Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems: 20(3); 190–192 DOI: 10.

1079/RAF2005109

Book Review

Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Victorian Holocausts, ‘the looms of India and China were
Making of the Third World. By Mike Davis. 2001. Verso, defeated not so much by market competition as they were
London and New York. US$27, ISBN 1–85984–739–0, forcibly dismantled by war, invasion, opium and a
cloth. Lancashire-imposed system of one-way tariffs. (Already
by 1850, imposed Indian opium imports had siphoned 11
The history of colonialism and imperialism of the 19th and percent of China’s money supply and 13 percent of its
20th centuries, and their implications for the present, have silver stock out of the country.)’ During this period,
generated heated discussion over the years. There are those differences in wealth and living standards among countries
that stress positive aspects, pointing to the creation of emerged and then solidified. At the beginning of the 19th
infrastructure such as ports and railroads, the development century, the general standard of living in what would
of a modern bureaucracy that could govern in a post- become the industrialized core capitalist countries was not
colonial world, and the introduction of new crops. Others very different than that in India and China. By mid-century
have stressed harmful aspects that colonialism and the tide had begun to change, and by 1900 a huge disparity
imperialism had in the colonies and former colonies. had occurred—with household income in England approxi-
Destruction of local industries (such as weaving in India) to mately 21 times that in India. This was caused not only by
help create markets for the products of the industrial an increase in income in England, but also a stagnation or
revolution in Europe was common. Additionally, colonial actual decline of income in the what is now called the Third
and imperialist rulers commonly use ‘divide and rule’ World.
tactics, creating or intensifying divisions along ethnic or Towards the end of the 19th century the pace of colonial
religious lines by setting up one group (frequently a takeovers and commercial penetration of poor countries
minority) as native rulers working under colonial jurisdic- quickened. It was at this time that a number of horrific
tion. Mike Davis has written an ambitious book that famines occurred in widely dispersed locations around the
stresses the disastrous effects that a combination of weather globe—as far apart as India, China (especially the loess
patterns and social and economic changes brought about by plateau of the Yellow River in the north-central part of the
colonialism and imperialism had on hunger and famine country) and the northeast of Brazil. Davis’s book is
through large swaths of globe. The book covers a vast devoted to the details of the climatic events that led to the
amount of information across a number of disciplines. It famines, their human costs, why the famines were
attempts to synthesize and explain important historical especially severe, the popular movements that developed
occurrences and patterns, of continuing relevance to the in response to pauperization and the changes that occurred
modern world. How could the effects of these famines have in the aftermath. Davis sees the immediate direct
been so severe and what lessons can we learn from those consequences of the climatic extremes, the deaths of
terrible events? The book is divided into four parts: (I) The millions of people, as especially severe because the ways in
Great Drought, 1876–1878; (II) El Niño and the New which villages and countries had traditionally protected
Imperialism, 1888–1902; (III) Deciphering ENSO [the El their people from such natural disasters had been destroyed
Niño–Southern Oscillation]; and (IV) The Political Econ- by colonialism and imperialism. The staggering devastation
omy of Famine. The first two parts deal extensively with caused by the famines, in turn, left countries more
drought-induced famines, made considerably worse susceptible to imperialist penetration. This process solidi-
because of the effects of colonialism and imperialism. fied the center-periphery order of exploitation that still exits
The third part deals with the history and science behind the in the early 21st century. Ecologists describe strong
weather patterns that periodically brought drought to much ecosystems as resistant to catastrophic events, such as
of the Monsoon area of Asia, as well as other parts of the torrential rains, and resilient—able to bounce back quickly
globe. The fourth part deals mainly with responses of the when such events occur. Although not using this terminol-
societies of India, China and Brazil to the combination of ogy, what Davis describes is the weakening of the social
colonial heritage and weather patterns. system and its conversion to one less able to absorb shocks
Capitalism evolved its defining characteristics during the and to recover from harmful events.
19th century. It developed as a world system, with a group Shifts in patterns of surface water temperatures in the
of wealthy countries at the center and a larger group of Pacific Ocean set off changes that, combined with other
countries—either ‘deindustrialized’ or hindered in their factors such as snow cover in the Himalayan mountains,
development—in the periphery. As Davis points out in Late modify global rainfall patterns. During the El Niño phase
# CAB International 2005

