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The Neo-Columbian Exchange: The Second Conquest of the Greater Caribbean, 1720–1930

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Stuart McCook
Stuart McCook*
Affiliation:
University of Guelph
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Abstract

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The landscapes of the Greater Caribbean have been undergoing a process of ecological globalization since the arrival of European explorers and settlers in the late fifteenth century. The character of this ecological globalization has changed over time. Models of commodity-led economic development drove, directly or indirectly, the neo-Columbian exchanges of the long nineteenth century (roughly 1720–1930). The neo-Columbian exchanges differed from the Columbian exchanges of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in several key ways: They were increasingly mediated by imperial and transnational scientific institutions. The geographical scope of the exchanges grew, and the Greater Caribbean saw many new direct introductions of people, plants, and animals from Asia and the Pacific, as well as from the eastern part of the Atlantic World. A parallel movement of pathogens from Asia and the Pacific also introduced new epidemic diseases—especially crop diseases—to the Greater Caribbean. The neo-Columbian exchange drove the region's dramatic expansion in agricultural production, but this constructed abundance came at the expense of ecological impoverishment and fragility.

Resumo

Resumo

El medio ambiente en el Caribe ha experimentado un proceso creciente de globalización desde la llegada de los exploradores y colonos europeos a finales del siglo XV. El carácter de esta globalización ecológica ha ido cambiando a lo largo del tiempo. Los intercambios que se produjeron durante lo que se puede llamar el largo siglo XIX (aproximadamente 1720–1930) fueron consecuencia directa o indirecta de un modelo de desarrollo económico basado en determinados bienes y productos. Dichos intercambios, denominados en el artículo “The Neo-Columbian Exchange”, se diferencian de los que ocurrieron en el siglo XVI y XVII, conocidos en inglés por “the Columbian Exchange”, en aspectos claves. Por un lado, estuvieron cada vez más mediados por instituciones científicas de carácter imperial y trasnacional. Por otro, el ámbito geográfico en el que se llevaron a cabo dichos intercambios creció considerablemente y el Caribe asistió a la introducción directa de nuevas poblaciones, plantas y animales provenientes de Asia y el Pacífico así como de la parte oriental del mundo atlántico. Todo ello fue acompañado por un movimiento paralelo de patógenos provenientes de las regiones mencionadas que introdujeron nuevas enfermedades, principalmente en las cosechas. Dichos intercambios constituyeron agentes fundamentales en la dramática expansión de producción agrícola que experimentó la región, pero la abundancia se produjo a costa de una mayor fragilidad y empobrecimiento ecológico.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 46 , Issue S1: Contemporary Debates on Ecology, Society, and Culture in Latin America , 2011 , pp. 11 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 by the University of Texas Press

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