Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900

The concept of the “Neo-Europe” was one of Alfred Crosby’s most important contributions to academia. Neo-Europes, by his definition, are defined as countries and continents that were transformed to such an extent by European colonialism that their cultural and ecological makeup became almost entirely European. This category includes places like northern North America, coastal Australia, and almost the entire country of New Zealand. Ecological Imperialism explains the variety of reasons these particular places became Neo-Europes while other areas managed to survive years of colonial settlement with their native cultures and biodiversity largely intact.

The history of the Neo-Europes begins with the breakup of Pangaea; to become a Neo-Europe, a land mass first had to be geographically distant from the original Europe for enough time that evolution began to diverge. Human populations in these areas arrived from Eurasia very early in human history and then for one reason or another were cut off from populations in other parts of the world. Thus, human cultural evolution in what would become the Neo-Europes diverged extensively from that of Eurasia as well. In many locations, such as Australia, the population base was relatively small, so there was less cultural exchange and in turn less advancement of technology than in more populated areas like Eurasia.