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 Book Review 191
of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a lessening or activities that would benefit all, such as maintaining or
reversal in the westerly trade winds in the equatorial Pacific improving local irrigation systems.
causes an eastward shift in the large, warm surface ocean One way that Chinese peasants sometimes tried to deal
pool that is one of the major zones for the development of with difficult times was to switch to cotton from growing
clouds and monsoon rains needed for agriculture in many cereal staple crops. In good years they could earn enough
areas of the world. The upwelling of cold water along the from selling cotton and cotton yarn and cloth (produced in
Pacific coast of South America ceases and jet streams are the winter off-season with family labor) that they could
displaced towards the equator. These events tend to cause survive off of their small plots of land. However, relying on
drought in regions with normally good rainfall and cotton left northern Chinese peasants particularly vulner-
torrential rains in normally arid zones, such as the coastal able to droughts. Cotton is less forgiving of dry conditions
desert of Peru. and more reliant on early season rains than northern
The weather changes set in motion by El Niño events China’s grain staples, sorghum and millet. Competition
in the late 1800s were severe and would have even been a from foreign textiles reduced the potential of Chinese
challenge to societies well organized to deal with disasters. peasants to earn extra money from cottage-industry-scale
However, in the countries that Davis discusses—going into spinning and weaving. Additional problems included the
great detail on India, China, and Brazil, less so on others dwindling Chinese system of grain storage because of the
such as the Philippines—the societies were not able or financial stress of the Opium Wars, trade deficits resulting
willing to cope with the extent of the disaster. The from forced opium imports, the Great Powers adoption of
magnitude of the human destruction in the Indian droughts the gold standard in 1870s, as well as the mid-century civil
of the late 1800s and the callousness of the British rulers— wars and floods (including one that re-routed the Yellow
both described in some detail—is hard to fully compre- River from entering the ocean in the Yellow Sea to the Gulf
hend. (Imagine someone in the midst of a human disaster of Bohai). When disaster struck, even the use of cash
saying that the free markets need to be relied upon to deal (instead of stored grain) for relief could not solve the
with the situation!) And when limited relief was finally problem, because the available money couldn’t keep up
provided, people had to move some distance from their with the vast price inflation—there just wasn’t enough
villages and perform hard labor, while receiving a food locally available grain—and the difficulty of transportation
ration lower than that given to prisoners doing hard labor at to the famine areas made long-distance transport extremely
Buchenwald concentration camp during the Second World expensive. Areas depopulated by deaths and migration at
War. The droughts would have been bad enough if the the times of the famines did not recover earlier population
traditional village system for grain storage and distribution densities until the mid-20th century.
had still existed. But the British had drawn India and China One of the outcomes of imperialism is the appropriation
into the world capitalist system and commercial relation- of resources (capital) from the periphery. Imperialist
ships had replaced traditional relationships. The British also relations with India and China were especially useful to
raised funds—to finance their colonial activities in India British businessmen. India was forced to be the market for
and Afghanistan—by imposing taxes that were expected to products of British industry (textiles, electrical equipment,
be paid even during famines. This, of course, made things etc.) while the Indian imperialist venture was able to pay
worse, for when people produce less during a drought, there for these products by income from the sale of opium to
is no real way to earn sufficient funds to pay taxes and China. This enabled Britain to import tea from China and to
purchase food at exorbitant prices. The situation was still have a surplus in its trade with Asia. An additional,
made even more critical by railroads being used to bring perhaps unintended, consequence of these relationships was
food from drought stricken areas into central storage the development of new classes within countries of the
facilities, hoarding causing prices to increase (causing periphery, and famines provided a special opportunity for
exorbitant prices even in areas with sufficient production) capital accumulation and solidifying internal class and
and exports to England continuing to drain food from caste lines. For example, under British rule an effective
India (as the British also imported food from Ireland market in land developed in India. This enabled money-
during the Irish potato famine). Additional factors included lenders (sometimes rich peasants)—who once had a stake
the British failing to maintain traditional irrigation systems in the survival of a peasant borrowing in times of famine—
in India and compelling farmers to produce for the cash to accumulate land holdings if peasants weren’t able to pay.
market products that could be exported—wheat, indigo, Rich peasants also bought animals from drought-stricken
cotton, rice and, of course, the opium poppy which was peasants, for later sale in another region not so affected by
forced on the Chinese people. Also making it difficult for drought. The crises also worked to force a portion of the
people to survive the hard times in India were the British peasantry into wage labor in order to survive the drought
rules eliminating customary access to common resources and/or the loss of their land.
(‘Victorian enclosures’)—forests as well as grazing lands. This book could have used a final editing. There is some
This made it harder to maintain livestock and to obtain distracting repetition and so much detail on the famines that
firewood. With the social cohesion of Indian villages it is almost numbing. Because the text jumps around in time
destroyed, it was not possible to organize communal and geography, it is sometimes difficult to follow. The book

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 192 Book Review
would also have greatly benefited from a summary section the Third World and lessening farmers’ options. Addition-
at the end. Despite the shortcomings mentioned above, Late ally, as market-oriented ‘solutions’ were proposed for
Victorian Holocausts is a very important book for those famines in the 19th century, today the ‘free market’ is used
interested in agriculture and food security, partially because as an excuse to reduce assistance, such as subsidies for
many of the same issues are with us today. While fertilizer purchases, to farmers in poor countries. One of the
organizations such as the World Trade Organization might important issues of the 21st century is how to keep people
give the situation a somewhat different slant, the interests productively employed on the land in rural areas—to feed
of the dominant-core wealthy countries have never stopped themselves as well as supply some family income. Active
being a threat to feeding people in poor countries. As in the support and assistance by governments and non-govern-
19th century, farmers in the periphery today are also mental organizations (NGOs) will be essential to accom-
encouraged to produce crops for the export market instead plish this goal.
of staples for their families, and as the imperialist relations
at the end of the 19th century forced people into selling Fred Magdoff, Plant and Soil Science Department,
through limited marketing channels, agribusiness trans- University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, USA.
national corporations are currently tightening their grip on DOI: 10.1079/RAF2005109

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