In Ecological Imperialism: The Overseas Migration of Western Europeans as a Biological Phenomenon, Alfred Crosby argues that the Europeans are among the most spectacularly successful overseas migrants of all time. Europeans and their descendants, especially Western European whites, is the most oddly distributed about the world. Unlike most groups of people who tend to stay in one general area or maybe travel to another continent, the Europeans have created settlements in many temperate zones throughout the last few centuries. In the lands of temperate zones, the Europeans acquired what Crosby calls “The Demographic Takeover.” However in more tropical regions, the Europeans were not as successful because of diseases and other factors that prohibited European agricultural techniques, crops, and animals from being able to prosper. In this article, Crosby uses ecological evidence to answer the question: Why were the Europeans most successful at achieving the demographic takeover in temperate zones, and how did other organisms play a role in the takeover and overseas migration?

Although most historians reveal how European culture inspired their massive overseas migration, Crosby takes a different approach by giving ecological evidence. He says that not only did the Europeans conquer temperate zones such as Canada, the United States, Argentina, Uruguay, Australia, and New Zealand militarily, economically, and technologically, but they also conquered and triumphed demographically by controlling the human population of those conquered regions. Another key difference between his argument and others is most primarily focus on the migration of humans, but Crosby brings other organisms such as animals into his claim. The population of many quadrupeds such horses, cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs increased in the lands of the Demographic takeover after the regions were conquered by the Europeans. In these lands European pioneers were accompanied and preceded by their domesticated animals because the animals were a source of food, leather, fiber, power and wealth. More importantly, the animals adapted to new lands more quickly than the people. Domesticated animals such as rabbits, rats, and even honeybees migrated overseas during times of the Demographic takeover. Although animals rarely migrated to Europe from other lands, many animals accompanied the Europeans and increased their population as they spread across new lands.

The approach that Crosby took to reveal the reasons behind the success of the Europeans during their overseas migration is very different, yet it is also quite easy to comprehend. Although he does not mention a time frame for the migration, he does use a lot of specific ecological evidence, making his argument very persuasive. It is also very interesting how Crosby discussed other organisms’ roles in the migration besides humans. I definitely think that Crosby’s argument is valid because he uses a lot of facts and specific evidence to support his claim.