Africa and the Ice Age threat (9)

KANT, who is attached to the Institute for Green Economy in New Delhi, India, speculates that 'The central blame for slavery of an entire people and of colonization elsewhere would perhaps one day be placed on the freezing climate of the thirteenth century'.But it was not England alone, who looked beyond Europe for wealth. The Environmental History Resources website, also quoted previously, notes that 'The Little Ice Age coincided with the maritime expansion of Europe and the creation of sea born trading and later colonial empires'.First, it continues, 'came the Spanish and the Portugese, followed by the Dutch, English and other European nations. Key to this success was the development of shipbuilding technology, which was a response to '. trading, strategic and climatic pressure'.Among the strategic factors was Britain's struggle with its American colonies, which rebelled and, in 1776, declared their independence. After two wars, Britain failed to re-establish its control. But it continued to harry and harass the young republic, strategically and economically.Many perceptive British intellectuals could, no doubt, see in Swedenborg's teachings, a potentially powerful weapon: Particularly in his idea that Africa is the 'New Jerusalem' and in the interest of his followers in establishing a colony of freed slaves on the western coast.There was, therefore, a timely convergence of strategic and humanitarian interests. Through the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, Britain could deal a blow to the heavily slave-based economy of the U.S.A. by cutting off its supply of labour from West Africa.At the same time, the establishment of a colony of freed slave on the West African Coast would give Britain a re-provisioning station for its ships and a base from which to harass U.S. vessels plying the highly strategic corridor between western Africa and eastern South America.The establishment of Sierra Leone in 1792 thus led, indirectly, to the creation of Liberia in 1821-22'since U.S. ships could not re-provision there.Borrowing ideas from Swedenborg and the abolitionists, a group of U.S. slaveholders, traders and humanitarians formed the American Colonization Society. Ostensibly, their motives were humanitarian. But in reality, their actions were governed by a mixture of strategic, political and economic considerations.This line of reason though, would carry us too far away from the subject under discussion'Africa and the Little Ice Age. Suffice it to say that the 500 year of cold weather in Europe had a decidedly negative impact in Africa.But that impact was not confined to political and economic developments that were inimical to the well-being of Africans. Although some climatologists insist that the Little Ice age was strictly a European phenomenon, researchers are turning up increasing evidence that it wasn't.TO BE CONTINUED
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