Scorched Earth

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A global history of environmental warfare reveals how the environmental infrastructure supporting human societies has long been a target in conflicts, leading to famine, disease, and the displacement of populations. This history examines scorched earth tactics, military inundations, and armies exploiting local resources from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, arguing that such deliberate environmental destruction—termed environcide—constitutes total war and is a crime against humanity and nature. It details how religious wars in Europe turned Holland into a desolate swamp plagued by hunger and disease, and how Spanish conquistadors devastated the irrigation systems and agricultural terraces of the Aztecs and Incas, resulting in catastrophic humanitarian crises. The narrative spans from the Thirty Years' War and the wars of France's Sun King to Dutch colonial conflicts in North America and Indonesia, as well as the Indian Wars and early twentieth-century colonial conquests in southwestern Africa. By exploring the origins and consequences of total war, it highlights the interconnectedness of ecocide and genocide, advocating for international law to recognize environmental warfare as a violation of human rights.