The first industrial revolution put Europe’s natural resources under great stress. Forests gave way to factories, and large-scale commercial farming. Moreover, Europe did not have the mineral resources it needed. However, it did have huge armies and mighty warships at its disposal. When you add a little greed, colonialism was the natural solution.
How Africa and South America Attracted Colonialism
South America and Africa possessed deep forests, fertile plains, abundant game, and rich mineral resources initially easy to mine. The indigenous inhabitants did not have the military muscle to take on the likes of Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.
Moreover, the locals initially welcomed the strangers and treated them like royalty. Later, buccaneers discovered they could purchase human beings cheaply, and sell them for good money in the Americas. This provided the labor for factories and farms there, while at home entire communities disappeared.
How Colonialism Kick Started Climate Change
The fruits of colonialism delivered two severe blows to Earth’s sustainability. Settlers destroyed huge swathes of forests to supply food, tea, coffee, sugar, tobacco, and alcohol to the west.
The west in turn became extremely wealthy now that it had the human and mineral resources it previously lacked.
Suddenly, everybody in the first world wanted their own electricity and automobile. Huge power stations puffed out volumes of smoke to deliver electricity to voracious machines. The world was ‘going like a boeing’ or so they said. Meanwhile, dark clouds of carbon dioxide were gathering on the horizon.
The Human Disaster the Colonial Period Left Behind
Wealthy ‘first worlders’ in parts of America, Europe, Asia, and Australia can afford the ‘luxury’ of ‘going green’ because it is the thing to do. The vast majority of those living in South America and Africa cannot, and their numbers are growing exponentially. We may never reach them and crack climate change, unless we can find a way to make going green affordable for them too.
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How Deforestation Started Climate Change
How Does Carbon Reach the Atmosphere?
Preview Image: The First Anglo-Sikh War
