step 1: genocide them
step 2: the land reverts to wilderness since you genocided the people who tended it
step 3: look, they arent even using it! IT’S FREE REAL ESTATE!
Colonizers were also famously unable to recognize indigenous agriculture for what it was because it was so labor-efficient and integrated with local ecosystems. I’d imagine this extends to most aspects of indigenous life, even among the larger more centralized civilizations.
deleted by creator
The whole “the land wasn’t being used” is pretty much the oldest justification for colonialism, it goes back to Locke and those other freaks
step 1: genocide them
step 2: the land reverts to wilderness since you genocided the people who tended it
step 3: look, they arent even using it! IT’S FREE REAL ESTATE!
Colonizers were also famously unable to recognize indigenous agriculture for what it was because it was so labor-efficient and integrated with local ecosystems. I’d imagine this extends to most aspects of indigenous life, even among the larger more centralized civilizations.
“weird how these eastern chestnut forests are a garden of eden even if we are too stupid to know how to use them”