European Colonialism and the Anthropocene - A View from the Pacific Coast of North America (2013) (15 pages)

G Model ANCENE-12; No. of Pages 15 e4 K.G. Lightfoot et al./Anthropocene xxx (2013) e1-e15 least eleven fur trade parties during their westward exploration in 1804-06, and by the mid-1830s trade outposts were established across the intermountain West, Northern Plains, and Pacific Coast within reach of most tribal hunters (Ray, 1988; Swagerty, 1988). Franciscan missionaries served as the backbone of the earliest attempts at Spanish colonialism in the American Southeast, Texas, New Mexico, and California in the 1500s-1700s (Panich and Schneider, 2014; Van Buren, 2010). Other colonial powers also worked with missionary orders to lay claim to new territories. Jesuit missionaries, for example, anchored the first permanent Spanish presence in Baja California but also established missions in the French-controlled Mississippi Valley region. These mission colonies often preceded the establishment of settler communities by many decades and even centuries in some frontier areas. 4. Environmental impacts of managerial and mission colonies The rapid dispersal of managerial and mission colonies across the Americas in early modern times had profound environmental impacts. As the papers in this special issue stress, human modifications of maritime ecologies and the creation of anthropogenic landscapes had already been on-going for many centuries or millennia. However, early modern colonialism differed from previous kinds of human-ecosystem relationships in the scale and intensity of environmental modifications. Market incentives drove colonial managers, protected and supported by core-states, to intensively exploit natural resources from a diverse range of temperate and tropical habitats across the globe as quickly as possible. As Richards (2003:57, 617-619) emphasized in his monumental book on the environmental impacts of the early modern world, ecological changes took place on a level never previously encountered as colonized regions experienced a significant decline in biomass and _ biodiversity. The basic environmental transformations instigated by managerial and mission colonies are sketched out below, followed by a more detailed discussion for the Californias. 4.1. Managerial colonies: plantations Whereas many indigenous hunting/gathering and agrarian societies in the Americas worked to enhance the diversity and availability of economic plants and animals in local habitats (see below), the commercial strategy of plantations revolved around cash crops, such as sugar, coffee, tobacco, cotton, and cocoa. Richards (2003:414) described how these agrarian programs introduced “an industrial, monocrop mode of production” in many areas of the world. Capital and labor were amassed at large plantations to produce and process specific commodities for transport to European, North American, and other world markets. While some livestock grazing might take place in outlying, low producing areas, and some crop rotation might also be practiced, the fundamental purpose of the plantation economy was to intensify production of one or more cash crops in order to reap and maximize immediate profits. The ecological consequences of sugar production on Caribbean islands are legendary (Grove, 1997; Mann, 2011; Richards, 2003; Watts, 1987). Deforestation resulted as laborers cleared tracts of lowland forests and underbrush for crop production by both burning and manual cutting, which significantly altered local habitats. The high nutrient demands of the cash crop eventually lead to soil exhaustion and erosion. 4.2. Managerial colonies: fur trade outposts Indigenous hunters had long harvested the fur bearing fauna that would later become the focus of the North American fur trade. Archeological research documents how pre-colonial indigenous hunting varied greatly in its impact to prey populations and local habitats. In some cases, there is excellent evidence that some large fauna, such as ungulates, were selectively hunted based on their large body size and that their populations declined markedly over time (Broughton, 1994, 2004). In other cases, it appears sustainable hunting practices were employed by specific Indian peoples over many centuries (Erlandson et al., 2005:64-65; Jones et al., 2011; Whitaker and Hildebrandt, 2011). The early modern fur trade radically altered indigenous hunting practices, as many native peoples became increasingly dependent on the fur trade for manufactured goods, particularly guns, shot, food, and alcohol. In entering the global market, native groups were driven to intensify their harvesting of beavers, along with deer, marten, raccoon, mink, river otters, wolves, wolverines, and foxes in terrestrial habitats, as well as sea otters, fur seals, and harbor seals in coastal locations. Market hunting led to the overexploitation of the most profitable animals, specifically beaver and sea otter, although the populations of other lucrative species also declined precipitously. As local habitats became hunted out, it stimulated the rapid movement of fur companies to explore and settle new, less devastated, places in western North America and