When Did We Begin Worshiping War?

Photo by Specna Arms on Unsplash

Like most of us, I grew up believing the United States was peace-loving and we were people who avoided war. After all, for a large part of our history, the military establishment and its emulation was kept very small. It was intentional. We didn’t want a large military that might become a threat to our government and institutions. Our founders were wise.

What changed us? What changed our view and our course?

Perhaps the only thing that has changed is our awareness. It seems what we teach in school leaves out some essential details, facts, and information. Let’s take a look at our record. Here is a list of the US military and surreptitious operations in foreign countries from 1798 to 2005.[1] World Wars I & II are omitted.

1798-1800                      France               Undeclared naval war against France, marines land in Puerto Plata

in what is now the Dominican Republic

1801-1805                      Tripoli               War with Tripoli (Libya), called “First Barbary War”

1806                             Spanish              Military force enters Spanish territory in headwaters of the Rio Grande

                                    Mexico             

1806-1810                      Spanish and        US naval vessels attack French and Spanish shipping in the Caribbean

                                    French in          

                                    Caribbean

1810                             Spanish West      Troops invade and seize Western Florida, a Spanish possession

                                    Florida

1812                             Spanish East       Troops seize Amelia Island and adjacent territories

                                    Florida

1812                             War of 1812       Naval and land operations, including the invasion of Canada

1813                             Marquesas          Forces seize the island of Nuku Hiva and establish first US naval base                                      Island                in the Pacific

1814                             Spanish East       Troops seize Pensacola in Spanish East Florida

                                    Florida

1814-1825                      Spanish in          US naval squadron engages French, British, and Spanish shipping in

                                    Caribbean          the Caribbean

1815                             Algiers and         US naval fleet under Captain Stephen Decatur wages “Second Barbary

                                    Tripoli               War” in North Africa

1816-1819                      Spanish East       Troops attack and seize Nicholls’ Fort, Amelia Island and other

Florida              strategic locations. Spain eventually cedes East Florida to the US.

1822-1825                      Spanish Cuba      Marines land in numerous cities in the Spanish island of Cuba and also

                                    and Puerto Rico  in Spanish Puerto Rico

1827                             Greece               Marines invade the Greek islands of Argentiere, Miconi, and Andross

1831                             Falkland/           US naval squadrons aggress the Falkland Islands in the South Atlanticc

Malvinas Islands

1832                             Sumatra, Dutch   US naval squadrons attack Qallah Battoo

                                    East Indies

1833                             Argentina           Forces land in Buenos Aires and engage local combatants

1835-1836                      Peru                  Troops dispatched twice for counter-insurgency operations

1836                             Mexico              Troops assist Texas war for independence

1837                             Canada              Naval incident on the Canadian border leads to mobilization of a large

force to invade Canada. War is narrowly averted

1838                             Sumatra, Dutch   US naval forces sent to Sumatra for punitive expedition

                                    East Indies

1840-1841                      Fiji                   Naval forces deployed, marines land

1841                             Samoa               Naval forces deployed, marines land

1842                             Mexico              Naval forces temporarily seize cities of Monterey and San Diego

1843                             China                Marines land in Canton

1843                             Ivory Coast        Marines land

1846-1848                      Mexico              War. Mexico cedes half of its territory to the US by the Treaty of

Guadeloupe Hidalgo

1849                             Ottoman Empire  Naval forces dispatched to Smyrna

                                    (Turkey)

1852-1853                      Argentina           Marines land in Buenos Aires

1854                             Nicaragua          Navy bombards and largely destroys city of San Juan del Norte.

Marines land and set fire to the city

1854                             Japan                Commodore Perry and his fleet deploy at Yokohama

1855                             Uruguay            Marines land in Montevideo

1856                             Colombia           Marines land for counter-insurgency campaign

                                    (Panama Region)

1856                             China                Marines deployed in Canton

1856                             Hawaii              Naval forces seize small islands of Jarvis, Baker, and Howland

1857                             Nicaragua          Marines land

1858                             Uruguay            Marines land in Montevideo

1858                             Fiji                   Marines land

1859                             Paraguay            Large naval force deployed

1859                             China                Troops enter Shanghai

1859                             Mexico              Military force enters northern area

1860                             Portuguese West Troops land at Kissembo

                                    Africa

1863                             Japan                Troops land at Shimonoseki

1864                             Japan                Troops landed in Yedo

1865                             Colombia           Marines landed

(Panama Region)

