Environment, Power, and Injustice

Although the Cape frontier did not bring a revolution to environmental and social relations, colonial rule did. It inserted a new group, whites, at the top of the power structure and on the land and imported a new tool, the modern state, with which to exercise their power. Yet, the revolutionary impact of colonial rule was delayed after its imposition in 1884. Extensive production continued much as it had for over a decade and the interventionist potential of the modern state became clear only in the twentieth century. Still, later disruptions had roots in the land alienation and environmental administration of the period immediately following annexation, and thus we now consider the portentous character of early colonial rule.

By considering the importance of land alienation and environmental administration, this chapter raises issues of comparative environmental history. In much comparative world environmental history, “colonialism” and “imperialism” have served as synonyms for white settlement. According to this view, European imperialism was “biological expansion” consisting of “people, plants and pathogens.” “Ecological imperialism,” as defined by Alfred Crosby, denotes demographic takeover in temperate zones.