along the Pacific Coast. Thus, a transformative ecological impact of the fur trade was the disappearance of fur-bearing species from local habitats (Richards, 2003:510-511), which had tremendous repercussions for native people who depended on them for food, warmth, and spiritual substance. Both the beaver and sea otter were essentially exterminated across most of their traditional North American ranges by the mid-1800s. What exacerbated the situation was that both served as keystone species in their respective terrestrial and marine habitats. Beavers are ecological engineers that create lush wetland environments through the construction of dams and ponds, which in turn, impound fertile nutrients, support diverse freshwater communities of sedges and grasses, and attract freshwater fish, waterfowl, osprey, and other animals (Richards, 2003:510-512). The removal of beavers from local regions had a cascading effect that went well beyond the disappearance of the species itself. Below we examine a similar kind of relationship that existed between sea otters and nearshore marine and estuarine ecosystems along the Pacific Coast. 4.3. Managerial colonies: fish/whale factories Jackson et al. (2001) presented an excellent overview of the human effects of long-term exploitation of marine environments (see also Erlandson and Rick, 2008). They note that commercial fishing, which began with European colonization, had a serious impact to the world’s fisheries. The exploitation of the rich cod fisheries in western Atlantic waters to meet market demands beginning in early modern times is a classic case. There is some debate about its overall impact to the Atlantic cod, but it is clear that local populations were overfished, and that the mean age and size of the cod have decreased over time (Jackson et al., 2001:632; Richards, 2003:573). There is little question that early commercial whaling in the North Atlantic led to the destruction of bowhead and right whale populations by the 1800s, which forced whalers to shift to other species in Atlantic and Pacific waters (Richards, 2003:612-616). 4.4, Mission colonies As rather eclectic enterprises involving some combination of farming, ranching, and craft production, missions introduced a series of changes to local environments, not unlike what transpired at settler colonies (Cronon, 1983; Crosby, 2004; Merchant, 2010). Coastal environments in particular were not only seats of Please cite this article in press as: Lightfoot, K.G., et al., European colonialism and the Anthropocene: A view from the Pacific Coast of North America. Anthropocene (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.09.002

G Model ANCENE-12; No. of Pages 15 e4 K.G. Lightfoot et al./Anthropocene xxx (2013) e1-e15 least eleven fur trade parties during their westward exploration in 1804-06, and by the mid-1830s trade outposts were established across the intermountain West, Northern Plains, and Pacific Coast within reach of most tribal hunters (Ray, 1988; Swagerty, 1988). Franciscan missionaries served as the backbone of the earliest attempts at Spanish colonialism in the American Southeast, Texas, New Mexico, and California in the 1500s-1700s (Panich and Schneider, 2014; Van Buren, 2010). Other colonial powers also worked with missionary orders to lay claim to new territories. Jesuit missionaries, for example, anchored the first permanent Spanish presence in Baja California but also established missions in the French-controlled Mississippi Valley region. These mission colonies often preceded the establishment of settler communities by many decades and even centuries in some frontier areas. 4. Environmental impacts of managerial and mission colonies The rapid dispersal of managerial and mission colonies across the Americas in early modern times had profound environmental impacts. As the papers in this special issue stress, human modifications of maritime ecologies and the creation of anthropogenic landscapes had already been on-going for many centuries or millennia. However, early modern colonialism differed from previous kinds of human-ecosystem relationships in the scale and intensity of environmental modifications. Market incentives drove colonial managers, protected and supported by core-states, to intensively exploit natural resources from a diverse range of temperate and tropical habitats across the globe as quickly as possible. As Richards (2003:57, 617-619) emphasized in his monumental book on the environmental impacts of the early modern world, ecological changes took place on a level never previously encountered as colonized regions experienced a significant decline in biomass and _ biodiversity. The basic environmental transformations instigated by managerial and mission colonies are sketched out below, followed by a more detailed discussion for the Californias. 