This book explores the impact of colonialism and the introduction of capitalism during the
El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) related famines of
1876–1878,
1896–1897, and
1899–1902, in India, China,
Brazil,
Ethiopia, Korea,
Vietnam, the Philippines and
New Caledonia. By comparing ENSO episodes in different time periods and across countries, Davis explores the impact of
colonialism and the
introduction of
capitalism, and the relation with
famine in particular. Davis argues that Millions died, not outside the 'modern world system', but in the very process of being forcibly incorporated into its economic and political structures. They died in the
golden age of Liberal Capitalism; indeed, many were murdered ... by the
theological application of the
sacred principles of Smith, Bentham and Mill. It focuses on how colonialism and capitalism in
Colonial India and elsewhere increased rural poverty and hunger while
economic policies exacerbated famine. The book's main conclusion is that the deaths of 30–60 million people killed in famines all over the world during the later part of the 19th century were caused by
laissez-faire and
Malthusian economic
ideology of the colonial governments. In addition to a preface and a short section on definitions, the book is broken into four parts: The Great Drought, 1876–1878; El Niño and the New Imperialism, 1888–1902; Decyphering ENSO; and The Political Ecology of Famine. Davis argues, for example, that "Between 1875–1900—a period that included the worst famines in Indian history—annual grain exports increased from 3 to 10 million tons", equivalent to the annual nutrition of 25m people. "Indeed, by the turn of the century, India was supplying nearly a fifth of Britain's wheat consumption at the cost of its own food security." In addition, Already saddled with a huge public debt that included reimbursing the stockholders of the East India Company and paying the costs of the 1857 revolt, India also had to finance British military supremacy in Asia. In addition to incessant proxy warfare with Russia on the Afghan frontier, the subcontinent's masses also subsidized such far-flung adventures of the Indian Army as the occupation of Egypt, the invasion of Ethiopia, and the conquest of the Sudan. As a result, military expenditures never comprised less than 25 percent (34 percent including police) of India's annual budget ... As an example of the effects of both this and of the restructuring of the local economy to suit imperial needs (in Victorian
Berar, the acreage of cotton doubled 1875–1900), Davis notes that "During the famine of 1899–1900, when 143,000 Beraris died directly from starvation, the province exported not only thousands of bales of cotton but an incredible 747,000 bushels of grain." ==Publication history==