Exploring Environmental History by Jan Oosthoek
Jan Oosthoek
Categories: Education
Listen to the last episode:
Much research has been devoted to the impact of the expanding European empires and settler colonies in the 18thand 19thcenturies and their impacts on nature and resources. Not much attention has been paid to a similar story unfolding at the same time in Qing China: the increasing expansion of the exploitation of natural resources such as fur, mushrooms, pearls and timber in China’s expanding imperial frontiers. China’s demand for these products was so pronounced, that by the first decades of the 19thcentury many of these resources were commercially exhausted and many of the animals that provided these products were on the brink of local extinction. In response the Qing rulers created protected areas and limited harvests in response to these environmental impacts.
Jonathan Schlesinger, a scholar of imperial China at Indiana University in Bloomington, studied Manchu and Mongolian archives to track the trade in furs, pearls and mushrooms across the Qing empire’s borderlands in the 18th and 19th centuries. On this episode of the Exploring Environmental History Podcast Schlesinger discusses how Qing rulers responded to declining resources and negative environmental impacts. In addition he considers if it is possible to compare “western” environmental history with Chinese environmental history or whether we need to think outside a Western paradigm.
Music credits
"From China To USA" by Stefan Kartenberg
"Old performer in new time" by Subhashish Panigrahi
Both tracks available from ccMixter
Previous episodes
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82 - Resources exploitation and nature protection in the border lands of Qing ChinaMon, 24 Dec 2018 - 0h
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81 - Incendiary politics: histories of Indigenous Burning and Environmental Debates in Australia and the United StatesFri, 02 Nov 2018 - 0h
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80 - The timber frontier of Northern Sweden: a history of ecological and social transformationWed, 26 Sep 2018 - 0h
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79 - Forestry in northern Europe: National Histories, Shared LegaciesSat, 19 May 2018 - 0h
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78 - Kangaroos and tanks: histories of militarised landscapes in AustraliaThu, 21 Dec 2017 - 0h
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77 - The Watery ally: military inundations in Dutch historyWed, 28 Jun 2017 - 0h
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76 - Water pollution in the Dutch Peat Colonies of Groningen, 1850-1980Wed, 10 May 2017 - 0h
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75 - Water resilience in Western Australia since European ColonisationThu, 06 Oct 2016 - 0h
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74 - Environmental History of Tidal Power in the Severn EstuarySat, 10 Sep 2016 - 0h
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73 - Cultured nature: The Nature Scenery Act of the NetherlandsTue, 23 Aug 2016 - 0h
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72 - Contested climate: the debate on the climatic influence of forests - episode 2Thu, 26 May 2016 - 0h
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71 - Contested climate: the debate on the climatic influence of forests – episode 1Mon, 16 May 2016 - 0h
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70 - Somerset, a ‘green and pleasant’ energy landscape?Sat, 20 Feb 2016 - 0h
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69 - The Oldest Geordie: Environmental History of the River TyneTue, 15 Dec 2015 - 0h
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68 - Religion and the Origins of American EnvironmentalismWed, 28 Oct 2015 - 0h
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67 - Out of this world: environmental history of near-Earth spaceMon, 10 Aug 2015 - 0h
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66 - The UK National Grid: history of an energy landscape and its impactsFri, 06 Mar 2015 - 0h
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65 - Environmental history of a hydrological landscape: the soughs of DerbyshireWed, 11 Feb 2015 - 0h
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64 - Tin: a historical perspective on a networked resourceSat, 24 Jan 2015 - 0h
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63 - Climate variability and population dynamics in prehistoric AustraliaMon, 27 Oct 2014 - 0h
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62 - Who is responsible for global warming?Mon, 22 Sep 2014 - 0h
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61 - The Broken Promise of Agricultural ProgresssThu, 14 Aug 2014 - 0h
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60 - Origins, entanglements and civic aims of the early forestry movement in the United StatesTue, 27 May 2014 - 0h
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59 - A sustainable common future? The Brundtland Report in historical perspectiveThu, 20 Feb 2014 - 0h
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58 - Environmental Humanities: something new under the sun?Sat, 18 Jan 2014 - 0h
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57 - Events in the collective environmental memory of humanityWed, 18 Dec 2013 - 0h
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56 - The power of the wildMon, 25 Nov 2013 - 0h
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55 - The nature of South African environmental historyTue, 19 Nov 2013 - 0h
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54 - The IPCCs Fifth Assessment Report: a historical perspectiveThu, 03 Oct 2013 - 0h
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53 - Desire for the Wild – Wild Desires? The trouble with rewildingSat, 28 Sep 2013 - 0h
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52 - Scientific and environmental diplomacy and the AntarcticWed, 18 Sep 2013 - 0h
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51 - The Scottish forestry experience and the development of forestry in IndiaThu, 04 Apr 2013 - 0h
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50 - Conquering the Highlands. History of the afforestation of the Scottish uplandsTue, 26 Mar 2013 - 0h
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49 - Kielder: the story of a man-made landscapeFri, 22 Feb 2013 - 0h
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48 - Remaking wetlands: a tale of rice, ducks and floods in the Murrumbidgee River regionWed, 05 Dec 2012 - 0h
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47 - Canine City: Dogs and Humans in Urban HistoryTue, 20 Nov 2012 - 0h
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46 - Explorations in historical climatologyTue, 24 Jul 2012 - 0h
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45 - Medicinal plants in New Zealand: bridging the gap between medical and environmental historyTue, 19 Jun 2012 - 0h
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44 - Silent Spring at 50: a comparison perspectiveWed, 21 Dec 2011 - 0h
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43 - A transformed landscape: the steppes of Ukraine and RussiaWed, 27 Jul 2011 - 0h
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42 - Teaching and discovering environmental history onlineMon, 11 Jul 2011 - 0h
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41 - Energy utopia or dystopia? - A historical perspective on nuclear energyThu, 07 Apr 2011 - 0h
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40 - Reframing a vision of lost fensSat, 18 Dec 2010 - 0h
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39 - Slavery, fossil fuel use and climate change: past connections, present similaritiesWed, 08 Dec 2010 - 0h
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38 - The draining of the East Anglia Fens: social unrest, design flaws and unintended environmental consequencesWed, 06 Oct 2010 - 0h
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37 - The First World War and the transformation of forestry in British ColumbiaMon, 19 Jul 2010 - 0h
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36 - Island Environmental Histories: the Ogasawara IslandsFri, 09 Jul 2010 - 0h
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35 - Mountains, the Asiatic Black Bear and conservation in Japan and New ZealandThu, 20 May 2010 - 0h
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34 - Volcanoes in European historySat, 17 Apr 2010 - 0h
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33 - Distance learning environmental history and Scottish forestryWed, 07 Apr 2010 - 0h