1866                             Columbia           Troops invade and seize Matamoros, later withdraw

                                    (Panama Region)

1866                             China                Marines land in Newhwang

1867                             Nicaragua          Marines land in Managua and Leon

1867                             Formosa Island   Marines land

                                    (Taiwan)

1867                             Midway Island    Naval forces seize this island in the Hawaiian Archipelago for a naval

base

1868                             Japan                Naval forces deployed at Osaka, Hiogo, Nagasaki, Yokohama, and

Negata

1868                             Uruguay            Marines land at Montevideo

1870                             Colombia           Marines landed

1871                             Korea                Forces landed

1873                             Colombia           Marines landed

                                    (Panama Region)

1874                             Hawaii              Sailors and marines landed

1876                             Mexico              Army again occupies Matamoros

1882                             British Egypt      Troops land

1885                             Colombia           Troops land in Colon and Panama City

                                    (Panama Region)

1885                             Samoa               Naval force deployed

1887                             Hawaii              Navy gains right ot build permanent naval base at Pearl Harbor

1888                             Haiti                 Troops landed

1888                             Samoa               Marines landed

1889                             Samoa               Clash with German naval forces

1890                             Argentina           US sailors land in Buenos Aires

1891                             Chile                 US sailors land in the major port city of Valparaiso

1891                             Haiti                 Marines land on US-claimed Navassa Island

1893                             Hawaii              Marines and other naval forces land and overthrow the monarchy

1894                             Nicaragua          Marines land at Bluefields on the eastern coast

1894-1895                      China                Marines are stationed at Tientsin and Beijing. A naval ship takes up

position at Newchwang

1894-1896                      Korea                Marines land and remain in Seoul

1895                             Colombia           Marines are sent to the town Bocas del Toro

1896                             Nicaragua          Marines land in the port of Corinto

1898                             Nicaragua          Marines land at the port city of San Juan del Sur

1898                             Guam                Naval forces seize Guam Island from Spain and the US holds the island

Permanently

1898                             Cuba                 Naval and land forces seize Cuba from Spain

1898                             Puerto Rico        Naval and land forces seize Puerto Rico from Spain and the US holds

the island permanently

1898                             Philippines         Naval forces defeat the Spanish fleet and the US takes control of the

Country

1899                             Philippines         Military units are reinforced for extensive counter-insurgency

Operations

1899                             Samoa               Naval forces land

1899                             Nicaragua          Marines land at the port city of Bluefields

1900                             China                US forces intervene in several cities

1901                             Colombia/          Marines land

                                    Panama

1902                             Colombia/          US forces land in Bocas de Toro

                                    Panama

1903                             Colombia/          With US backing, a group in northern Colombia declares independence

                                    Panama             as the state of Panama

1903                             Guam                Navy begins development in Apra Harbor of a permanent base

Installation

1903                             Honduras           Marines go ashore at Puerto Cortez

1903                             Dominican         Marines land in Santo Domingo

Republic

1904-1905                      Korea                Marines land and stay in Seoul

1906-1909                      Cuba                 Marines land. The US builds a major naval base at Guantanamo Bay

1907                             Nicaragua          Troops seize major centers

1907                             Honduras           Marines land and take up garrison in cities of Trujillo, Ceiba, Puerto

Cortez, San Pedro, Laguna and Choloma

1908                             Panama             Marines land and carry out operations

1910                             Nicaragua          Marines land in Bluefields and Corinto

1911                             Honduras           Marines intervene

1911-1941                      China                The US builds up its military presence in the country to a force of 5000

troops and a fleet of 44 vessels patrolling China’s coast and rivers

1912                             Cuba                 US sends army troops into combat in Havana

1912                             Panama             Army troops intervene

1912                             Honduras           Marines land

1912-1933                      Nicaragua          Marines intervene. A 20-year occupation of the country follows

1913                             Mexico              Marines land at Ciaris Estero

1914                             Dominican         Naval forces engage in battles in the city of Santo Domingo

                                    Republic

1914                             Mexico              US forces seize and occupy Mexico’s major port city of Veracruz from

April through November

1915-1916                      Mexico              An expeditionary force of the US Army under Gen. John j. Pershing

crosses the Texas border and penetrates several hundred miles into

Mexican territory. Eventually reinforced to over 11,000 officers and

men.

