Late Victorian Holocausts
This global environmental and political history “will redefine the way we think about the European colonial project” (Observer). “... sets the triumph of the late 19th-century Western imperialism in the context of catastrophic El Niño weather patterns at that time... groundbreaking, mind-stretching.” —The Independent Examining a series of El Niño-induced droughts and the famines that they spawned around the globe in the last third of the 19th century, Mike Davis discloses the intimate, baleful relationship between imperial arrogance and natural incident that combined to produce some of the worst tragedies in human history. Late Victorian Holocausts focuses on three zones of drought and subsequent famine: India, Northern China; and Northeastern Brazil. All were affected by the same global climatic factors that caused massive crop failures, and all experienced brutal famines that decimated local populations. But the effects of drought were magnified in each case because of singularly destructive policies promulgated by different ruling elites. Davis argues that the seeds of underdevelopment in what later became known as the Third World were sown in this era of High Imperialism, as the price for capitalist modernization was paid in the currency of millions of peasants’ lives.
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What Hacker News says
- It’s worth considering the famine in India at the end of the 19th century. The British integrated India into the world capitalist system in a way that directly led to famine: promotion of cash crops which led to vulnerability when drought struck; speculators hoarding food during famine (some stores of food even rotting while people starved); building of railways and ports (which were used to export food out of famine stricken areas for profit); and laissez faire relief policies. The death toll was in the millions. I found Mike Davis’ book Late Victorian Holocausts to be a good resource on this subject.
- "Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World" is a great book by Mike Davis about similar famines in the late 19th century caused by colonial powers putting profits and the sanctity of markets above human lives during periods when forces in the natural world impacted food production (climate swings in this case).
- This discussion is a relevant time to recommend the fantastic book called "Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World" by the indomitable late Mike Davis.
- Related, RIP Mike Davis, author of this article. Highly recommend reading some of his books, my favorite being Late Victorian Holocausts which discusses famine in relation to colonialism.
- Mike Davis (author of Late Victorian Holocausts) had a great interview on the podcast Trueanon about California fire policy. While the fire situation is definitely exacerbated by global warming, there are tons of state level land management policies that are making the situation worse.
- Making the point that views of Stalin and Churchill are quite far apart from each other despite similar actions. Churchill denied food aid from other allied countries that wanted to feed the starving in Bengal. His role went beyond prioritizing his country over the colonies; he actively prevented the Indians from being helped. http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2031992...
The point you're making is that they can't be compared because Stalin killed more people? I suppose there is a minimum number in millions that must die to be considered a terrible person?
You should read up on the relish Churchill took in killing "savages". Read Late Victorian Holocausts too.
