Empire and Environment: The Origins of the Anthropocene in Global Colonial History

In the Age of Empire, imperialism and capitalism intensified the extraction of natural resources and (attendant) environmental transformations worldwide on an unprecedented scale. Alongside political occupation, this appropriation of the natural world proceeded at pace with the “doctrine of discovery” (Smith), in which imperial sciences and individual agents of empire redefined the very concept of “nature.” The “Anthropocene” (Crutzen and Stoermer) as a diagnosis for our present planetary predicament in which humans now are a “major environmental force” irreversibly altering bio-, atmo-, and hydrospheric systems worldwide has emerged in consequence of this crucial immediate prehistory, as reflected in alternative monickers such as “Capitalocene” (Moore) or “Plantationocene” (Haraway, Tsing, et al.). And yet, the origins of the Anthropocene in global colonial history can only properly be understood by reintegrating into their history those subaltern actors, local or Indigenous populations and vernacular knowledges that the colonial state, global capitalism and dominant science exploited and depended on. While mostly focused on the British Empire in the long nineteenth century for its case studies, this seminar will pursue a multi-scalar and multi-sited global history that seeks to shed light on the crucial entanglements of empire and environment from above as from below. The course is designed for students with or without prior knowledge of environmental history.