The Rest Must, of Necessity, Perish: Warfare and the Environment in Cromwell’s Western Design
Research Poster Arts & Humanities 2025 Graduate ExhibitionPresentation by Joseph Bienko
Exhibition Number 125
Abstract
In 1654, Oliver Cromwell decided to undertake an audacious scheme to conquer Spanish America: The Western Design. This project delves delve into the interrelationship between warfare and the environment during this expedition. Nature assuredly affected the outcome of the Western Design, as the climate was excruciatingly hot which caused a drought on Hispaniola, and the island’s treacherous shores forced the English to land farther away from Santo Domingo than they originally intended. In addition, disease afflicted the army in both Hispaniola and Jamaica. Furthermore, Spanish and English forces also manipulated and targeted the environment to suit their own wartime purposes. For example, the Spaniards exacerbated the natural drought by drying and poisoning their drinking wells in Hispaniola. Assuming they could live off the land (as they had in other military campaigns) the English failed to bring adequate food and supplies with them on their long march to attack Santo Domingo. Neither could they slake their thirst with water. The Jamaican campaign saw the English explicitly target Spanish storehouses and plantations to rob them of precious provisions. The Caribbean climate and diseases played a significant role in the Western Design, but human manipulation of the environment, and assaults on environmental infrastructure also proved just as significant to the English conquest of Jamaica. Thus, a combination of natural and human agency determined the Western Design’s fate. Everyday violence against humans and their environmental infrastructure exacerbated Spanish and English vulnerabilities to hunger, disease, and dehydration.
Importance
Ultimately, my project demonstrates that humans shape and are shaped by the environments they inhabit during wartime. It challenges notions of “great men” histories that the success or failure of a battle was the result of one man’s deeds. Instead, the environment influenced and sometimes dictated what actions were available for an armed force. Humans also shaped the environments they inhabited by destroying, manipulating, or capturing environmental infrastructure, leading to displacement, starvation, and the desolation of natural resources. Together, these contributions lead us to better understand nature’s impact on warfare and humanity’s targeting and usage of the environment in armed conflict.