Abstract
This essay reviews connections between the environmental history of the Cape and similar cases along lines of latitude and longitude. It draws on many historical works, some explicitly comparative, some showing common processes in global or regional history, and some strictly local studies. More than offering a comprehensive survey of world, African, or Cape environmental history, it probes points of comparison and examines the links between the environmental history of the Cape and, on the one hand, settler societies in temperate zones and, on the other hand, tropical Africa.