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Historical Inferences to be Drawn from the Effect of Human Settlement on the Vegetation of Africa*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Extract

The Occupation of the earth by Man has always been limited and conditioned by the natural environment of the various climatic zones he inhabits. Modern technology is giving him an increasing control over that environment, but in most parts of Africa, where the results of this control are only beginning to become significant, the influence of the factors of natural environment are still very apparent in the patterns of human settlement and history. The waterless desert is still an almost impossible human habitat, and the tropical forest, where the lush vegetation inhibits agriculture and pests and parasites endanger the life of Man and his domestic animals, has been colonized cautiously and frequently only under pressure.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1962

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References

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