History Commons^™

Landscapes Of Freedom And Inequality: Environmental Histories Of The Pacific And Caribbean Coasts Of Colombia, Shawn Van Ausdal

Shawn Van Ausdal

In this comparative environmental history, we examine the divergent trajectories of Colombia’s coastal forests since the mid-19th century. In the Pacific lowlands, natural resource extraction by a black peasantry altered the forested landscape but did not transform it completely. Left by the white, merchant elite in charge of the extractive process, this post-emancipation society maintained their territorial independence and avoided significant internal differentiation. Racial divisions, however, signaled the continuation of disparities that had their origin in slavery and colonialism. In the Caribbean, by contrast, the expansion of cattle ranching better integrated the region into the nation, but at the expense …