Unsettling settler colonialism: Debates over climate and colonization in New Guinea, 1875-1914

Though the suitability of the tropics for European colonization and especially settlement had been a long-standing issue, it was particularly hotly debated from the mid-nineteenth century until at least the turn of the nineteenth century, when the imperatives of expanding imperial ventures placed the issue firmly on the agenda. This article explores debates over climate and colonization in the context of New Guinea, where it was widely believed that the tropical environment was enervating and ultimately detrimental to Europeans who attempted to live there. Such beliefs led some commentators to question whether it would ever become the "home of the white man" that some of the advocates of colonization had suggested.