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The Environmental History of Capitalism in the Colonial World, 15th-19th centuries

Abstract:

This introduction presents the axes of analysis that inspired the organization of this dossier, and how the different articles gathered together here push forward research along these lines of inquiry. First, we offer the general contours of the formation of environmental history as a field of study, weighing its potentials and limitations. Then, we discuss some of the principal uses of the concept of capitalism in the social sciences, and the possibilities that are opened up by examining its historical system through an environmental lens. We then apply these considerations to the colonial world and its role in the history of global capitalism. Finally, we conclude with a series of questions centered on the relationship between the overlapping chronologies of capitalism, colonialism, and the contemporary ecological crisis.

Keywords:
Environmental history; Capitalism; Colonialism

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