Land Use in the Caribbean in the Colonial Period

Abstract

In this article, Fernández and Funes focus on the evolution of farming and ranching practices from the beginning of European colonization until the early nineteenth century. Slave plantation agriculture was the most prominent element, whose long-lasting effects and legacies of colonialism led to the successive deterioration of ecosystems. Therefore, in an overall view of the region, plan- tations and sugar were not yet the central components of the landscape. Rather, the landscape was characterized by the forests and extensive cattle ranching of Cuba, Santo Domingo (in the east of Hispaniola), and Puerto Rico, whose combined area represents approximately 72 percent of the area of the insular Caribbean.