1914-1934                      Haiti                 Troops land, aerial bombardment leading to a 19-year military

Occupation

1916-1924                      Dominican         Military intervention leading to 8-year occupation

                                    Republic

1917-1933                      Cuba                 Landing of naval forces. Beginning of a 15-year occupation

1918-1920                      Panama             Troops intervene, remain on “police duty” for over 2 years

1918-1922                      Russia               Naval forces and army troops fight battles in several areas of the

country during a five-year period

1919                             Yugoslavia         Marines intervene in Dalmatia

1919                             Honduras           Marines land

1920                             Guatemala          Troops intervene

1922                             Turkey              Marines engaged in operations in Smyrna (Izmir)

1922-1927                      China                Naval forces and troops deployed during 5-year period

1924-1925                      Honduras           Troops land twice in two-year period

1925                             Panama             Marines land and engage in operations

1927-1934                      China                Marines and naval forces stationed throughout the country

1932                             El Salvador        Naval forces intervene

1933                             Cuba                 Naval forces deployed

1934                             China                Marines land in Foochow

1946                             Iran                   Troops deployed in northern province

1946-1949                      China                Major US army presence of about 100,000 troops, fighting, training and

advising local combatants

1947-1949                      Greece               US forces wage a 3-year counterinsurgency campaign

1948                             Italy                  Heavy CIA involvement in national elections

1948-1954                      Philippines         Commando operations, “secret” CIA war

1950-1953                      Korea                Korean War

1953                             Iran                   CIA overthrows democratically elected government of Prime Minister

Mohammed Mossadegh

1954                             Vietnam            Financial and materiel support for colonial French military operations,

leads eventually to direct US military involvement

1954                             Guatemala          CIA overthrows the government of President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman

1958                             Lebanon            US marines and army units totaling 14,000 land

1958                             Panama             Clashes between US forces in Canal Zone and local citizens

1959                             Haiti                 Marines land

1960                             Congo               CIA-backed overthrow and assassination of Prime Minister Patrice

Lumumba

1960-1964                      Vietnam            Gradual introduction of military advisors and special forces

1961                             Cuba                 CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion

1962                             Cuba                 Nuclear threat and naval blockade (Cuban Missile Crisis)

1962                             Laos                  CIA-backed military coup

1963                             Ecuador             CIA backs military overthrow of President Jose Maria Balesco Ibarra

1964                             Panama             Clashes between US forces in Canal Zone and local citizens

1964                             Brazil                CIA-backed military coup overthrows the government of Joao Goulart

and Gen. Castello Branco takes power

1965-1975                      Vietnam            Large commitment of military forces, including air, naval and ground

units numbering up to 500,000+ troops. Full-scale war, lasting for ten

years.

1965                             Indonesia           CIA-backed army coup overthrows President Sukarno and brings Gen.

Suharto to power

1965                             Congo               CIA-backed military coup overthrows President Joseph Kasavubu and

brings Joseph Mobutu to power

1965                             Dominican         23,000 troops land

                                    Republic           

1965-1973                      Laos                  Bombing campaign begins, lasting eight years

1966                             Ghana               CIA-backed military coup ousts President Kwame Nkrumah

1966-1967                      Guatemala          Extensive counter-insurgency operation

1969-1975                      Cambodia          CIA supports military coup against Prince Sihanouk, bringing Lon Nol

to power. Intensive bombing for seven years along border with

Vietnam

1970                             Oman                Counter-insurgency operation, including coordination with Iranian

marine invasion

1971-1973                      Laos                  Invasion by US and South Vietnamese forces

1973                             Chile                 CIA-backed military coup ousts government of President Salvador

Allende. Gen Augusto Pinochet comes to power.

1975                             Cambodia          Marines land, engage in combat with government forces

1976-1992                      Angola              Military and CIA operations

1980                             Iran                   Special operations units land in Iranian desert. Helicopter malfunction

leads to aborting of planned raid.

