The irrigation technozone: State power, expertise, and agrarian development in the U.S. West and British Punjab, 1880–1920

Abstract

Many of the world’s deserts were transformed by irrigation expertise at the beginning of the 20th century. An irrigation “technological zone” emerged to facilitate the circulation of engineering expertise and the territorial expansion of the U.S. and British imperial states. Hydraulic engineers considered themselves globally connected technicians providing practical solutions to the political problems of poverty and famine. Although premised on the neutrality and universal applicability of scientific principles, the practices and environmental expertise of irrigation engineers were firmly rooted in regional state/society formations, which sought to increase agricultural production and induce settlement with irrigation. This paper analyzes the globalization of irrigation expertise through a relational comparison of the irrigation narratives of the British Punjab and the Western U.S., 1880–1920. The analysis demonstrates that the irrigation technological zone was significantly formed by place-based dynamics that, in turn, shaped irrigation as a mode of environmental expertise.