Reply To: 1. Mon 3 Feb: Course intro & India and the Environmental History of Imperialism

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wytt2002@sina.com	# Posted on February 4, 2014 at 14:55
	Current Themes and Debates in Global Environmental History Yu Wang History department&Global Environmental History wytt2002@sina.com Reflection 1 (2014-02-04)— Cederlöf, G. 2013. Founding an Empire on India’s North-Eastern Frontiers 1790-1840: Climate, Commerce, Polity Cederlof, G’s book Founding an Empire on India’s North-Eastern Frontiers 1790-1840: Climate, Commerce, Polity focus on the “North-Eastern Fronties”of India which was the colony of The British. At that time India was govern by the British East India Company(EIC). And as it known that , The EIC has played an important role in the British colony history in the past 200 years, especially to India and China. Colonial rule in India has an important role for the British , the British India is not only important for cheap raw materials , but also the important product dumping ground for Britain , for British India can not be replaced with other colonial role for economic reason. And also,. British India was very important strategic position geographically , At that time India including today’s India, Pakistan , Bangladesh and other now bordering India several small countries in South Asia. the guardian of the Indian Ocean to the Pacific traffic arteries is forefront of British aggression in Southeast Asia . The last important role is concern about China., the India’s environment was very suitable for planting opium in some areas , and bying river to take from opium from Indian port to China is also very convenient. , India is the UK ‘s main opium producing area in Asia, Britain earned a lot from the opium trade with China. and actually the opium trade with China is an important means of development of capitalism in the early British capital accumulation . A fact couldn’t be ignore was, the British War is a war between China and the East India Company . Those British troops were from India , not from the United Kingdom. The last part of the book is about “The Fiscal Subject and the Absent Citizen”. This rule caused the traditional Indian society’s collapse and disintegration of feudal political and economic system. But were they all bad?, Marx had done this evaluation of British rule in India as, “the British social revolution in Hindustan caused entirely by a very vile interests reason, and those ways to get these benefits are also very stupid. But the problem is that , if the social situation in Asia without a fundamental revolution, could humans change their own destiny? If not, then, no matter how much offense the British did, it still caused this revolution, after all, is to serve as an unconscious tool of history. ” In the end, this is my first course about enviromental history, I have no idea about the subject. But Gunnel’s book gives me a new idea to broad my view, enviroment is not such far away from our life like what I thought before.

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wytt2002@sina.com

# Posted on February 4, 2014 at 14:55

Current Themes and Debates in Global Environmental History
Yu Wang
History department&Global Environmental History
wytt2002@sina.com
Reflection 1 (2014-02-04)—
Cederlöf, G. 2013. Founding an Empire on India’s North-Eastern Frontiers 1790-1840: Climate, Commerce, Polity

Cederlof, G’s book Founding an Empire on India’s North-Eastern Frontiers 1790-1840: Climate, Commerce, Polity focus on the “North-Eastern Fronties”of India which was the colony of The British. At that time India was govern by the British East India Company(EIC). And as it known that , The EIC has played an important role in the British colony history in the past 200 years, especially to India and China. Colonial rule in India has an important role for the British , the British India is not only important for cheap raw materials , but also the important product dumping ground for Britain , for British India can not be replaced with other colonial role for economic reason. And also,. British India was very important strategic position geographically , At that time India including today’s India, Pakistan , Bangladesh and other now bordering India several small countries in South Asia. the guardian of the Indian Ocean to the Pacific traffic arteries is forefront of British aggression in Southeast Asia . The last important role is concern about China., the India’s environment was very suitable for planting opium in some areas , and bying river to take from opium from Indian port to China is also very convenient. , India is the UK ‘s main opium producing area in Asia, Britain earned a lot from the opium trade with China. and actually the opium trade with China is an important means of development of capitalism in the early British capital accumulation . A fact couldn’t be ignore was, the British War is a war between China and the East India Company . Those British troops were from India , not from the United Kingdom.
The last part of the book is about “The Fiscal Subject and the Absent Citizen”. This rule caused the traditional Indian society’s collapse and disintegration of feudal political and economic system. But were they all bad?, Marx had done this evaluation of British rule in India as, “the British social revolution in Hindustan caused entirely by a very vile interests reason, and those ways to get these benefits are also very stupid. But the problem is that , if the social situation in Asia without a fundamental revolution, could humans change their own destiny? If not, then, no matter how much offense the British did, it still caused this revolution, after all, is to serve as an unconscious tool of history. ”
In the end, this is my first course about enviromental history, I have no idea about the subject. But Gunnel’s book gives me a new idea to broad my view, enviroment is not such far away from our life like what I thought before.