"The Empire of the Ants" is a 1905 short story by H. G. Wells about the littleness of humanity and the tenuousness of the dominion ''Homo sapiens'' enjoys on

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's sur ...

. A 1977 film, '' Empire of the Ants'', was loosely based on Wells' story.

Plot summary

"The Empire of the Ants" features a Brazilian captain, Gerilleau, who is ordered to take his gunboat, the ''Benjamin Constant'', to assist the inhabitants of the town of Badama, in the "Upper Amazon", "against a plague of

ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of ...

s". A

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancas ...

engineer named Holroyd, from whose point of view the story is, for the most part, told, accompanies him. They find a species of large black ant that has evolved advanced intelligence and has used it to make tools and organize aggression. Before arriving in Badama, Captain Gerilleau encounters a ''cuberta'' which has been taken over by the ants, which have killed and mutilated two sailors. After Capt. Gerilleau sends his second in command, Lieutenant da Cunha, aboard the vessel, the ants attack him and he dies painfully, apparently poisoned. The next day, after burning the ''cuberta'', the ''Benjamin Constant'' arrives off Badama. The town is deserted and all its inhabitants dead or dispersed. Fearing the ants and their poison, Capt. Gerilleau contents himself with firing "de big gun" at the town twice, with minimal effect. He then demands "what else was there to ''do''?" (variants of this phrase are used throughout the story when discussing the ants) and returns downstream for orders. A final section reports that Holroyd has returned to England to warn the authorities about the ants "before it is too late". "The Empire of the Ants" was first published in 1905 in ''

The Strand Magazine ''The Strand Magazine'' was a monthly British magazine founded by George Newnes, composed of short fiction and general interest articles. It was published in the United Kingdom from January 1891 to March 1950, running to 711 issues, though the ...

''.

Background

H. G. Wells had befriended

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language; though he did not spe ...

in 1898 and admired his work.Michael Sherborne, ''H.G. Wells: Another Kind of Life'' (Peter Owen, 2010), pp. 138-39.

References

External links

*
"EMPIRE OF THE ANTS: H.G. Wells and Tropical Entomology"
Sleigh, C. ''Science as Culture'', Volume 10, Number 1, 1 March 2001, pp. 33–71 1905 short stories Fictional ants Short stories adapted into films Short stories by H. G. Wells Works originally published in The Strand Magazine {{1900s-story-stub