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 K.G. Lightfoot et al./Anthropocene xxx (2013) e1-e15 e5 technological innovation in prehistory with historical trajectories unique from interior agricultural societies (e.g., Sassaman, 2004), but also entry points for European colonization of the North American continent and “ground zero” for hunter-gatherer entanglements with Spanish missions (Thompson and Worth, 2010:79). Mission farming, similar to settler communities and plantation economies, introduced a host of new species into the environs, including foreign cultigens such as wheat, barley, corn, grapes, various fruit trees, and an assortment of vegetables, as well as the inadvertent release of weeds that thrived in open, disturbed soils. As Crosby (2004:167-169) noted, many of the exotic weeds rapidly spread across the landscape, often outcompeting native species particularly where ground disturbances had occurred, such as in plowed or fallow fields, along roads, and after fires. The creation of the colonial agrarian landscape also often involved the construction of dams and irrigation canals, which modified the local hydrology of valleys. The ranching economy associated with missions and other colonies also unleashed an assortment of livestock into the hinterland of mission settlements where they roamed relatively freely, with fences built to keep them out of specific places (such as fields, gardens, orchards). Hardy, feral populations of pigs, cattle, and horses typically took root in the peripheries of mission settlements. Free range livestock, both controlled and feral, grazed largely unhindered across the landscape, where they consumed, disturbed, and trampled native vegetation (Crosby, 2004:172182). Crosby (2004:288-290) described the co-evolution that took place between free range grazers and weeds, with the former providing the soil disturbance in which weeds thrived and multiplied, which in turn were consumed and carried to new places by the free roaming animals. Deforestation was a common practice not only in plantations, but also in agrarian mission complexes and settler colonies, whose occupants burned and felled trees to clear areas for fields and buildings, and who relied on wood as the main source of fuel in colonial settings (Cronon, 1983:116-121; Grove, 1997). The commercial exploitation of timber was also initiated in early modern times for shipbuilding, building supplies, and cordwood. The combination of these activities resulted in extensive deforestation beginning in the 1600s and continuing through the early 1800s, not only in the core-states where intensified agrarian production was taking place (see Richards, 2003:221-222 for an example from Britain), but across many of the colonial territories, particularly in the Caribbean, India, and South Africa. 5. Early modern conservation practices The massive scale of environmental transformations in colonial lands did not go unnoticed by either indigenous populations or newly arrived Europeans. In Alta California, for example, the rapid and widespread invasion of weeds associated with the Franciscan missions and Mexican ranchos was of great concern to not only hunter-gatherer populations, but also the missionaries and early settlers (Duhaut-Cilly, 1999:144; Lightfoot, 2005:86-87). Homeland governments, colonial administrators, and joint stock companies initiated conservation policies in an attempt to stem blatant cases of environmental degradation. For example, the Russian-American Company would institute a zapusk a temporary halt in the hunting of specific species to allow them to rebound in situations where administrators believed conservation practices could aid in the regeneration of local populations, such as fur seals (Kashevarov, 1989:518). However, this conservation practice appears to have been implemented selectively in time and space for specific species, as there appears to have been little regard for the protection of dwindling sea otter populations by Russian merchants in northern California waters as described below. The first major global conservation movement in colonial territories focused on the issue of deforestation. Concerns were raised by scholars and colonial administrators about the draconian scale of forest removal on Caribbean islands, in India and South Africa, as well as other colonial lands. The early effects of deforestation and associated soil erosion were most visible on tropical islands, such Madeira, the Canary Islands, and St. Helena, which raised alarms for various esthetic and ethical reasons. However, it was not until a popular theoretical perspective was revived in the 1700s linking vegetation removal with climatic change specifically, the observed reduction of rainfall in the tropical regions of the world that people began to view deforestation as an impending environmental catastrophe (Grove, 1997:5-8). When the British government obtained islands in the Caribbean (St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Grenada, and Tobago) from the French in 1763, colonial administrators established forest reserves in the mountains for the “protection of the rains.” As Grove (1997:10) noted, this is the first known instance when forest reserves were set aside to prevent climatic change, in this case desiccation that might result from massive vegetation removal. Later droughts and soil erosion in continental lands spurred similar actions in colonial provinces, such as in India and South Africa by the mid-1800s. Grove (1997) summarized how these environmental concerns progressed during the early modern period with the creation of policies to preserve forest lands, and the consequences they had for conservation practices in later years. 