Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of figures
- List of maps
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The Colombian export economy in the second half of the nineteenth century
- 2 The making of an oligarchy
- 3 Land and society in central Colombia in the second half of the nineteenth century
- 4 The internal structure of the coffee haciendas, 1870–1930
- 5 Living conditions and internal contradictions in the hacienda structure
- 6 Inflation, devaluation, and export taxes, 1870–1904
- 7 Crisis and transition towards the second cycle of expansion, 1903–10
- 8 Private appropriation of public lands in the west
- 9 Sociopolitical elements in antioquen̄o colonization
- 10 Coffee expansion and the strengthening of the Liberal model of development, 1910–50
- 11 The international cycle and coffee policies confronting the peasant, 1930–70
- Appendix 1 Sample of coffee estates in Cundinamarca and Antioquia, 1870–98
- Appendix 2 Piece-rate wages on two coffee haciendas, 1879–1933
- Appendix 3 Concentration of the coffee export trade (percentage controlled by 20 leading companies), 1933–70
- Appendix 4 Foreign exchange rates in Colombia, 1870–1970
- Weights and measures
- Glossary
- Notes
- Biblography
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
8 - Private appropriation of public lands in the west
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of figures
- List of maps
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The Colombian export economy in the second half of the nineteenth century
- 2 The making of an oligarchy
- 3 Land and society in central Colombia in the second half of the nineteenth century
- 4 The internal structure of the coffee haciendas, 1870–1930
- 5 Living conditions and internal contradictions in the hacienda structure
- 6 Inflation, devaluation, and export taxes, 1870–1904
- 7 Crisis and transition towards the second cycle of expansion, 1903–10
- 8 Private appropriation of public lands in the west
- 9 Sociopolitical elements in antioquen̄o colonization
- 10 Coffee expansion and the strengthening of the Liberal model of development, 1910–50
- 11 The international cycle and coffee policies confronting the peasant, 1930–70
- Appendix 1 Sample of coffee estates in Cundinamarca and Antioquia, 1870–98
- Appendix 2 Piece-rate wages on two coffee haciendas, 1879–1933
- Appendix 3 Concentration of the coffee export trade (percentage controlled by 20 leading companies), 1933–70
- Appendix 4 Foreign exchange rates in Colombia, 1870–1970
- Weights and measures
- Glossary
- Notes
- Biblography
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
Summary
Antioquen̄o colonization deserves the attention it has received as a decisive episode in Colombian history. The society which emerged from it on the hillsides, river banks, and valley slopes situated between the Cauca river basin and the peaks of the central cordillera found integration and economic progress in the early years of the twentieth century through the cultivation, processing, packing, and transport of coffee.
Naturally enough, a slow-maturing crop such as coffee did not appeal to colonists who had set themselves, days and even weeks away from the nearest outpost of civilization, the task of carving a living out of the monte. Coffee had to wait until communities had been established, supported by a subsistence agriculture of maize, beans, yuca, and bananas, and until improvements had been made to the bridle-paths used to transport the pigs which were fattened for the distant towns of Medellín and Bogotá. Before the frontier provided a stable economy it offered only the chance of survival to a population which in its land of origin was growing more rapidly than any other in the Republic, in a poor environment of waste lands and steep and eroded terrain. At the same time adventurers arrived to seek buried treasure from previous indigenous civilizations, and search the forests for wild rubber.
The frontier protected its inhabitants from the vicissitudes of politics, and from wars, recruiters, requisitions, and similar outrages, while the struggle against nature and isolation bred unpolished but comradely habits.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Coffee in Colombia, 1850–1970An Economic, Social and Political History, pp. 161 - 179Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1980