Editing Environmental determinism (section)

=== Western colonial period ===
{{Main|Analysis of Western European colonialism and colonization}}
Environmental determinism has been widely criticized as a tool to legitimize [[colonialism]], [[racism]], and [[imperialism]] in [[Africa]], [[The Americas]], and [[Asia]].<ref name="Gilmartin 2009" /> Environmental determinism enabled geographers to scientifically justify the supremacy of white European races and the naturalness of imperialism.<ref name="Painter 2009, pg.177">{{cite book | last=Painter | first=Joe | last2=Jeffrey | first2=Alex | date=2009-02-18 | title=Political geography: An introduction to space and power | publisher=Sage | isbn=978-1-4129-0137-6 | oclc=248987556 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hRVjGJGmAPMC&pg=PA177 | page=177}}</ref> The scholarship bolstered religious justifications and in some cases superseded them during the late 19th century.<ref name="J.A. Campbell 1983">{{cite journal |last=Campbell |first=J. A. |last2=Livingstone |first2=David Noel |author-link2=David N. Livingstone |date=1983 |title=Neo-Lamarckism and the development of geography in the United States and Great Britain |journal=Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers |volume=8 |issue=3 |page=267-294, at p. 278 |doi=10.2307/622045 |jstor=622045}}</ref>

Many writers, including [[Thomas Jefferson]], supported and legitimized African colonization by arguing that tropical climates made the people uncivilized. Jefferson argued that tropical climates encouraged laziness, relaxed attitudes, promiscuity and generally degenerative societies, while the frequent variability in the weather of the middle and northern latitudes led to stronger work ethics and civilized societies.<ref>{{cite book | last1=Jefferson | first1=Thomas | editor1-last=Gates | editor1-first=Henry Louis | editor2-last=Burton | editor2-first=Jennifer | title=Call and response: Key debates in African American studies | date=2011 | publisher=W.W. Norton & Company | location=New York | isbn=978-0-393-97578-9 | pages=17–24 | chapter=Notes on the State of Virginia}}</ref> [[Adolf Hitler]] also made use of this theory to extol the supremacy of the [[Nordic race]].<ref>{{cite speech | url=http://carolynyeager.net/why-we-are-antisemites-text-adolf-hitlers-1920-speech-hofbr%C3%A4uhaus | title=Warum sind wir Antisemiten? | trans-title=Why we are antisemites | language=en | event=National Socialist German Workers Party meeting at the State Brewery in Munich, 15 August 1920 | first=Adolf | last=Hitler | orig-year=1920 | editor-first=Carolyn Elizabeth | editor-last=Yeager | date=29 January 2013 | translator-first=Hasso | translator-last=Castrup | publication-place=Texas | publisher=Carolyn Elizabeth Yeager | access-date=27 November 2016}} Translated from {{cite journal | last=Phelps | first=Reginald H. | date=October 1968 | title=Hitlers „grundlegende" rede über den antisemitismus | trans-title=Hitler's "fundamental" speech on anti-Semitism | language=de | journal=Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte |volume=16 | number=4 | jstor=30196275 | url=https://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/1968_4.pdf#page=86 | pages=390-420, at 400-418}}</ref>

Defects of character supposedly generated by tropical climates were believed to be inheritable under the [[Jean-Baptiste Lamarck|Lamarckian]] theory of [[inheritance of acquired characteristics]], a discredited precursor to the [[Charles Darwin|Darwinian]] theory of [[natural selection]].<ref name="J.A. Campbell 1983" /> The theory begins with the observation that an organism faced with environmental pressures may undergo physiological changes during its lifetime through the process of [[acclimatization]]. Lamarckianism suggested that those physiological changes may be passed directly to offspring, without the need for offspring to develop the trait in the same manner.<ref>{{citation | mode=cs1 | last=Lamarck | first=Jean-Baptiste | date=1809 | title=Philosophie zoologique, ou exposition des considérations relatives à l'histoire naturelle des animaux | trans-title=Zoological philosophy: Exposition with regard to the natural history of animals | language=fr | publication-place=Paris | publisher=National Museum of Natural History | pp=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_8NsTAAAAQAAJ/page/n297 235], [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_8NsTAAAAQAAJ/page/n296 261] | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_8NsTAAAAQAAJ/page/n296}} Translated in {{cite journal | last=Mayr | first=Ernst | title=Lamarck revisited | journal=Journal of the History of Biology | volume=5 | issue=1 | date=1972 | issn=0022-5010 | doi=10.1007/BF02113486 | jstor=4330569 | pages=55–94, at pp. 79–80}} Note: The page numbers Mayr cites don't match either the 1809 edition, or Jean-Baptiste Baillière's 1830 reprint.</ref>

Geographical societies like the [[Royal Geographical Society]] and the [[Société de géographie]] supported imperialism by funding explorers and other colonial proponents.{{sfn|Gilmartin|2009|p=117}} Scientific societies acted similarly. [[Acclimatisation society|Acclimatization societies]] directly supported colonial enterprises and enjoyed their benefits. The writings of Lamarck provided theoretical backing for the acclimatization doctrines. The Société Zoologique d'Acclimatation was largely founded by [[Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire]]—son of [[Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire]], a close colleague and supporter of Lamarck.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Osborne | first=Michael A. | title=Acclimatizing the world: A history of the paradigmatic colonial science | journal=Osiris | volume=15 | date=2000 | issn=0369-7827 | doi=10.1086/649323 | jstor=301945 | pages=135–151, at pp. 138, 143}}</ref>

[[Ellen Churchill Semple]], a prominent environmental determinism scholar, applied her theories in a case study which focused on the [[Philippines]], where she mapped civilization and wildness onto the [[topography]] of the islands.<ref name="Painter 2009, pg.177" /> Other scholars argued that climate and topography caused specific character traits to appear in a given populations. Scholars thereby imposed racial stereotypes on whole societies.<ref name="Painter 2009, pg.177" /> Imperial powers rationalized [[Exploitation of labour|labor exploitation]] by claiming that tropical peoples were morally inferior.<ref>{{cite book | last=Gallaher | first=Carolyn | date=2009 | chapter=Political economy | editor-last=Gallaher | editor-first=Carolyn | editor-last2=Dahlman | editor-first2=Carl T. | editor-last3=Gilmartin | editor-first3=Mary | editor-last4=Mountz | editor-first4=Alison | editor-last5=Shirlow | editor-first5=Peter | title=Key concepts in political geography | publisher=Sage | isbn=978-1-4129-4671-1 | oclc=192080009 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XpBJclVnVdQC&pg=PT138 | pages=124–135, at p. 127}}</ref>

The role of environmental determinism in rationalizing and legitimizing [[racism]], [[ethnocentrism]] and [[economic inequality]] has consequently drawn strong criticism.{{sfn|Painter|Jeffrey|2009|p=200}}

[[David Landes]] similarly condemns of what he terms the unscientific moral geography of [[Ellsworth Huntington]]. He argues that Huntington undermined geography as a science by attributing all human activity to physical influences so that he might classify civilizations hierarchically – favoring those civilizations he considered best.<ref>{{cite book | last1=Landes | first1=David | title=The wealth and poverty of nations: Why some are so rich and some so poor | isbn=978-0-393-04017-3 | year=1998 | publisher=W.W. Norton | url=https://archive.org/details/wealthpovertyofn00land}}</ref>