¿Historia entrelazada y el medio ambiente? Transformaciones socioambientales en el Caribe, 1492-1800
Series: Ensayos Interamericanos
Published: 20.05.2020
Paperback 88 pages Spanish
ISBN: 9783946507574
EUR 12.00
incl. VAT
This book aims to introduce climatic and other environmental factors into the postcolonial debate on power inequality between metropolitan areas and their colonies. Thus far, the study of both environment and empire, as well as unequal (colonial) power relations, has largely taken place in separate fields: environmental history and postcolonial studies. This book attempts to bring these two fields together by combining the conceptual perspectives of intertwined history and comparative practices. This approach highlights the material and constructed aspects of the environment as a factor in the formation of unequal power relations. Two case studies are examined through this conceptual lens. The first offers a new perspective on Christopher Columbus's initial encounter with the Arawaks in Hispaniola in 1492. The second questions how climate became an argument for enslaving Africans and transporting them to Caribbean sugar plantations.