Abstract

How European Empires Triggered Biological and Cultural Transformations – and Why Diverging Paths Developed

We are losing forests and wetlands around the world; extinction rates are approaching mass-extinction dynamics; and cultural markers such as linguistic diversity are in decline. Unsurprisingly, both academics and the broader public are increasingly interested in understanding the origins and the reasons of these processes.

A promising approach is to link these transformations to the emergence of European empires and the rise of global capitalism. In my research, I focus on the early phase, from the fifteenth to the early nineteenth century, and argue that colonial and Indigenous actors on the ground were paramount in shaping these transformations – often more so than directives from the metropoles or theoretical treatises. My key premises (based on preliminary findings) are:

First, understanding the human–nature nexus is not optional but essential if we are to grasp how, why, and under what circumstances these transformations occurred.

Second, we should not assume a path dependency leading inevitably toward ecological collapse and cultural decline. Rather, we are confronted with a multiplicity of trajectories through which bio-cultural transformations could unfold.

In this talk, I will discuss cases from around the world, including how Caribbean maroon communities stabilized the plantation system while also protecting ecosystems; why Indigenous polities of the Eastern Woodlands developed a specific form of commodity frontier capitalism that contributed to cultural decline but relative stable ecosystems; and under what circumstances species populations collapsed in some imperial contexts while remaining stable in others.