Scorched Earth

Environmental Warfare as a Crime against Humanity and Nature

Emmanuel Kreike

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780691200125, 9780691137421
• eBook ISBN: 9780691189017
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Environmental Economics
• Index: History

A global history of environmental warfare and the case for why it should be a crime

The environmental infrastructure that sustains human societies has been a target and instrument of war for centuries, resulting in famine and disease, displaced populations, and the devastation of people's livelihoods and ways of life. Scorched Earth traces the history of scorched earth, military inundations, and armies living off the land from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, arguing that the resulting deliberate destruction of the environment—"environcide"—constitutes total war and is a crime against humanity and nature.

In this sweeping global history, Emmanuel Kreike shows how religious war in Europe transformed Holland into a desolate swamp where hunger and the black death ruled. He describes how Spanish conquistadores exploited the irrigation works and expansive agricultural terraces of the Aztecs and Incas, triggering a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions. Kreike demonstrates how environmental warfare has continued unabated into the modern era. His panoramic narrative takes readers from the Thirty Years' War to the wars of France's Sun King, and from the Dutch colonial wars in North America and Indonesia to the early twentieth century colonial conquest of southwestern Africa.

Shedding light on the premodern origins and the lasting consequences of total war, Scorched Earth explains why ecocide and genocide are not separate phenomena, and why international law must recognize environmental warfare as a violation of human rights.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Environcide, Society, and Total War
• 1. The Dogs of War and the Water Wolf in Holland: Environcide during the Late 16th-Century Dutch Revolt
• 2. Scorched Earth, Black Legend: Environcide and the Early 16th-Century Spanish Conquest of America
• 3. Environcide in the Dutch Golden Age: The Thirty Years War in Brabant, 1621–48
• 4. Raiders and Refugees: Environcide, Displacement, and Disease in 17th-Century Eastern North America
• 5. (Un)Limited War and Environcide in the Age of Reason: The Low Countries, France, and Spain during the War of the Spanish Succession, 1701–14
• 6. Total War and Environcide in the Age of Reason: The Low Countries, France, and Italy during the War of the Austrian Succession, 1740–48
• 7. A Global Way of War in the Age of Reason: Environcide and Genocide in 18th-Century America, Africa, and Asia
• 8. Refugees, Removals, and Reservations: Environcide in the American West in the 19th Century
• 9. Scorched Dutch East Indies: The Late 19th-Century Colonial Conquest of Aceh, Indonesia
• 10. Scorched African Savannas: Colonial Conquest and the First World War in Early 20th-Century Angola and Namibia
• Conclusion: Environcide as a Crime against Humanity and Nature
• Notes
• Index