Accumulations and Cascades: On the Ecological Impact of British Imperialism
What effect did British imperialism in Myanmar during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have on frogs? And given that the lives of these small amphibian creatures were rarely ever recorded or preserved in archival collections, how might we find out? Sceptical readers may also wish to take a step back and ask, why should historians even care about their lives? These are unusual questions for a historian to confront, but they occasioned by the deepening conversation between ecology and history.
In this lecture, Jonathan Saha delves into the ecological impact of colonial rule in Myanmar. Though this, he argues that the concepts of 'accumulation' and 'cascade' are useful for enabling historians to narrate the impact of imperialism on the lives of animals, including humans.
Time: 17:30 BST
