The Caribbean in the Wider World, 1492-1992: A Regional Geography (Geography of the World-Economy) [Hardcover]

Bonham C. Richardson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 1992 | ISBN-10: 0521351863 | ISBN-13: 978-0521351867

The Caribbean was Europe's first colony, its landscapes transformed to produce tropical staples and its decimated aboriginal populace replaced with African slaves. As European power has waned in the Caribbean, it has been replaced by the geopolitical domination of the United States. Professor Richardson examines this colonization and recolonization of the Caribbean during the past half millennium, portraying a region victimized by natural hazards, soil erosion, overpopulation and gunboat diplomacy. Most importantly, he explains the ways in which Caribbean peoples have reacted and adapted to their external influences. No other single survey of the region provides equivalent breadth--ranging from aboriginal ecologies to today's narcotic traffic--or harnesses so effectively elements of the past to illuminate the present.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a well documented and eminently readable treatise. Further to its credit, Richardson's new Caribbean regional geography stresses two interwoven points: that the environmental bases of these islands have been fundamentally altered and devastated; and that the ensuing cycles of externally propelled settlement, economic exploitation, and dependent development which accompanied this peripheral region's early and continuing incorporation into international spheres of production and commerical enterprize were very much implicated in the recurrent patterns of destructive man-land relationships." The Professional Geographer

"Richardson's writing is lively and even powerful, as illustrated by the section in which he cogently covers the 1762 successful war of liberation by African slaves in Suriname, details of the Haitian revolution, the nineteenth-century rebellion by Cuba, and disorders in Puerto Rico and other colonies during the 1930s....highly recommended as a basic text for undergradutes." W. Marvin Will, Latin American Research Review

Book Description

A region victimized by natural hazards, soil erosion, overpopulation and gunboat diplomacy is portrayed in this examination of successive waves of colonization of the Caribbean and the effects on its peoples over the past 500 years.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 251 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (January 31, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521351863
• ISBN-13: 978-0521351867
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,895,296 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars 500 years of mostly difficult history, August 7, 2009

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This review is from: The Caribbean in the Wider World, 1492-1992: A Regional Geography (Geography of the World-Economy) (Paperback)

In this short treatise, Richardson spans 500 years of development in the Caribbean. The emphasis is on an economic description of the history. The political events are given short shrift. There is a detailed look at slavery as instituted by the European powers. Mostly to grow sugar cane. The discussion is rather dry, and does not stray into the egregrious violations of human rights engendered by the transportation of hundreds of thousands from Africa to toil in the Caribbean.

Later, we see the development of other crops, especially bananas. Accompanied by decolonisation, but with the massive influence of the United States, especially through various multinationals.

One common theme is that the region was simply too small in terms of people and resources to be fully independent. The history of the region is also largely of the influence of greater external powers.

There is also an account of the recent migrations within the Caribbean and to the US and Britain, giving rise to an Afro-Caribbean diaspora.