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.
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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"