The West Indies: Patterns of Development, Culture and Environmental Change Since 1492This magisterial survey of the historical geography of the West Indies is at bottom concerned with the causes and consequences of three complex and inter-related phenomena: the rapid and total removal of a large aboriginal population; the development of plantation agriculture and the arrival of enforced labour, in the form of many thousands of African slaves; and the environmental, ecological and cultural changes that resulted. Dr Watts shows how the initial European vision of a land of plenty has been replaced by an awareness of the geographic and ecological fragiliaty of the area, and explains how the exploitative agricultural systems of the colonial and recent West Indies have not adjusted to the demands of the environment. An enormous array of historical, biological and literary sources are marshalled in support of Dr Watts' analysis, which is likely to remain the standard work on the subject for many years to come. |
Contents
The environment | 1 |
Geology and surface features | 3 |
Weather and climate | 13 |
The vegetational response | 25 |
Soils | 34 |
Fauna | 37 |
Aboriginal peoples settlement and culture | 41 |
The settlement of early indian groups | 44 |
The extension of the West Indian sugar estate economy 1665 to 1833 I General development and trade | 232 |
Prerequisites for the regional extension of plantation sugar cane agriculture | 234 |
Military conflicts | 240 |
General trading patterns and controls of trade | 258 |
The extension of the West Indian sugar estate economy 1665 to 1833 II Sugar production regional population growth and the slavewhite ratios | 284 |
The regional expansion of sugar production | 285 |
Regional population growth | 304 |
Slavewhite ratios | 308 |
Neoindian cultures at the time of European contact | 53 |
The West Indies population in 1492 | 71 |
the 1492 situation | 75 |
Spanish intrusion and colonisation | 78 |
Preliminaries to Hispanic New World settlement | 79 |
Espanola to 1509 | 86 |
The peak of Spanish settlement 1509 to 1519 | 105 |
the sixteenth century after 1519 | 121 |
Early northwest European plantations | 128 |
settlements and lifestyles | 132 |
preliminary considerations | 135 |
St Kitts and Barbados | 142 |
Expansion into other islands | 169 |
The beginnings of North AmericanWest Indian trade | 173 |
The situation in 1645 | 174 |
Northwest European sugar estates the formative period 1645 to 1665 | 176 |
prerequisites | 177 |
The emergence and evolution of the Barbados sugar estate complex | 184 |
Other estate cash crops | 211 |
Socioeconomic consequences of the development of the Barbados sugarcane estate complex | 212 |
Environmental changes | 219 |
Other islands | 223 |
The situation in 1665 | 228 |
The extension of the West Indian sugar estate economy 1665 to 1833 III Population social characteristics migration and the growth of towns | 326 |
Social characteristics of the population | 328 |
Regional migration patterns | 375 |
The growth of towns | 378 |
The extension of the West Indian sugar estate economy 1665 to 1833 IV Agricultural innovation and environmental change | 382 |
The idealised sugar cane plantation | 384 |
Innovation diffusion | 391 |
Environmental change and agricultural innovation 1665 to 1720 | 393 |
Mill innovation 1665 to 1833 | 405 |
The intensification of cane agriculture and further environmental changes 1720 to 1833 | 423 |
a summary | 443 |
Post1833 adjustments the period to 1900 | 448 |
Population growth | 456 |
Cane estate expansion and renewal | 484 |
The search for new crops | 501 |
The initiation of a West Indian peasantry | 506 |
Environmental responses | 512 |
Summary | 515 |
Twentiethcentury trends and conclusions | 518 |
Notes | 540 |
References | 553 |
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The West Indies: Patterns of Development, Culture, and Environmental Change ... David Watts No preview available - 1987 |
Common terms and phrases
absenteeism acres African agriculture America animals Antigua Arawak areas Bahamas Barbadian Barbados became began Bridgetown British cane estates Carib cattle coast colonies conuco crop Cuba cultigens cultivation cultural districts Dominica Drax Dutch early economic eighteenth century elsewhere England English environment environmental EspaƱola especially estate owners European forest former freedmen French further Greater Antilles Grenada groups growth Guadeloupe Habana harvest Hispanic home country immigrants important initial island Caribbean Jamaica labour land large numbers latter Lesser Antilles Ligon London major Martinique miles km mill Montserrat native Nevis North northern Leewards nutrient parish patterns peasant period plant plantation planters population Port Puerto Rico rates region Santo Domingo season servants settlement settlers ships slave-white ratios slaves soil Spain Spanish St Domingue St Eustatius St Kitts St Lucia St Vincent sugar cane sugar estates sugar production Table territories timber tobacco Tobago trade Trinidad tropical West Indian West Indies windmills