6. A case study from California The remainder of our paper presents a more detailed discussion of the kinds of human-environment relationships in early modern times that unfolded in one colonial province. In examining the managerial and mission colonies established in Alta and Baja California in the 1600s through early 1800s, we consider the specific impacts these colonial enterprises had on coastal and maritime environments using historical sources and archeological findings. California is an ideal case study for rethinking the chronology of the Anthropocene. A common perception exists in the literature and popular culture that major anthropogenic modifications to the Golden State’s ecology did not take place until after 1850. At this time, the Gold Rush, California statehood, and the tidal wave of immigration from the Eastern United States, Europe, and elsewhere paved the way for the urbanism, factory farming, and industrialization that took place in the late 1800s and 1900s (e.g., Merchant, 2002:80-99). While there is no question that American annexation and the growth of major cities and industrialism based on gold, wood, coal, oil, and gas ushered in a new level of habitat destruction and reduction in biodiversity, we argue that significant anthropogenic modifications, already well underway in pre-colonial California, were magnified in early modern times with Spanish-Mexican and Russian colonization (see also Preston, 1997). Spanish-Mexican colonizers moved northward from Mexico to settle Baja and Alta California beginning in the 1600s. In 1697, Jesuit missionaries established the first permanent mission in Baja California, and by the time of their expulsion in 1767 they had extended the mission chain across the southern two-thirds of the peninsula. The Franciscans followed the Jesuits into Baja California but quickly moved their missionary operation to Alta California, leaving the Dominicans to continue to expand the mission system in the former colony. In sum, nearly 50 missions were established across Spanish California. These mission colonies served as the cornerstone of Hispanic/Native interactions. Their primary purpose was to proselytize and civilize hunter-gatherer communities situated in the hinterland of missions built along Baja California and the central and southern coasts of Alta California. The other 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 K.G. Lightfoot et al./Anthropocene xxx (2013) e1-e15 e5 technological innovation in prehistory with historical trajectories unique from interior agricultural societies (e.g., Sassaman, 2004), but also entry points for European colonization of the North American continent and “ground zero” for hunter-gatherer entanglements with Spanish missions (Thompson and Worth, 2010:79). Mission farming, similar to settler communities and plantation economies, introduced a host of new species into the environs, including foreign cultigens such as wheat, barley, corn, grapes, various fruit trees, and an assortment of vegetables, as well as the inadvertent release of weeds that thrived in open, disturbed soils. As Crosby (2004:167-169) noted, many of the exotic weeds rapidly spread across the landscape, often outcompeting native species particularly where ground disturbances had occurred, such as in plowed or fallow fields, along roads, and after fires. The creation of the colonial agrarian landscape also often involved the construction of dams and irrigation canals, which modified the local hydrology of valleys. The ranching economy associated with missions and other colonies also unleashed an assortment of livestock into the hinterland of mission settlements where they roamed relatively freely, with fences built to keep them out of specific places (such as fields, gardens, orchards). Hardy, feral populations of pigs, cattle, and horses typically took root in the peripheries of mission settlements. Free range livestock, both controlled and feral, grazed largely unhindered across the landscape, where they consumed, disturbed, and trampled native vegetation (Crosby, 2004:172182). Crosby (2004:288-290) described the co-evolution that took place between free range grazers and weeds, with the former providing the soil disturbance in which weeds thrived and multiplied, which in turn were consumed and carried to new places by the free roaming animals. Deforestation was a common practice not only in plantations, but also in agrarian mission complexes and settler colonies, whose occupants burned and felled trees to clear areas for fields and buildings, and who relied on wood as the main source of fuel in colonial settings (Cronon, 1983:116-121; Grove, 1997). The commercial exploitation of timber was also initiated in early modern times for shipbuilding, building supplies, and cordwood. The combination of these activities resulted in extensive deforestation beginning in the 1600s and continuing through the early 1800s, not only in the core-states where intensified agrarian production was taking place (see Richards, 2003:221-222 for an example from Britain), but across many of the colonial territories, particularly in the Caribbean, India, and South Africa. 