The Concept of Climate Improvement: Colonialism and Environment in German South West Africa (2015)
The desiccation theories formulated in the eighteenth century pointed out the connection between deforestation, rainfall reduction and climate change. After the `Scramble for Africa' the conservation philosophy of the European colonial powers was based on anti-desiccation forest policy. This article seeks to consider how the concepts of `desiccationism' were taken into account by the German colonists in forest and land management of their new colony: South West Africa. The conservation policy carried out by the German colonial administration was very controversial because they were interested only in areas suitable for European settlement. The early twentieth century idea of improving the climate of South West Africa by greening the Central Highland and the Namib Desert was an excellent indication of a firm belief in science. The other side of the coin was that no environmental responsibility was taken for the African reserves.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Hodge, Joseph M.;
(2009)
Colonial Foresters versus Agriculturalists: The Debate over Climate Change and Cocoa Production in the Gold Coast
(/isis/citation/CBB001020837/)
Article
Sigurmundsson, Friðρór S.;
Gísladóttir, Guðrún;
Óskarsson, Hreinn;
(2014)
Decline of Birch Woodland Cover in Þjórsárdalur Iceland from 1587 to 1938
(/isis/citation/CBB001421932/)
Book
MacDowell, Laurel Sefton;
(2012)
An Environmental History of Canada
(/isis/citation/CBB001422385/)
Article
Alice Rudge;
(2022)
Cultivating “Care”: Colonial Botany and the Moral Lives of Oil Palm at the Twentieth Century’s Turn
(/isis/citation/CBB173685294/)
Article
Orth, Joel J.;
(2011)
Directing Nature's Creative Forces: Climate Change, Afforestation, and the Nebraska National Forest
(/isis/citation/CBB001035024/)
Article
Morgan, Ruth A.;
(2013)
Histories for an Uncertain Future: Environmental History and Climate Change
(/isis/citation/CBB001201446/)
Article
Mikhail, Alan;
(2015)
Ottoman Iceland: A Climate History
(/isis/citation/CBB001422336/)
Article
Meredith McKittrick;
(January 2018)
Talking about the Weather: Settler Vernaculars and Climate Anxieties in Early Twentieth-Century South Africa
(/isis/citation/CBB342951539/)
Article
Meredith McKittrick;
(2017)
Theories of “Reprecipitation” and Climate Change in the Settler Colonial World
(/isis/citation/CBB459811663/)
Article
Mathews, Andrew S;
(2014)
Scandals, Audits, and Fictions: Linking Climate Change to Mexican Forests
(/isis/citation/CBB001421168/)
Article
Hughes, J. Donald;
(2011)
Ancient Deforestation Revisited
(/isis/citation/CBB001034563/)
Article
Bankoff, Greg;
(2013)
“Deep Forestry”: Shapers of the Philippine Forests
(/isis/citation/CBB001320298/)
Book
Johnson, Sherry;
(2011)
Climate and Catastrophe in Cuba and the Atlantic World in the Age of Revolution
(/isis/citation/CBB001202047/)
Article
Germán Vergara;
(January 2018)
How Coal Kept My Valley Green: Forest Conservation, State Intervention, and the Transition to Fossil Fuels in Mexico
(/isis/citation/CBB199475593/)
Book
Meng Zhang;
(2021)
Timber and Forestry in Qing China: Sustaining the Market
(/isis/citation/CBB535359553/)
Chapter
Wilson, Andrew;
(2013)
The Mediterranean Environment in Ancient History: Perspectives and Prospects
(/isis/citation/CBB001422317/)
Book
Krüger, Tobias;
(2013)
Discovering the Ice Ages: International Reception and Consequences for a Historical Understanding of Climate
(/isis/citation/CBB001450174/)
Article
Sunseri, Thaddeus;
(2003)
Reinterpreting a Colonial Rebellion: Forestry and Social Control in German East Africa, 1874--1915
(/isis/citation/CBB000650977/)
Thesis
Hill, Michael R.;
(2013)
Temperateness, Temperance, and the Tropics: Climate and Morality in the English Atlantic World, 1555-1705
(/isis/citation/CBB001567479/)
Article
Thuy Linh Nguyen;
(April 2021)
Coal Mining, Forest Management, and Deforestation in French Colonial Vietnam
(/isis/citation/CBB943648978/)
Be the first to comment!