1981                             Libya                Naval jets shoot down two Libyan jets in maneuvers over the

Mediterranean

1981-1982                      El Salvador        CIA and special forces begin a long counter-insurgency campaign

1981-1990                      Nicaragua          CIA directs exile “Contra” operations. US air units drop sea mines in

harbors.

1982-1984                      Lebanon            Marines land and naval forces fire on local combatants.

1983                             Grenada             Military forces invade Grenada

1983-1989                      Honduras           Large program of military assistance aimed at conflict in Nicaragua

1984                             Iran                   Two Iranian jets shot down over the Persian Gulf

1958                             Panama             Clashes between US forces in Canal Zone and local citizens

1986                             Libya                US aircraft bomb the cities of Tripoli and Benghazi, including direct

strikes at official residence of President Muamar al Qadaffi

1986                             Bolivia              Special Forces units engage in counter-insurgency

1987-1988                      Iran                   Naval forces block Iranian shipping. Civilian airliner shot down by

missile cruiser

1989                             Libya                Naval aircraft shoot down two Libyan jets over Gulf of Sidra

1989                             Philippines         CIA and Special Forces involved in counterinsurgency.

1989-1990                      Panama             27,000 troops as well as naval and air power use to overthrow

government of President Noriega.

1990                             Liberia              Troops deployed

1990-1991                      Iraq                   Major military operation, including naval blockade, air strikes; large

number of troops attack Iraqi forces in occupied Kuwait

1991-2003                      Iraq                   Control of Iraqi airspace in north and south of the country with periodic

attacks on air and ground targets.

1991                             Haiti                 CIA-backed military coup ousts President Jean-Bertrand Aristide

1992-1994                      Somalia             Special operations forces intervene

1992-1994                      Yugoslavia         Major role in NATO blockade of Serbia and Montenegro

1993-1995                      Bosnia               Active military involvement with air and ground forces.

1994-1996                      Haiti                 Troops depose military rulers and restore President Jean-Bertrand

Aristide to office

1995                             Croatia              Krajina Serb airfields attacked

1996-1997                      Zaire (Congo)     Marines involved in operations in eastern region of the country

1997                             Liberia              Troops deployed

1998                             Sudan                Air strikes destroy country’s major pharmaceutical plant

1998                             Afghanistan        Attack on targets in the country

1998                             Iraq                   Four days of intensive air and missile strikes

1999                             Yugoslavia         Major involvement in NATO air strikes

2001                             Macedonia         NATO troops shift and partially disarm Albanian rebels

2001                             Afghanistan        Air attacks and ground operations oust Taliban government and install

a new regime.

2003                             Iraq                   Invasion with large ground, air and naval forces ousts government of

Saddam Hussein and establishes new government.

2003-Present                  Iraq                   Occupation force of 150,000 troops in protracted counter-insurgency

War

2004                             Haiti                 Marines land. CIA-backed forces overthrow President Jean-Bertrand

Aristide.

There have been many more interventions and operations since 2005. Here are a few notables:

Unrestricted use of drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen. 2011 military intervention in Libya. The raid and killing of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan. 2011-Present, US combat troops in Uganda sent to advise. 2012, troops deployed to Jordan to help it contain the Syrian Civil War. Americans have been and are involved in Somalia, Chad, Syria, Iraq, Cameroon, and elsewhere. The US has been involved in numerous coups and attempted coups, including: 2007-Iran, 2009-Honduras, 2011-Libya, 2015-present, Yemen, 2019-present, Venezuela, and most recently the coup that overthrew Bolivian President Evo Morales in 2019 that has now been reversed and has blown up in our face.

It would seem we have had no qualms about flexing our military muscle and meddling in other countries whenever it suited our purposes and interests. It would appear the roots of an empire run deep in our family tree. During my more than 75 years of life, we have been actively involved in military operations, wars, and other actions almost without interruption. The US maintains more than 800 bases in at least 80 countries. It is the largest arms dealer on the planet and spends more annually on defense than the next dozen countries combined. It is one reason our democracy is in such peril.

