Imperial Science and the Habitability of Central Asia and Mesopotamia, 1815-1914: A History of the Societal Consequences of Changing Environmental Limits

Project Information

HABITABILITY

Grant agreement ID: 101059732

DOI

10.3030/101059732

Project closed

EC signature date 7 June 2022

Start date 1 November 2022

End date 31 October 2024

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 173 847,36

Coordinated by

LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HABITABILITY (Imperial Science and the Habitability of Central Asia and Mesopotamia, 1815-1914: A History of the Societal Consequences of Changing Environmental Limits)

Reporting period: 2022-11-01 to 2024-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The MSCA project HABITABILITY has addressed a question of fundamental relevance today: what happens to societies when long habitable places become uninhabitable? It has done so by examining how in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, imperial scientists and geographers tried to measure the limits of life on earth in new ways. The focus has been on Central Asia and Mesopotamia, which became key to imperial investigations into environmental stability and change, especially via the disciplines of geography and climatology. Bringing an innovative combination of environmental history, global history and history of science methods to archival sources, this research has aimed to place scientific and cultural ideas of ‘habitability and ‘uninhabitability’ into their historical contexts and pioneer ‘habitability studies’ as an essential interdisciplinary methodology for an age of climate crisis.

The research has focused especially on attempts to trace changing ‘arid lines’ and ‘snow lines’ over a range of timescales. Here the discovery of lost cities in places that could not possibly support similar demographics under the environmental conditions of the present shaped imperial debates about climate change within recent human history. At the same time, in the case of Central Asia this was complicated by the growing imperial imaginary that these vast deserts had once supported allegedly one of the greatest trade routes in history: that is, the so-called ‘Silk Roads.’ This research has thus aimed to trace the development of these imaginaries, and the many ways these imperial categories continue to impact the region today.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the project I was able to conduct research in eleven different archives and collections in order to trace the way a diverse range of imperial agents made knowledge of climate around the turn of the twentieth century. Here I compared published accounts to archival reports, letters, and notebooks, as well as visual sources including maps and photographs. Using an innovative mix of methods from global and imperial history and the history of science, I have also been able to trace the role of intergenerational oral knowledge in understandings of environmental change in Central Asia over time. Indeed, the research has revealed how imperial geographical and scientific theories drew on range of multicultural historical records from Chinese pilgrims and Islamic travellers, as well as relying on contemporary knowledge and expertise.

I have presented findings from the project at academic conference in Germany, Switzerland, Finland and the UK. Additionally, I was invited to give public facing lectures at the Deutsches Museum and Rachel Carson Centre in Munich. With wider audiences similarly in mind, I wrote the script for a professionally produced audio documentary titled ‘Climate Change and the Lost Cities of the Taklamakan Desert’ which was released in November 2023 and provides an accessible overview of how Central Asia featured in imperial theories of climate stability around the turn of the twentieth century, and why understanding these histories matters today.

A notable achievement during the project was a workshop on ‘Climate Change, Empire and the Legacies of Environmental Determinism’ which was held on March 18-19, 2024 at LMU Munich. This focused on the problematic ways imperial ideas echo today in discussions around climate change, conflict and migration and featured 17 experts from Europe and around the world. This workshop has also served as a springboard for ongoing scholarly discussions around a ‘habitability studies’ network.

The research has resulted in several key academic outputs, including a conceptual article ‘Histories of Habitability from the Oikoumene to the Anthropocene’ in WIREs Climate Change which has already gained interdisciplinary attention and is also now used undergraduate teaching curriculums. Meanwhile, a research article on ‘The “Mystery” of Lop Nor: Empire, Geographical “Problems” and Climate Change on the Silk Roads’ published in Environment and History uses the case study of Lop Nor to discuss imperial debates about ‘desiccation,’ providing vital insights for environmental historians and historians of science, as well as scholars of Central Asia and the Silk Roads.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

As astronomers continue to search the universe for new habitable planets and billionaires speculate about terraforming Mars, this research has shown it is also essential to historicize the changing limits of habitability on this planet. In so doing, this research has revealed that judgments about changing habitability have never been free from cultural bias or political interest. In an age of climate crisis, it is thus critical that the humanities and the sciences come together to help scholars, as well as policymakers and the public understand the societal implications of environmental change. The longer term impact of the project will be that scholars and science communicators gain better tools for explaining the different ways we can and have lived, and how technological and natural solutions to alter habitability have always had societal and environmental consequences.

This project has advanced on the state of the art by demonstrating the significant extent to which problematic imperial categories – now often taken for granted – still shape our geographical imaginations today. In historicising imperial ideas of habitability and uninhabitability this project has made clear why understanding imperial questions of climate stability – and their postcolonial legacies – is essential to countering a recurrence of racist and environmentally determinist thinking in the face of the current climate crisis (as seen, for example, in language around climate-induced migration and so-called ‘climate refugees’).

At a time of increasing concern over the future uninhabitability of potentially large parts of our planet, this research has shown that it is imperative that current debates be placed in their historical contexts. Examining historical understandings of climate ultimately reminds us that our relationships with the environment have not always been the same. Historicizing ostensibly global environmental categories and imperial imaginaries shows how seemingly universal norms have histories. But this also means that they might have different futures. This research ultimately suggests that understanding these histories can help open up possibilities for imagining our relationships with the environment differently today – as, indeed, we must.

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