When the book, “Late Victorian Holocaust,” was introduced I was intrigued and engaged just by reading the title. It presents several El Nino Famines in Africa, China, India, and South America and how the environmental disasters, colonial policies, and capitalist markets not only transformed cultures and created a legacy of marginalization, but led to the building of the terminology, we now understand as third world countries. The book reveals the truth behind the reality that massive crop failures, droughts, and death were not accidental but intentional.
The book talks about the revolutionary human misery caused by a series of severe weather conditions in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Monsoons and drought distressed much of Brazil, India, Egypt, southern Africa, and China. Multiple people died, and according to Davis, the chief culprit of the deaths was not the weather, but the European empires. For example, the author affirms that the tens of millions of poor rural people that died is not the problem, but that they died in a way, and for reasons that contradict much of the conservative understanding of the economic history of the nineteenth century (Davis 8). Although development economists have claimed that drought does not always lead to famine, the book shows that the English in India treated drought as an opening for reaffirming their freedom.
I had taken history classes before, and I was kind of aware of the colonization of other countries but never to the extent that I know now, In high school, it was never taught about decade-long famines. I knew that Britain had taken over India, but I never knew that the Indians were put through such difficult times. Besides colonization ENSO, drought, and famine were significant themes of this book. I never considered the impact natural disasters have on people and their livelihoods. It is devastating to find how many people died in the hands of the government. It was catastrophic to learn about all the events that took place in India, China, and Brazil. These powers that were colonizing were absolute opportunists and took advantage of the natural disaster at hand. The author made a point when he stated, “how do we explain the fact that in the very half-century turn when peacetime famine permanently disappeared from western Europe, it increased devastatingly throughout much of the colonial world? (pg. 9)” I agree with Davis because it displays the greed of the countries that chose to imperialize. They established new systems that completely went against the grain of the existing one in place. They set up markets that were too overpriced for the poor. Nevertheless, the poor could not produce their food due to the natural disaster, hence producing a frustrating lose-lose situation. The author further discusses “Each global drought was the green light for an imperial land rush (pg.13).” I always thought that countries just took over other countries they believed were inferior or had something they wanted but I learned that it’s not regularly the case.
The introduction of the diseases that came about such as smallpox and malaria disease was another problem that arose from natural disasters. To no surprise, the medicine was there but not available to all. It presents the concept of marginalization and inequality at a time of desperation. Like the crisis shown in the book in India, even in assistance, these relief channels are set up so that you continuously require support and dependency. For instance, we can compare these events to our similar situation in the United States. Under the new reign of President Trump, where the negligence to natural disasters is so prevalent as shown in Puerto Rico with the hurricane and all Trump could say is that they are causing America too much money. Puerto Ricans are American citizens, but the government’s absence was clearly shown as not much effort was made. This event reminded me of General Lytton when he had the dinner for 68 thousand soldiers and civilians while the people around him were crumbling in a famine (100,00 to be accurate). Just like Trump spoke about costing too much, Britain thought it also cost too much to take care of their colony which led to the hiring of famine price managers.
This reminded me of China and India when they were supposed to produce goods throughout their food crisis but how can it be reasonable that a country experiencing famine would be able to provide food for export? In addition to that, the management of the railroad and the telephone which were supposed to be of benefit to the people in the famine didn’t help at all. The railroads were shipping food outside of the country rather than inside, and the telephone was used to bargain prices. Consequently, making the available food unaffordable.
I like the book because the writer uses simple vocabulary making it enjoyable, as well as easy to read. Davis mentions all the myths about the causes and origins of the extreme poverty in the third world. For example, he brings together works ranging from the fields of demography, climate, famine, and epidemiology and consolidates them with the history of China, India, Europe, Latin America, and Africa. Additionally, the author manages to concentrate on the connection between the choices of policymakers and natural disasters and keeps on the political heights of these crises. This is obvious when he describes that millions of people lost their lives, not outside the modern world system, but in the process of being included into its political and economic structures forcibly (Davis 9).
Chapter 3, “People eat their homes” and chapter 5, “skeletons at the feast” were two chapters that were frightful and reported the extremities of the drought, and unfortunately, even in the first-hand observance, no significant attempts were made to relieve some of the pressures. Cannibalism, tearing down of homes and disease was the characteristics of the continued drought. Suffering for so long, people started to revolt, killing French garrisons, who were considered to be at the time the cause of the drought. Surviving in perpetual fear of their villages and livestock which were shortly taken by the drought, cannibalism began to take existence. Feeding on the dead, to feeding on the weak to killing and sacrificing people for one’s survival.
The book mentions a quote on page 296 that says “Millions died because of the extreme weather not because of imperialism.” This quote stood up to me and makes me upset because deaths could have been avoided, but due to the selfish government, the people had to pay the price for it.
In conclusion, Late Victorian Holocaust has been one of my favorite books thus far because I learned so much, it informed me of all the events regarding economic, climatic and colonial issues that happened throughout history. The book also caused a lot of debate and controversy in the class. It led to many frustrated emotions which made us all question principles and what can go on in a person mind to be cruel and watch people suffer and die. The author additionally uses secondary sources of information to back up his statements making the book a credible source of historical data. The text is filled with pictures as well, which makes it captivating and exciting to read.