Some of our bellicose behavior, I realize, is a reflection of the time they occurred. Nations with the ability to do so have rarely restrained themselves from flaunting their military superiority to obtain their objectives. That should not be interpreted and accepted as an excuse for behavior in any era.

Our ancestors arrived on this continent with the intention of conquest, colonization, and removal of any obstacle to their designs by whatever means necessary. This behavior is embedded in our DNA. We are programmed to eliminate any who are perceived as competition for access to resources.

War and conflict have been a part of our heritage. Conflicts with indigenous tribes commenced as soon as our European ancestors stepped foot on these shores in 1607. It continued until the Wounded Knee Massacre near the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota on December 29, 1890. Major conflicts during the colonial period connected to events elsewhere included: Queen Anne’s War-1702-1713, King George’s War-1744-1748, and The French and Indian War-1756-1763. To this list, we can also add instances of slave rebellions in the South.

We were not predestined to be a warrior nation. History, circumstance, and perhaps something peculiar in our national makeup may have made it more likely. Was England’s sending of more than 50,000 convicted felons to the colonies before the Revolution a factor? Was it convicted felons plus thousands more of the poor and unwanted sent to the colonies as indentured servants? Did Evangelical Christianity that fed abundantly off emotion and ignorance play a part? Was it a chance outcome fueled by personalities willing to take high risks that came to the colonies and uninhibited by society norms? These are questions others with more understanding and expertise will have to ponder. The result, however, is evident. We are not shy about asserting ourselves and using force to get what we want.

For most of our history, we have downplayed and hidden our behavior and activities from view. Our many intrusions and adventures around the world and especially in Latin America were never discussed or acknowledged. These things were never talked about or mentioned in any history class. The portrayal of our conflict with Native Americans was almost always a reaction to aggression and barbaric acts. Our massacring villages were recorded as ‘battles.’ My college classes in diplomatic history never mentioned any but the most famous instances listed above. We portrayed ourselves as exceptional, believing repeating this lie will cleanse us of sin.

Two world wars, the Cold War, and the endless preparation for war pushed us past a tipping point. What these events did was to expose what has been shielded from view. Embracing empire, militarism, and glorifying soldiers as warriors allowed us to see behind the curtain. We got a glimpse of who we are. We may try to ignore it. We may try to hide it, but it is what it is, and we are who we are.

Acknowledging these things allows us to look at and view our history from a different perspective. The toxic mixture of right-wing zealotry, paranoid fears of communism, and the Cold War, changed our attitudes toward war. Seduced by material abundance served up by a booming postwar economy and fueled by the release of pent-up energy of millions of returning veterans threw open the door to a growing militarization of society. Public attention was distracted, intoxicated, and addicted to the acquisition of things.

I remember the early 1950s when we practiced duck and cover drills in elementary school. We had no idea what we are doing, but we did as we were instructed by teachers who were as confused as we were. I remember rumors in my small midwestern town promoting fears of Russian bombers. It was whispered there were plane spotters with binoculars in the tower at the junior high school every night to keep watch.  

The gluttonous annual defense budgets, the peacetime draft supporting the bulging military establishment infiltrated our thoughts and took over our thinking. The way current events were presented heightened the fears and hysteria ensuring the defense department would be well funded. There was the Korean War, the Suez Canal crisis in 1956, the shock of Sputnik in 1957, the intervention to prevent China from invading Taiwan in 1958, culminating with the Cuban Missile Crisis during October 1962.

President Dwight Eisenhower warned of the dangers posed by the growth of the military-industrial complex. No one listened. The page had been turned, and our conversion, not just to empire, but a highly militarized one that protected its interests, not necessarily the people’s.

An Empire is what we’ve been since Thomas Jefferson encouraged Congress to take advantage of Napoleon’s offer and purchased the vast center of the continent known as Louisiana Territory. It set a tone that has continued. We practiced ethnic cleansing and genocide on the indigenous peoples to clear the land. A manufactured war with Mexico gave us control over the continent, war with Spain freed us from North American containment. World War II ended with us in command. We controlled most of the world’s wealth, we had a large military, and we led in making the rules for the world that was to follow.

