to guarantee efficient use of soil and water."

"This study concludes by describing political reassertions by colonized peoples over natural resources. In a post-imperial age, they have found a new voice, reformulating ideas about nature, landscape, and heritage, and challenging - at local and global level - views about who has the right to regulate nature. Environment and Empire is an innovative synthesis, exploring environmental change, conservationist ideas, environmentally related diseases, visual images of nature, and political ecology over the long term."--Jacket.