52 pages • 1 hour read
Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World
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Index of Terms
El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a weather pattern spawned by warming in the Pacific Ocean’s surface temperature as warm water currents head east from Australia toward South America. Undersea volcanic activity in the Pacific may contribute to this warming. A high-pressure zone in the western Pacific accompanies this warming. Eighteenth-century Peruvian sailors noticed this phenomenon occurring regularly in December, and they thus named it “El Niño”—the boy—in reference to the baby Jesus. Rising surface water temperatures due to global warming likely augment modern ENSO cycles. ENSO’s effects, like drought or flooding, however, are variable and only somewhat predictable because local weather events also influence them. Davis suggests that ENSO played a significant role in the drought-famines of the late 19th century yet cautions against holding weather solely responsible for these disasters. The British, for instance, made the effects of the ENSO-fueled droughts in India worse because they failed to regulate grain prices, did not effectively fund famine relief, and exported grain to England instead of supplying it to drought-stricken regions.
Political Ecology
Political ecology is the social scientific approach Davis uses to study the relationship between humanity and the environment. This approach suggests that political, social, and economic impacts on the environment are significant, and their study cannot be separated. For example, Davis argues that non-Western peoples may have suffered less from the late 19th-century droughts had European imperialists, particularly the British, not deliberately diverted resources that otherwise would have provided famine relief.
Third World
The concept of “third world” nations emerged out of the Cold War and was initially a political designation. The United States and allies called themselves “first world” countries with the Soviet sphere of influence in Europe operating as a “second world.” The term “third world” designated the many countries—primarily in the Global South—that belonged to neither of those categories. However, since many “third world” countries were impoverished and former colonies of European states, this label soon acquired a pejorative connotation. Today most scholars prefer terms like “the developing world” or “Global South” to refer to these countries, due to “third world’s” colonialist and hierarchical connotation. Davis contends that imperialists consciously deprived the Global South of opportunities for economic development, not only by stripping countries like India of resources but through withholding famine relief during droughts to depopulate land, weaken resistance, and enrich the West.
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