The Cold War facilitated the growing empire and particularly the military force required to enforce and control it. The Soviet Union became an unwilling but necessary partner in helping us achieve the militarization of society. They were the convenient boogieman used as an excuse for an ever-increasing military establishment.

The Soviet Union disappeared in 1991. The strain of trying to keep up with the US caused the Soviet Empire to collapse and disintegrate. The American Empire was unrestrained and able to impose its will for a time. But narrow thinking comes at a price, and we still have not acknowledged the terrible price we have paid. Nor have we experienced the impact of policies and activities that now threaten to come home and overwhelm us.

The rise of militarism was paralleled by the growth of the gun culture accompanied by pseudo-militias and other extremist groups. The culture was inundated by a fascination with violence. Our movies, TV screens, video games, and the evening news were filled with displays and portrayals of violence, particularly with a wild west shoot’em up attitude.

The constant threat of war and engaging in conflicts destroy a democracy. The Cold War caused a slow erosion and strangling of American democracy. Our transformation into a fascist empire was gradual. The change was subtle and almost invisible, revealed in small ways. Our servicemen and women were rechristened as warriors. There were constant references to those in uniform, thanking them for their service. Our leaders ended every speech with “God bless our troops.” Advertisements glorifying our armed forces filled the airways. However, the material support that would make their lives better or take care of them or their families in the event they were killed or injured was absent.

We spread our military tentacles of control around the planet. They are our means of influence and sway. Our goal is to maintain access to critical raw materials for Americans and our allies in poor and developing countries at prices we set. They have to adhere to the rules we made. The IMF, WTO, World Bank, and other international institutions are the enforcers.

Americans are confounded discovering how much we are distrusted and hated in the world. They are confused when the rest of the world watches the Star Wars saga and see the US identified with the evil empire. “Why do they hate us?”

What you send out into the world eventually comes home, and the policies and activities we developed and used in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and elsewhere are returning to haunt us. It was inevitable that the means we use to influence and control other countries would be used for the same purpose at home. The temptation to use the tools you have developed to achieve the desired end on others is not going to be restricted “for foreign use only.”

Where do we go from here? Having an empire abroad leads inevitably to autocracy and dictatorship at home. History provides ample examples. A culture’s values are expressed by what it promotes and presents to others. When I was in the Middle East in 2016, I observed American movies flooding the TV screens. They were examples of the vilest and most violent films Hollywood has produced. It made me sad. We are better than this.

Our fascination with war and addiction to violence leads to death and extinction. We are not the first to tread this path. The historical graveyard is filled with other examples. We must decide if this is how we want the American experiment to end?


[1] Global Policy Forum 
December 2005
 

Note: This list does not pretend to be definitive or absolutely complete. Nor does it seek to explain or interpret the interventions. Information and interpretation on selected interventions will be later included as links. Note that US operations in World Wars I and II have been excluded. 

See also at: Jerrymlawson.medium.com

See also at: https://www.datadriveninvestor.com/2021/02/23/when-did-we-begin-worshiping-war/

Tiny Ascension Island: Key to the Future?

Ascension Island

Ascension Island is a tiny volcanic rock south of the equator in the middle of the South Atlantic. Located almost midway between Brazil and Africa, it may provide the key to changing the hostile environments we will encounter when we venture to other worlds. It may also be the key to restoring the Earth.

Ascension is an island of only 34 square miles (88 square kilometers). The British Overseas Territory was essentially a barren rock pile when Charles Darwin visited there at the end of his second voyage aboard the HMS Beagle in 1836.

The Spanish explorer, Joao da Nova, discovered Ascension Island in 1501. It attracted no interest due to its dry climate and little freshwater. Passing ships continued to stop so sailors could catch seabirds and turtles for a change-of-diet, but no permanent habitation.

Settlement of Ascension did not arrive until the British Navy placed a garrison in 1815 as insurance against Napoleon, exiled on Saint Helena some 800 miles to the southeast, attempting to escape. It became an imperial outpost and a rest stop for scientific explorers like Darwin and his friend botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker.

