“Nutmeg has been one of the saddest stories of history,’ explains culinary historian Michael Krondl. If you listen to my story you'll hear the gruesome, grisly tale of how the Dutch tortured and massacred the people of the nutmeg-producing Banda Islands in Indonesia in an attempt to monopolize the nutmeg trade.”
Interview with Vimbai Kwashirai, Environmental History Resources: Green Colonialism in Zimbabwe
“Environmental history of the British Empire seems to revolve around the theme of imperial forestry and Zimbabwe is no exception. In this edition of the podcast Vimbai Kwashirai, Lecturer in African History at Durham University, examines the debates and processes of woodland exploitation in Zimbabwe during the colonial period (1890-1980).”
Jonathan Saha, Remembering Empire in Bristol and Brussels
“I was recently part of a small delegation of historians from the University of Bristol involved in a trip to the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Brussels. The purpose of the visit was to consider the ways that imperialism and its legacies have been approached in the museum, and the difficulties of publicly engaging with this divisive history. “
Interview with Michael Watts on Nigeria and Political Ecology:
“The history of the Nigerian state’s relation to the oil producing delta is one of serial deferment, punctuated by the use of powerful sticks and carrots: namely, throwing money at the problem through all manner of dedicated Niger Delta development programs and institutions devoted to improving conditions in delta communities (which are in effect oil rents channeled to powerful local political Godfathers and their cronies, or to the leaders of the militant groups), or deploying the Joint Military Task Force to violently oppress uppity communities and political groups.”
Online animal history museum: gallery eight, animals and empire:
“In the histories of human beings moving beyond their homelands to explore and later colonise and exploit the astonishing diversity of new worlds, the history of the changing global environment, and the non-humans within it, are clearly and indisputably pivotal. Dense forest, vast savannah, urban spaces, farmlands and rolling seas each significantly shaped – and were shaped by – human activities. And, within these landscapes, wild things were everywhere. “
Commodity types: Nutmeg, oil and animals
Researcher: Mat Paskins
Time periods: 1600-1700, 1700-1800, 1800-1900 and 1900-2000
Themes: Colonialism, Empire, woodland and public history