garden

Botanical Gardens as Instruments of Colonialism

During the age of European imperialism (which hasn’t ever really fully ended, they just changed their strategy and added more players), botanical gardens emerged as central institutions for the collection, study, and transfer of plants across continents. 

These gardens served as "living warehouses" and strategic waypoints for the movement of plant specimens, often along colonial trade routes, facilitating the transportation of plants crucial for plantation economies. 

They also played a role in acclimatizing and hardening tropical plants to different climates, making them more suitable for cultivation in various regions. 

Examples of this include the establishment of botanical gardens in Europe and colonies to function as collection stations and forwarding posts for botanical specimens. 

The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, for instance, were instrumental in the global spread of plants and the development of botanical knowledge, often in collaboration with colonial authorities and plant collectors. 

Colonial Botany and Exploitation of Nature

Colonial botany viewed nature primarily as a resource to be exploited and controlled, aligning with the broader colonial project of resource extraction and economic expansion. 

Exploratory voyages and plant collections became a vast enterprise, with botanists like William Jackson Hooker sending plant collectors across the globe to discover new specimens. 

These specimens were often brought back, hybridized, and then introduced to other parts of the world, often in the context of plantation systems. 

This process often involved the clearing of land, destruction of existing ecosystems, and the imposition of monoculture systems, highlighting the colonial violence inherent in planting. 

Beyond Aesthetics: Gardens as Sites of Power and Knowledge

Botanical gardens were not just aesthetically pleasing spaces but also sites of scientific inquiry, horticultural experimentation, and the exercise of power. 

They played a crucial role in the production and circulation of knowledge about plants, which could be used to justify and advance colonial expansion. 

Colonial gardens also shaped perceptions of nature and landscape, reinforcing the idea of European dominance and control over the natural world. 

Colonial Legacies and Decolonization

Today, botanical gardens are increasingly recognizing their complicity in colonial projects of knowledge extraction, production, and exploitation. 

There is growing awareness of the need to decolonize botanical gardens, including their collections, exhibits, and practices. 

This includes acknowledging the historical context of colonial botanical science and working to repair the damage caused by colonialism. 

For example, some botanical gardens are now prioritizing the conservation of local and indigenous species, highlighting the importance of biodiversity and decolonizing the ways in which plants are valued and studied.