The Empire of Nature: Hunting, Conservation and British Imperialism

Studies in Imperialism

by John M. MacKenzie

This study assesses the significance of the hunting cult as a major element of the imperial experience in Africa and Asia. Through a study of the game laws and the beginnings of conservation in the 19th and early-20th centuries, the author demonstrates the racial inequalities which existed between Europeans and indigenous hunters. Africans were denied access to game, and the development of game reserves and national parks accelerated this process. Indigenous hunters in Africa and India were turned into "poachers" and only Europeans were permitted to hunt. In India, the hunting of animals became the chief recreation of military officers and civilian officials, a source of display and symbolic dominance of the environment. Imperial hunting fed the natural history craze of the day, and many hunters collected trophies and specimens for private and public collections as well as contributing to hunting literature. Adopting a radical approach to issues of conservation, this book links the hunting cult in Africa and India to the development of conservation, and consolidates widely-scattered material on the importance of hunting to the economics and nutrition of African societies.

Genres: History

Paperback

First published November 1, 1988

About the author

John M. MacKenzie is Emeritus Professor of imperial history at Lancaster University and holds honorary professorships at the University of Aberdeen, St. Andrew and Edinburgh. He has published on many aspects of the cultural and environmental history of the British Empire. He edited the Manchester University Press Studies in Imperialism series for thirty years. He was Editor-in-Chief of the four volume Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Empire and is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Britain in the World.

Reviews

[Shyamal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading in the history of natural history, glad to see that some of these old books are being brought out in digital editions for the new audience as well as folks like me who can hardly find accessible libraries worth their name within a 1000 kilometre radius.

[Dipika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looks at the ideologies and practices of hunting in Africa and Asia.