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The West Indies: Patterns of Development, Culture and Environmental Change Since 1492

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Cambridge University Press, Mar 22, 1990 - History - 609 pages
This 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 Dr Watts shows how the initial European vision of a land of plenty has been replaced by an awareness of the geographic and ecological fragiliaty of the area, and explains how the exploitative agricultural systems of the colonial and recent West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.
  

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Selected pages

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
Copyright

Other editions - View all

The West Indies: Patterns of Development, Culture and Environmental Change ...
The West Indies: Patterns of Development, Culture and Environmental Change ...
David Watts
No preview available - 1987

Common terms and phrases

absenteeism acres agriculture America animals Antigua Arawak areas arrived Barbadian Barbados became began Bridgetown Cal.Col cane estates cane production Carib Caribbean cattle coast colonies commercial conuco crop Cuba cultigens cultivation districts Dominica Drax Dutch early economic effect eighteenth century elsewhere England English environment environmental Espanola especially estate owners European export forest former freedmen further Greater Antilles Grenada groups growth Guadeloupe harvest Hispanic home country immigrants important initial Jamaica labour land large numbers latter Lesser Antilles levels Ligon major Martinique mill Montserrat native Nevis North northern Leewards nutrient patterns peasant period plant plantation planters population Port present prior Puerto Rico rain-forest rates region remained repartimiento season servants settlement settlers ships slave-white ratios slaves soil Spain Spanish St Domingue St Eustatius St Kitts St Lucia St Vincent subsequent sugar cane sugar estates sugar production Table territories timber tobacco Tobago trade Trinidad utilised West Indian West Indies windmills

Popular passages

Page 553 - A Supplement to the Detection of the State and Situation of the PRESENT SUGAR PLANTERS OF BARBADOES and the LEEWARD ISLANDS...‎
Appears in 41 books from 1851-2007

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References from web pages

JSTOR: The West Indies: Patterns of Development, Culture and ...
274 Book Reviews The West Indies: patterns of development, culture and environmental change since 1492. David Watts Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, ...
links.jstor.org/ sici?sici=0020-2754(1993)2%3A18%3A2%3C274%3ATWIPOD%3E2.0.CO%3B2-U

University of West Indies, Mona
Economics Course page at The University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica
www.mona.uwi.edu/ economics/ courses/ course_detail.php?code=ECON2021

<a href="http://www.cambridge.org">© Cambridge University Press</a ...
Cambridge University Press. 0521386519 - The West Indies: Patterns of Development, Culture and Environmental. Change Since 1492 - David Watts ...
assets.cambridge.org/ 97805213/ 86517/ index/ 9780521386517_index.pdf

Consumerism and Environmental Problems in the French and English ...
Consumerism and Environmental Problems in the French and English Caribbean. islands in the eighteenth century – a study of the connections between the two ...
web.abo.fi/ fak/ hf/ hist/ Cindast/ hollsten.pdf

REVIEWS COMPTES RENDUS
REVIEWS. /. COMPTES RENDUS. The Ceomorphology of Rock Coasts, by Alan S. Tren. hai. le /. s. B. MC CANN. 281. Traitements des fichiers-images, ...
www.blackwell-synergy.com/ doi/ abs/ 10.1111/ j.1541-0064.1988.tb00881.x

Persée
David Watts, The West Indies : Patterns of Development, Culture and Environmental Change since 1492 - 1094. Rechercher dans les revues Persée ...
www.persee.fr/ showPage.do;jsessionid=2F3A0BBF04581E105C451A2C47043603.vesta?zoom=0& urn=ahess_0395-2649_1989_num_44_5...

About the author (1990)

David Watts is professor of geography at the University of Hull.

Abdulatif H. Al-Nafie is professor of geography at the Islamic University of Iman Muhammad Ibn Saud, in Riyadh.

Bibliographic information

QR code for The West Indies: Patterns of Development, Culture and Environmental Change Since 1492
TitleThe West Indies: Patterns of Development, Culture and Environmental Change Since 1492
Camb.Stud.in Historical Geog
Volume 8 of Cambridge Studies in Historical Geography
AuthorDavid Watts
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherCambridge University Press, 1990
ISBN0521386519, 9780521386517
Length609 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Business & Economics / Economic Conditions
History / Historical Geography
Science / Earth Sciences / Geography
  
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