5. Early modern conservation practices The massive scale of environmental transformations in colonial lands did not go unnoticed by either indigenous populations or newly arrived Europeans. In Alta California, for example, the rapid and widespread invasion of weeds associated with the Franciscan missions and Mexican ranchos was of great concern to not only hunter-gatherer populations, but also the missionaries and early settlers (Duhaut-Cilly, 1999:144; Lightfoot, 2005:86-87). Homeland governments, colonial administrators, and joint stock companies initiated conservation policies in an attempt to stem blatant cases of environmental degradation. For example, the Russian-American Company would institute a zapusk a temporary halt in the hunting of specific species to allow them to rebound in situations where administrators believed conservation practices could aid in the regeneration of local populations, such as fur seals (Kashevarov, 1989:518). However, this conservation practice appears to have been implemented selectively in time and space for specific species, as there appears to have been little regard for the protection of dwindling sea otter populations by Russian merchants in northern California waters as described below. The first major global conservation movement in colonial territories focused on the issue of deforestation. Concerns were

raised by scholars and colonial administrators about the draconian scale of forest removal on Caribbean islands, in India and South Africa, as well as other colonial lands. The early effects of deforestation and associated soil erosion were most visible on tropical islands, such Madeira, the Canary Islands, and St. Helena, which raised alarms for various esthetic and ethical reasons. However, it was not until a popular theoretical perspective was revived in the 1700s linking vegetation removal with climatic change specifically, the observed reduction of rainfall in the tropical regions of the world that people began to view deforestation as an impending environmental catastrophe (Grove, 1997:5-8). When the British government obtained islands in the Caribbean (St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Grenada, and Tobago) from the French in 1763, colonial administrators established forest reserves in the mountains for the “protection of the rains.” As Grove (1997:10) noted, this is the first known instance when forest reserves were set aside to prevent climatic change, in this case desiccation that might result from massive vegetation removal. Later droughts and soil erosion in continental lands spurred similar actions in colonial provinces, such as in India and South Africa by the mid-1800s. Grove (1997) summarized how these environmental concerns progressed during the early modern period with the creation of policies to preserve forest lands, and the consequences they had for conservation practices in later years. 6. A case study from California The remainder of our paper presents a more detailed discussion of the kinds of human-environment relationships in early modern times that unfolded in one colonial province. In examining the managerial and mission colonies established in Alta and Baja California in the 1600s through early 1800s, we consider the specific impacts these colonial enterprises had on coastal and maritime environments using historical sources and archeological findings. California is an ideal case study for rethinking the chronology of the Anthropocene. A common perception exists in the literature and popular culture that major anthropogenic modifications to the Golden State’s ecology did not take place until after 1850. At this time, the Gold Rush, California statehood, and the tidal wave of immigration from the Eastern United States, Europe, and elsewhere paved the way for the urbanism, factory farming, and industrialization that took place in the late 1800s and 1900s (e.g., Merchant, 2002:80-99). While there is no question that American annexation and the growth of major cities and industrialism based on gold, wood, coal, oil, and gas ushered in a new level of habitat destruction and reduction in biodiversity, we argue that significant anthropogenic modifications, already well underway in pre-colonial California, were magnified in early modern times with Spanish-Mexican and Russian colonization (see also Preston, 1997). Spanish-Mexican colonizers moved northward from Mexico to settle Baja and Alta California beginning in the 1600s. In 1697, Jesuit missionaries established the first permanent mission in Baja California, and by the time of their expulsion in 1767 they had extended the mission chain across the southern two-thirds of the peninsula. The Franciscans followed the Jesuits into Baja California but quickly moved their missionary operation to Alta California, leaving the Dominicans to continue to expand the mission system in the former colony. In sum, nearly 50 missions were established across Spanish California. These mission colonies served as the cornerstone of Hispanic/Native interactions. Their primary purpose was to proselytize and civilize hunter-gatherer communities situated in the hinterland of missions built along Baja California and the central and southern coasts of Alta California. The other 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