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Imagine death on such a scale that the forest reclaims so much land that the atmosphere changes. That was colonization…

wahern 5y ago
That wasn't colonization, that was just accident. The diseases began their spread and began to destroy populations during the very early exploration phase, before any land was ever forcefully taken. For example, IIRC, the second Spanish expedition of interior North America found a dramatically diminished population from the first Spanish expedition, with neither expedition attempting to settle lands or otherwise intended to be hostile. The claimed biological warfare incidents are 1) not well supported by evidence, but in any event 2) came much later in colonization, which was a multi-century process, BTW. Biological warfare is mostly a boogeyman, anyhow; something that in the 21st century we personally find most scary because modern people in mature industrial countries are unable to conceive of the raw, physical, individualized brutality of the actual conquests. Brutality to modern society means indiscriminate, technologically mediated, arms-length terrorism in the manner of something like biological warfare, so in the culture wars over historical narrative that's what one side uses as its sales pitch.
- pasabagi 5y ago
  I think it's a little bit more nuanced - if you think of something like the Hesperia incident, where a German ship breached a japanese quarantine (1897), or e.g. the introduction of spanish flu to Samoa - you can see it doesn't really take a devious plot to knowingly introduce a plague to a vulnerable population. It just takes the ordinary colonial mix of racism, callousness, and utter disregard for human life. There are also things like the australian smallpox epedemic, which is a little suspect, given that australia is isolated enough that the incubation and recovery period is greater than the time it takes to travel there. Obviously, people doing stuff like this don't tend to leave a load of written records, but I think it's consistent with the mentality and capabilities of people at the time to engage in purposeful biological warfare.

That wasn't colonization, that was just accident. The diseases began their spread and began to destroy populations during the very early exploration phase, before any land was ever forcefully taken. For example, IIRC, the second Spanish expedition of interior North America found a dramatically diminished population from the first Spanish expedition, with neither expedition attempting to settle lands or otherwise intended to be hostile. The claimed biological warfare incidents are 1) not well supported by evidence, but in any event 2) came much later in colonization, which was a multi-century process, BTW. Biological warfare is mostly a boogeyman, anyhow; something that in the 21st century we personally find most scary because modern people in mature industrial countries are unable to conceive of the raw, physical, individualized brutality of the actual conquests. Brutality to modern society means indiscriminate, technologically mediated, arms-length terrorism in the manner of something like biological warfare, so in the culture wars over historical narrative that's what one side uses as its sales pitch.

pasabagi 5y ago
I think it's a little bit more nuanced - if you think of something like the Hesperia incident, where a German ship breached a japanese quarantine (1897), or e.g. the introduction of spanish flu to Samoa - you can see it doesn't really take a devious plot to knowingly introduce a plague to a vulnerable population. It just takes the ordinary colonial mix of racism, callousness, and utter disregard for human life. There are also things like the australian smallpox epedemic, which is a little suspect, given that australia is isolated enough that the incubation and recovery period is greater than the time it takes to travel there. Obviously, people doing stuff like this don't tend to leave a load of written records, but I think it's consistent with the mentality and capabilities of people at the time to engage in purposeful biological warfare.