The Ecology and History of the Mediterranean Olive Grove: The Spanish Great Expansion, 1750 - 2000

Abstract

AbstractThis article argues that the landscape dominated by olive groves that is now seen as characteristic of southern Spain is a relatively recent phenomenon. In the eighteenth, nineteenth and much of the twentieth century, olives were not an industrial crop, grown on a large scale for the production of oil. Instead, olive trees were largely grown by small peasant farmers and used to produce timber and fodder as well as foodstuffs, forming one component of a diverse peasant economy. This article will analyse the changing role of the olive within the landscape of the Spanish Mediterranean, and explore the process by which production moved towards single crop cultivation by large industrial enterprises.