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Shipbuilding, Forest Resource Exploitation, And Environmental Change In Cuba In The Early Eighteenth Century, 1700-1763, Jason M. Daniel

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the construction of Spanish naval warships in Havana, Cuba, between the accession of the Bourbon family to Spain’s throne in 1700 and the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763. The rapid increase in timber consumption after the Royal Havana Company gained the obligation for shipbuilding in 1741 led to significant changes in the social and environmental landscape. This dissertation concludes that Cuba’s maritime industries under royal authorities and the Royal Havana Company were the product of deliberate and centralized Spanish reforms that had demonstrable and measurable consequences on the island.

This period of shipbuilding consumed …