7 - Weeds

Summary

We have the apparent double anomaly, that Australia is better suited to some English plants than England is, and that some English plants are better suited to Australia than those Australian plants were which have given way before English intruders.

—Joseph Dalton Hooker, 1853

It is really not surprising that Europeans failed to Europeanize Asia and tropical Africa. They did better in the New World tropics, but fell far short of founding congeries of Neo-European societies under the blazing American sun. In fact, in many areas they did not even try, but concentrated on creating plantation colonies staffed with non-European peons, slaves, or contract laborers. What is amazing is that Europeans were able to establish themselves in large numbers in the Neo-Europes, and indeed to thrive and multiply there “as the stars in the sky, and as the grains of sand on the seashore.” This the white imperialists achieved despite the remoteness of the Neo-Europes and their many bizarre aspects – bizarre by Old World standards. Quebec may be like Cherbourg today, but in 1700 it certainly was not. San Francisco and Montevideo and Sydney may be European today, but a few – really a very few – generations ago they were without masonry or streets, and they were inhabited by Amerindians and Aborigines jealous of their lands and rights. What enabled the white intruders to make Neo-European cities of these harbors and shorelines?