Editing Imperialism (section)

===Environmental determinism===
The concept of [[environmental determinism]] served as a moral justification for the domination of certain territories and peoples. The environmental determinist school of thought held that the environment in which certain people lived determined those persons' behaviours; and thus validated their domination. Some geographic scholars under colonizing empires divided the world into [[climate zone|climatic zones]]. These scholars believed that Northern Europe and the Mid-Atlantic [[temperate climate]] produced a hard-working, moral, and upstanding human being. In contrast, tropical climates allegedly yielded lazy attitudes, sexual promiscuity, exotic culture, and moral degeneracy. The tropical peoples were believed to be "less civilized" and in need of European guidance,<ref name=Gilmartin2009/>{{Rp|117}} therefore justifying colonial control as a [[civilizing mission]]. For instance, American geographer [[Ellen Churchill Semple]] argued that even though human beings originated in the tropics they were only able to become fully human in the [[Temperate climate|temperate]] zone.<ref name="Arnold2000">{{Cite journal |last=Arnold |first=David |year=2000 |title="Illusory Riches": Representations of the Tropical World, 1840–1950 |journal=Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=6–18 |doi=10.1111/1467-9493.00060|bibcode=2000SJTG...21....6A }}</ref>{{Rp|11}} Across the three major waves of [[European colonialism]] (the first in the Americas, the second in Asia and the last in Africa), [[environmental determinism]] served to place categorically indigenous people in a racial hierarchy. Tropicality can be paralleled with Edward Said's [[Orientalism]] as the west's construction of the east as the "other".<ref name=Arnold2000/>{{Rp|7}} According to Said, orientalism allowed Europe to establish itself as the superior and the norm, which justified its dominance over the essentialized Orient.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mountz |first=Alison |title=Key Concepts in Political Geography |year=2009 |isbn=9781412946728 |editor-last=Gallaher |editor-first=Carolyn |pages=328–338 |chapter=The other |doi=10.4135/9781446279496.n35 |editor-last2=Dahlman |editor-first2=Carl |editor-last3=Gilmartin |editor-first3=Mary |editor-last4=Mountz |editor-first4=Alison |editor-last5=Shirlow |editor-first5=Peter |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XpBJclVnVdQC&pg=PA328}}</ref>{{Rp|329}} Orientalism is a view of a people based on their geographical location.<ref>Compare: {{Harvard citation no brackets|Gilmartin|2009}}, "...&nbsp;the practice of colonialism was legitimized by geographical theories such as environmental determinism."</ref>