4.1. Managerial colonies: plantations Whereas many indigenous hunting/gathering and agrarian societies in the Americas worked to enhance the diversity and availability of economic plants and animals in local habitats (see below), the commercial strategy of plantations revolved around cash crops, such as sugar, coffee, tobacco, cotton, and cocoa. Richards (2003:414) described how these agrarian programs introduced “an industrial, monocrop mode of production” in many areas of the world. Capital and labor were amassed at large plantations to produce and process specific commodities for transport to European, North American, and other world markets. While some livestock grazing might take place in outlying, low producing areas, and some crop rotation might also be practiced, the fundamental purpose of the plantation economy was to intensify production of one or more cash crops in order to reap and maximize immediate profits. The ecological consequences of sugar production on Caribbean islands are legendary (Grove, 1997; Mann, 2011; Richards, 2003; Watts, 1987). Deforestation resulted as laborers cleared tracts of lowland forests and underbrush for crop production by both burning and manual cutting, which significantly altered local habitats. The high nutrient demands of the cash crop eventually lead to soil exhaustion and erosion. 4.2. Managerial colonies: fur trade outposts Indigenous hunters had long harvested the fur bearing fauna that would later become the focus of the North American fur trade. Archeological research documents how pre-colonial indigenous hunting varied greatly in its impact to prey populations and local

habitats. In some cases, there is excellent evidence that some large fauna, such as ungulates, were selectively hunted based on their large body size and that their populations declined markedly over time (Broughton, 1994, 2004). In other cases, it appears sustainable hunting practices were employed by specific Indian peoples over many centuries (Erlandson et al., 2005:64-65; Jones et al., 2011; Whitaker and Hildebrandt, 2011). The early modern fur trade radically altered indigenous hunting practices, as many native peoples became increasingly dependent on the fur trade for manufactured goods, particularly guns, shot, food, and alcohol. In entering the global market, native groups were driven to intensify their harvesting of beavers, along with deer, marten, raccoon, mink, river otters, wolves, wolverines, and foxes in terrestrial habitats, as well as sea otters, fur seals, and harbor seals in coastal locations. Market hunting led to the overexploitation of the most profitable animals, specifically beaver and sea otter, although the populations of other lucrative species also declined precipitously. As local habitats became hunted out, it stimulated the rapid movement of fur companies to explore and settle new, less devastated, places in western North America and along the Pacific Coast. Thus, a transformative ecological impact of the fur trade was the disappearance of fur-bearing species from local habitats (Richards, 2003:510-511), which had tremendous repercussions for native people who depended on them for food, warmth, and spiritual substance. Both the beaver and sea otter were essentially exterminated across most of their traditional North American ranges by the mid-1800s. What exacerbated the situation was that both served as keystone species in their respective terrestrial and marine habitats. Beavers are ecological engineers that create lush wetland environments through the construction of dams and ponds, which in turn, impound fertile nutrients, support diverse freshwater communities of sedges and grasses, and attract freshwater fish, waterfowl, osprey, and other animals (Richards, 2003:510-512). The removal of beavers from local regions had a cascading effect that went well beyond the disappearance of the species itself. Below we examine a similar kind of relationship that existed between sea otters and nearshore marine and estuarine ecosystems along the Pacific Coast. 4.3. Managerial colonies: fish/whale factories Jackson et al. (2001) presented an excellent overview of the human effects of long-term exploitation of marine environments (see also Erlandson and Rick, 2008). They note that commercial fishing, which began with European colonization, had a serious impact to the world’s fisheries. The exploitation of the rich cod fisheries in western Atlantic waters to meet market demands beginning in early modern times is a classic case. There is some debate about its overall impact to the Atlantic cod, but it is clear that local populations were overfished, and that the mean age and size of the cod have decreased over time (Jackson et al., 2001:632; Richards, 2003:573). There is little question that early commercial whaling in the North Atlantic led to the destruction of bowhead and right whale populations by the 1800s, which forced whalers to shift to other species in Atlantic and Pacific waters (Richards, 2003:612-616). 4.4, Mission colonies As rather eclectic enterprises involving some combination of farming, ranching, and craft production, missions introduced a series of changes to local environments, not unlike what transpired at settler colonies (Cronon, 1983; Crosby, 2004; Merchant, 2010). Coastal environments in particular were not only seats of Please cite this article in press as: Lightfoot, K.G., et al., European colonialism and the Anthropocene: A view from the Pacific Coast of North America. Anthropocene (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.09.002