These are my recommendations for revising the article Ecological imperialism.
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- Went in depth about illnesses and how deadly it was
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- I know how to spell "article" but for some reason it came out as "artical". I tried changing it but every time I did, all of my work got deleted.
Fur trade in North America
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During this time of colonialism, Europe had seen a great increase in the demand for luxury fur, mainly by Western Europeans. Serbia at the time was the main source of luxury fur, but was unable to supply enough, thus leading to an increase in the value of fur, which in turn expanded the fur trade in North America.[1] The fur trade was as detrimental to the survival of native people as it was imperative to the success of settlers due to high European demand. Trappers employed natives because of their knowledge of the terrain and wildlife, putting native populations with no immunity to European diseases into close contact with them. The fur trade caused millions of Americans to die to all the number of diseases that were brought over by Europeans. Approximately 16 different epidemics occurred during this time period which included: the bubonic plague, small pox, malaria and measles. Event though native Americans had a few benefits from the fur trade, it was not worth half of their population to be killed due to diseases. There was a point between 1830 and 1833 where diseases were killing 9 out of 10 tribe member in respective areas. The fur trade was a a deadly trade that took many lives. [2] [3][4]
The fur trade also upset the ecological balance of North America. "Restraint wasn't a hallmark of the fur trade. In 1822, in the north western regions of the country alone, the Hudson's Bay Company stockpiled 1,500 fox skins, a paltry number compared with the 106,000 beaver skins, but too many none the less. The fur traders had miscalculated. As predators, they had failed to adapt to their prey, and their prey, in turn, retaliated with denial. Of course, the red fox didn't render himself extinct. His numbers merely shrank.".[5] The fur trade not only miscalculated the predator-prey rat[6]io, it allowed for the increase spread of smallpox in the Northern regions of the Americas; Thus creating a geographic commercial route for smallpox to travel from urban populated cities to the rural, open, woodland northern country.[7]
- ^ Crosby, Alfred (3 April 1994). Germs, Seeds and Animals: Studies in Ecological History (Sources and Studies in World History). Routledge; 1st edition. p. 17.
- ^ Fahey, John (2003-06-01). "Rotting Face: Smallpox and the American Indian". Journal of American History. 90 (1): 221–222. doi:10.2307/3659827. ISSN 0021-8723.
- ^ "Section 2: Indians and the Fur Trade | North Dakota Studies". www.ndstudies.gov. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- ^ "Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest". www.washington.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- ^ Crosby, Alfred (1986). Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ "Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest". www.washington.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- ^ Piper, Liza; Sandlos, John (1 October 2007). Environmental History. Oxford University Press. p. 765.