Tropical Climates Are Dangerous or Impossible for European Settlement

18th-century Britannica entries on tropical geography often included warnings about the dangers of tropical climate to Europeans, a position rooted in genuine experience: early colonial ventures suffered high mortality from malaria, yellow fever, and other diseases to which Europeans lacked immunity. However, the conclusion, that the tropics were inherently unsuitable for European settlement, was wrong. The reasoning conflated disease prevalence (a real problem) with biological destiny (a false inference). As the 19th century progressed and medical understanding of tropical diseases advanced, Britannica entries gradually shifted. Some tropical regions remained disease-ridden, but others (particularly at higher elevations and latitudes fringing the tropics) proved habitable for European immigrants. Moreover, indigenous populations thrived in tropical regions, demonstrating biological compatibility. By the late 1800s, Britannica acknowledged that tropical settlement, while challenging, was feasible with proper precautions, medical, architectural, and social. The evolutionary argument (that tropical climate would 'degenerate' European settlers) was thoroughly debunked. The episode reveals how descriptive problems (high disease burden) can be mistaken for prescriptive conclusions (biological unsuitability), a common error in applying observations to policy.