Facing The Future: People and the Planet

The Age of European Expansion

Historically, shortages of farmland, water for irrigation, timber for construction and fuel, or minerals for manufacturing all limited population size and economic opportunities. Lack of work, economic instability, local food scarcity, and lack of available land also drove migration and conflict, as people competed for those re–sources.

 

The Potato and the American Civil War When Spain and Portugal began their colonial expansion, northern Europe was largely a backwater. Shorter growing seasons limited grain production, so the area lacked the caloric resources to undertake significant exploration and conquest. But when Spanish explorers brought the potato back from South America, everything changed. Potatoes grew well in cooler climates, and provided lots of calories. With more food available, population increased rapidly in England, Holland, Germany, Poland and Sweden. When those countries faced shortages of farmland, jobs, and other resources due to population growth, they experienced massive out-migration, primarily to the northern US. Because of this influx, US population grew roughly 35% every decade from 1800 to 1860. This caused a huge demographic shift. In 1800, the South was home to half the US population. but by 1860, it represented just over one-third. In 1847 the Union comprised 15 slave and 14 free states, so southerners maintained control of the US Senate. But as immigration fueled western expansion, new states began to arise. The South tried desperately to ward this off. It stonewalled the Homestead Act and the transcontinental railroad, because those would promote western settlement. And it attempted to create new states where southern institutions could flourish. In the 1840's and 50's, southerners led or sponsored three attempted invasions of Cuba, three efforts to seize Nicaragua, and one invasion of Baja California. They also tried to purchase the northern third of Mexico. None of these efforts were successful, nor could they offset the relentless forces of population growth. By 1860, slave states were a minority, and political power had shifted north. By 1861, southerners knew they had only two choices. Either surrender slavery, or fight (and win) a war of secession.

The first Europeans to actively colonize other regions were the Vikings. The forces behind their expansion were complex, but scarcity of farmland was a key element. As historian J.M. Roberts wrote, "These Scandinavians combined trade, piracy and colonization, stimulated by land hunger."

The first known Viking raid occurred in 793 C.E., and over the next 400 years they discov–ered and settled the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and parts of Newfoundland.

Moving east and south, the Vikings penetrated the heartland of Russia (which is named for the Rus, as the Vikings were called there) and founded city-states such as Kiev and Novgorod. They raided as far south as Constantinople and Baghdad, and threatened French cities to the point that they were given huge tracts of land in what is now Normandy ("land of the Northmen") in exchange for peace. And they conquered much of the richest farmland of Northern England and Ireland.

By the early 15th century, Portugal had begun to explore and exploit the West Coast of Africa. The wealth they captured created an economic and population boom at home, and stimulated further explorations. The Portuguese pushed down the coast of Africa, then eastward. They established trading colonies in India about the time Columbus reached the Caribbean, and launched the era of Spanish exploration and colonization.

While the early European empires were seen primarily as sources of wealth, the flood of resources they returned to Europe caused a profound shift. As expected, increased prosperity stimulated local population growth in Portugal and Spain. But new protein sources increased the ability of northern European nations to produce food, and their populations began to expand rapidly.

Less than 100 years after the introduction by the Spanish of the potato from South America and maize corn from Mexico, England and Holland had joined the scramble for overseas colonies.

This new burst of growth (world population grew as much between 1500 and 1750 as it had in the previous 1500 years) created renewed scarcities, particularly of farmland. Because of this, smaller nations such as England and Hol–land began to see colonies not only as a place to obtain resources from, but also a place to send excess population to.

This trend continued through the 19th century, with nations such as Germany, Sweden, and Norway, as well as British-occupied Ireland, also reducing population pressure through emigration to North America.

Conflict between nations intensified throughout the Age of Expansion, as competing powers fought over trade routes and access to resources in North and South America, Asia and Africa. But conflict also occurred on a more local scale, as the new arrivals clashed with indigenous populations.

As European settlers expanded across North America, for example, they displaced or dispossessed Native inhabitants. Those peoples were then forced to migrate, and subsequently displaced the tribes onto whose lands they were driven. If they failed to do so, they vanished as a culture.

As Americans pushed further west in search of more land and resources to supply a growing population, more clashes followed.

By the time the western edge of the continent was reached, the new immigrants controlled the majority of land and resources, and most surviving indigenous populations were relegated to reservations.