In December 1855 and January 1856, a trio of vessels set sail from the US to Jarvis and Baker islands, coral atolls in the midst of the Pacific Ocean. The ships carried representatives from the newly fashioned American Guano Firm and a guano professional tasked with analyzing the standard of the islands’ chook poop.
After estimating the amount of guano out there and taking samples, the entourage claimed the islands within the identify of the corporate and the US. That transfer marked the nation’s first effort to accumulate territory abroad.
U.S. possession of these islands grew to become official in July 1856 with Congress’ passage of the Guano Islands Act. That act gave the nation “permission” to assert sovereignty over any allegedly uninhabited or unclaimed territory to safe entry to guano, a prized fertilizer for American tobacco, cotton and wheat fields.
Ostensibly the act was meant to supply the US with a guano provide outdoors of Peru, residence to probably the most coveted, nitrogen-rich guano on this planet. Peru first attracted guano diggers from Britain within the early to mid-1800s, adopted shortly after by the US. At various factors, each international locations thought of forcibly taking Peru’s Lobos Islands, then residence to 30-meter-tall guano heaps.
However the Guano Islands Act gave greater than the reward of chook poop, says environmental sociologist Mauricio Betancourt of Washington and Lee College in Lexington, Va. It enabled the US to grab some 100 far-flung islands, 10 of which stay within the nation’s possession as we speak.
When the guano craze ended a long time later as provides have been exhausted, the US transformed these islands into army bases and strategic refueling stops. Throughout the Vietnam Battle, the nation used Johnson Atoll, a small Pacific island acquired by means of the Guano Islands Act in March 1858, to retailer and later incinerate the chemical weapon Agent Orange.
“Not sufficient emphasis has been positioned on the ecology (and particularly on guano) because the historic foundation of U.S. empire,” writes Betancourt in September in Socius.
The concept the U.S. empire was constructed on chook dung displays greater than a change in historic narrative. This and different examples of ecological imperialism illuminate how land grabs to accumulate sources alter the atmosphere and infrequently advance scientific data. Science Information spoke to Betancourt to be taught extra in regards to the uncared for story of guano and its modern-day repercussions. This interview has been edited for size and readability.Â
SN: What triggered the guano frenzy?
Betancourt: The guano commerce started as a result of Europe had an necessary drawback of soil depletion. [In the early 1800s] Britain was present process an agricultural revolution. It was maximizing the yield of some money crops of wool, cereals for grazing, et cetera. That elevated meals manufacturing.
Justus [von] Liebig, one of many foremost German chemists … argued again then that soil fertility needed to be replenished as a result of eradicating the vitamins from the soil couldn’t be performed indefinitely. That would provoke an issue of soil exhaustion.
As a result of [German naturalist Alexander von] Humboldt introduced some samples of guano again to Europe in 1804 after touring [to Peru], the Europeans have been nicely conscious of its exceptional fertilizing properties. And they also introduced guano all the best way from Peru to Britain round Cape Horn as a result of the Panama Canal didn’t exist. The French and the Individuals adopted go well with.
The guano commerce additionally catalyzed the development of the Panama Canal.
SN: What was so nice about seabird poop from Peru?
Betancourt: [Liebig] clearly and scientifically communicated to the scientific public in Europe that nitrogen was one of many key fertilizing parts.
The guano off Peru stands alone when it comes to the nitrogen content material … due to its location in a spot … the place it very not often rains. So the guano retains its share of nitrogen and it’s not washed off or watered down by the rain. Pacific guano was not pretty much as good, truly. It’s … extra humid so the guano has a better focus of phosphate relative to nitrogen.
SN: How did such intense guano excavation have an effect on Peruvian ecosystems?
Betancourt: Due to what is called upwelling, numerous vitamins [at] the underside of the ocean are resurfaced. This [also] occurs off Namibia, the Canary Islands and California. However Peru for different causes, [such as being] nearer to the equator, has a really excessive focus of vitamins. Phytoplankton appeal to numerous zooplankton. There are such a lot of birds there … as a result of there’s numerous fish. The guano is the fruits of the transmission of all of these vitamins from the ocean to the phytoplankton, zooplankton, fishes and birds.
Guano diggers constructed settlements on [Peru’s] islands. You had a whole bunch of individuals dwelling there for 40 years. That scared the birds. There aren’t any exact estimates of the dimensions of the populations again then. Most likely there have been about 50 million birds. Right this moment, there are a number of hundred thousand birds.
SN: As soon as Peru’s guano provide was exhausted, nations turned to a different nitrogen supply: Chilean nitrates. What was the influence?
Betancourt: The nitrates have been of geological origin [found in desert salts], however it’s the identical story [of ecological imperialism]. Chile’s nitrates have been additionally exhausted finally. And this prompted the Battle of the Pacific from 1879 to 1883, between Chile backed by Britain versus Bolivia and Peru. Bolivia and Peru misplaced the battle they usually needed to cede a part of their territories in perpetuity to Chile.
SN: How did the world fulfill its urge for food for nitrate-based fertilizers after that?
Betancourt: Fritz Haber, a German chemist, found a chemical response within the early 1900s … whereby he might use molecular nitrogen fuel from the ambiance [and] mix it with hydrogen in a really power intensive chemical response to supply ammonia. Principally, he found the best way to synthesize artificial fertilizer from nitrogen within the air, which is, to this present day, the method whereby most artificial fertilizer on this planet is produced.
Many individuals declare that that response was what allowed the inhabitants explosion from 1 billion to six billion within the twentieth century. [Haber] was even was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1918 for creating this response, partly stemming from what guano taught the world.
SN: Is mined guano nonetheless a sought-after commodity?
Betancourt: It’s fascinating as a result of it’s just about for home consumption [in Peru]. However it’s additionally exported in a way. [Farmers] apply it to espresso. The vitamins find yourself accumulating within the espresso. And that espresso will get exported to Europe and to the U.S.
