1. TODAY The sugar plantation economies of the Caribbean
The African slave trade in Latin America
Non-sugar colonial economies in Brazil
Colonial Economies of Mainland Spanish Possessions (Mexico and Peru) and Caribbean

2. LAST TIME- Questions? Early Spanish settlement patterns
Urban Morphology in Spanish America
Social aspects of Spanish colonial settlement
Portuguese settlement of Brazil
The sugar plantation economies of Brazil

3. Caribbean adoption of Brazilian plantation system
Northern European Colonies recreated Brazilian system after 1640
Similar agro-ecological advantages
Better slave security
Easier transport to Europe
Became the most valuable colonies for each state!
Impacts
Soil depletion
Vast increase in Afro-origin population

4. Characteristics of plantation ag
Old world plants and techniques
Requires huge land holdings – discourages small holders
Cheap labor needed
Absentee owners or few local owners
Uses best land
Settlement is at plantation not cities
Cultural/spatial/class dualism
Economy is wholly export and dependent on world market
“mining” of resources (soils and timber) => impoverished local areas

5. Sugar & Slaves in the Caribbean

6. African slavery in Brazil and Caribbean
Characteristics
Chronology
Geography
Brazil
Spanish America
Caribbean
Totals
African origins
Decline of slavery after 1800
Consequences of plantation/slave agriculture

7. Sugar & Slaves
1500s – 1700s
~ 4.3 million Africans
transported as slaves
To Brazil

8. ~ 1.8 m slaves to Spanish colonies ~ 1.7 m slaves to French colonies
~ 2.9 m slaves to English colonies
Sugar & Slaves in the Caribbean

10. Slavery In The Americas
BRAZIL
~ 4.3 million
SPANISH AMERICA
50% to Cuba (900 k)
20% to Mexico (360 k)
10% to Venezuela (180 k)
20% Columbia, Panama, Ecuador
~ 1.8 million
FRENCH AMERICA
Mostly to Martinique & Haiti
~ 1.7 million
ENGLISH AMERICA
40% to Jamaica (1.2 m)
22% to North America (640 k)
20% to Barbados (580 k)
13% other Caribbean (377 k)
~ 2.9 million
Totals are approximate and probably are underestimates. (nearly 5 m to small Caribbean islands)
~ 10.7 million

11. Slavery In The Americas 1492- 1880
~ 1% of all slaves transported
~ 40% of slaves in this period to Brazil; 60% to the Spanish colonies
early period slave transport ~ 125k
~ 14% of all slaves transported
totals transported about 1.3m
~ 40% to Brazil, 20% to Spanish colonies, 38% to N European Caribbean

12. Slavery In The Americas 1492- 1880 II
1700 – 1810 (peak of slave trade)
~ 64% of all slaves transported
totals ~ 6 million
North America ~ 6%, British Caribbean ~ 23%, Spanish America ~ 9%, French Caribbean ~ 22%, Brazil ~ 31%, Dutch and Danish Caribbean the rest
1810 – 1870
~ 20% of all slaves transported
totals ~ 1.9m
Brazil 60%, French Caribbean ~ 5%, Spanish America ~ 32%

13. Consequences of the sugar/slave system
Altered racial makeup
Influenced settlement patterns in Brazil and Caribbean
Influenced labor and social relationships
Influenced land tenure systems: latifundia vs “mini-fundia”
Degraded environment and lost resources

14. Non-sugar Economy of Colonial Brazil
Tobacco & Cattle
Non-sugar south—Sâo Paulo and slave raiding
Gold Rush at Minas Gerais in late 1600s/early 1700s

15. Colonial Brazilian Economies
Sugar & Slaves
1500s – 1700s
Later Settlement
Cattle & Tobacco
Minas Gerais
Sâo Paulo
Rio de Janeiro
Paulista or Bandeirante
Indian Slave raids

16. Overview of Brazil 1500 — 1800
Little lasting development: 2 boom/bust cycles; sugar and gold
Much environmental destruction
Set pattern of social values: beef; latifundia
Mixed races with large African component (Black in N; Brown in Center; White in S)
Pop mostly still coastal – 40% in NE; 30% in Minas

17. Mining in Mexico & Peru
Since all minerals are found only in limited areas, development centered on mining is necessarily not well distributed spatially
Crown owned all mineral rights
Mining was an environmental disaster
Mining was a social disaster for Amerindians
Gold
Silver — much more important ultimately than gold by value

18. Silver in colonial Spanish America
European supply low => high value
German mines in decline by 1600s (produced only 850k oz/yr by 1600)
Spanish mines annually => 8.5 m oz!
Silver is hard-rock mining; much more difficult than for gold => capital and labor; and environmental problems
Mexican mines
Potosí

20. M i n i n g
Potosí
Minas Gerais
M i n i n g

21. Near Potosí
Copyright © , Bolivia Web

22. Near Potosí
Copyright © , Bolivia Web

23. Near Potosí
© Doug Hardy

24. Mexican non-mining colonial economy
Livestock raising
Cattle and horses (large stock) [ganado mejor]
Mexican environment favored stock raising
Controversy regarding environmental impacts in colonial times
Small stock [ganado menor]

25. Stock Raising

26. Mexican non-mining colonial economy II
Wheat
Does not mature well in lowland tropics
Spanish varieties like dry summers and wet winters
Solution is to plant in winter and irrigate where necessary

27. Wheat

28. Mexican non-mining colonial economy III
Indigenous agriculture
did not adopt many Spanish crops or large animals
did use small stock and some Spanish crops
mostly subsistence farming initially — but over time tribute demanded cash => need to market some crops