Colonial Extraction and Industrial Steam Power, 1790–1880: Decarbonising Imperial History

Introduction
Carbon Colonies
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
Cotton, Coal and Colonialism: Rethinking the Fossil Economy in the Geopolitical Context of British Imperialism
	Introduction
	Full Steam Ahead: Theories of the Emerging Fossil Economy
	Capitalism and Empire: Moving beyond Diffusionism to Theorise Extractivism
	Beyond Europe: The History of British Cotton as a Colonial-Extractivist Project
	Navigating Empire: Agents of the Energy Transition and Their Imperial Self-Conception
	Fossil Capital 2.0? How Cotton Capitalists Prevented the Diffusion of the Fossil Economy to India
	The Manchester Cotton Lobby and British India
	‘But What About the Railways?’: Steam in British India
	Beyond the Fossil Economy? Concluding Remarks and a Tentative Thought on Decarbonisation
	Notes
Colonial Staples: Steam Imperialism in Britain’s Carbon Frontier of Victoria
	Colonial Staple Fuels
	Victorian Coal
	Carbon Frontier
	Indigenous Carbon
	Aftermath
	Conclusion
	Notes
Steam-Powered but Wood-Fired: Coal and Renewable Energy in Colonial Economies
	Introduction
	Firewood Consumption
	Firewood Production
	Forest Exploitation and Management
	Coal
	Discussion
	Conclusion
	Notes
Awabakal and Nikkin: Reconnecting Histories of First Peoples, Coal and Colonists
	Nikkin in Awabakal Everywhen
	A ‘Force Field’ and ‘Wounded Space’
	Notes
Carbon Old and New: The Australian Agricultural Company, Coal, Wood and the Complexities of Energy Transition in New South Wales, 1825–1847
	Notes
Cheap Energy, Cheap Nature: Newcastle/Awabakal Coals in Colonial Capitalism, 1850–1880
	Introduction
	Cheap Nature, Fossil Capital and the Commodity Frontier
	Gold, Labour and Machines
	Rail, State and Finance
	Conclusion
	Notes
Bibliography
Index