Darwin was on his way home after his five-year exploration mission on the HMS Beagle when it stopped at Ascension Island in 1836. He had visited Saint Helena first and came to Ascension out of curiosity and a desire to compare the two islands. He found little on Ascension about which to be excited. It was an arid island buffeted by dry trade winds from Southern Africa with sparse vegetation and few animals or insects. There were no trees and the little rain that fell quickly evaporated. The Scarcity of freshwater impeded the growth or expansion of the imperial outpost.

Despite its shortcomings, Darwin was intrigued by this island. A few years later when Joseph Hooker embarked upon his scientific adventure and stopped at this barren island outpost on his way home. After returning to London in 1843 and with encouragement from Darwin, Hooker, the botanist, devised a plan to alter its environment.

Hooker’s father was the Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. Hooker, assisted by his father, arranged for trees to be shipped to Ascension to use them to capture the rain. They hoped that using trees to capture moisture from the rain would help make the soil fertile and change the barren island into a lush garden. It was hope without any evidence or example suggesting the plan might work.

Over the years that followed, new shipments of trees of many varieties were shipped annually from botanical gardens in Europe, South Africa, and Argentina. By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the island was home to Norfolk pines, eucalyptus, bamboo, and banana trees. The 2,817 foot Green Mountain, highest on the island, was transformed into a cloud forest characterized by a persistent low-level cloud cover.

The trees drew moisture from the clouds, enriching the soil and allowing other vegetation to thrive as hoped. Darwin and Hooker assisted by the Royal Navy turned the barren island landscape into a lush oasis. The success of this experiment was far beyond their expectations.   

Ascension Island cloud forest

What Darwin, Hooker, and the Royal Navy created was the first self-sustaining and self-reproducing ecosystem. What might we learn from this first attempt in terraforming? The environment they created is artificial. It has a mixture of plants and trees that do not belong together in nature, but they are growing side-by-side. Such ecosystems as this should take over a million years to develop through a slow process of co-evolution. This ecosystem was built over a few decades by the Royal Navy. The lessons learned here are of immense future importance. It tells us we can create a fully functioning ecosystem through careful planning, trial-and-error, and aided by a few chance accidents.

The process is now known as ecological fitting. The plants on Ascension were collected from locations around-the-world and have self-organized into a thriving artificial system. The success Darwin, Hooker, and the Royal Navy accomplished on Ascension Island remains relatively unknown and largely ignored by the scientific community. Its implications have immense potential importance both in our need to restore the Earth and in the future when we try to reshape environments on other worlds.

Combatting climate change and mitigating global warming, we must change our thinking and behavior. Rather than taking from it by drilling, extracting, stripping, and pumping resources from the Earth, we must invest in restoring the environment and ecosystems to protect its health and welfare. Creating artificial ecosystems by planting large-scale planned forests may not be our first choice, but it may become the only choice. The knowledge and expertise we acquire have implications and impact on what we do later elsewhere on the Earth and in outer space. We may learn how to turn deserts and other barren areas we have created by our rush to extract, drill, and pump Earth’s bounty to support our greed and lust green again.

Green mountain shows us much about how ecosystems form and function in ways we never imagined. It may help us understand how an ecosystem can be constructed and used for carbon sequestration to combat global warming and climate change. Planned forests may be lacking in diversity and the regional peculiarities we find in nature, but they are a small price to pay given what we have lost in our currently warming world.

History and experience suggest humans do not want to face hard realities. We try our best to avoid difficult choices and making painful decisions, even when our very survival is at risk. We seem unable to defer on pleasure even knowing continuing a behavior leads to death. Consequently, acknowledging we must learn to live within the sustainable limits of the Earth’s capacity to regenerate is a requirement and not a choice for becoming a spacefaring species.

Why? Because wherever we go into the cosmos, we take Earth with us. But before we go elsewhere, we have to have a healthy Earth to draw from and return. We have to recreate Earth wherever we go. Any life we find elsewhere will undoubtedly be toxic to us. Bringing the Earth with us wherever we go is not a choice. It is a necessity.  

Global warming and climate change make studying what happened on Ascension Island imperative to help us restore the Earth. Here lies a gift for us, hidden on a small forgotten island in the middle of nowhere. We only need to see and take advantage of what we have inherited. It may provide how we may soon need to save ourselves.

As always, Wabi-sabi

Link to Jerry’s work on Medium: Jerrymlawson.medium.com