The role of capitalism and colonialism in the deforestation of early modern Europe: Notes for historical land use models

While various land use models have been developed to assess forest cover change in Europe over time, there has been very little dialogue between these projects and the growing body of historical and archaeological work on early modern European economic and environmental transformations. This article seeks to bridge this gap by assessing how the emergence of capitalism in Europe between 1500 and 1800 impacted the continent’s forests. Analysing the extensive historiographical and archaeological findings on this subject, we map how demand in the major European centres of capital accumulation (northern Italy, southern Germany, the Low Countries and England) accelerated deforestation in the watersheds of the North Sea, the Baltic and the Mediterranean. The colonisation of other continents also sparked further forest clearing in Europe, driven by shipbuilding for imperial fleets and the provision of goods for the expanding world-market. These findings show that land use change models need to integrate international flows of commodities, capital, and political power, to avoid treating states as isolated and ahistorical units. By doing so, we can see the impacts of colonialism and capitalism not only on other parts of the world, but on environments within Europe itself.