Study Guide for Caribbean History

geomorphology of the greater & lesser Antilles: volcanism & plate tectonics.
cordilleran boundary versus coastal plains,
geography as destiny, coastal harbors as gateways to the interior.

Geography as destiny, or biogeographical determinism.

Are these islands the oasis of hope or archipelago of destiny?

Coasts as boundaries or bridges?

Pump of the Gulf Stream and isolated land forms of the Antilles archipelago

Unity of Turtles, Mangroves, Manatees & Manioc
The Invasions: The ethnic identity of Caribbean and Latin American peoples.

Alfred Crosby, Germs, Seeds and Animals

Arawaks & Columbus
Plantations, mining, & commerce

The biocultural context of Europe in the Indies
Cortez & Pizarro
African Slavery
The dominant elements in the transformation: The rise and fall of slavery in the Caribbean.
European culture, technology, and religion

Crosby index

Dates

Latin American Historical Atlas
Amerindian depopulation
African enslavement & stamina

Sydney Mintz, Sweetness and Power

W.E.B. Dubois, The Negro

W. E. B. Dubois

W. E. B. Dubois, historian and sociologist of African and American slavery.

Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel.

Revolution: “liberté. egalité and fraternité” in the context of minority rights doctrines.
Indigenous voices: Paz, Walcott, Kincaid, Naipaul.
Syncretism, adaptation, cultural survivals
Vaudon, voodoo and resilience;

W. E. B. DuBois & bi-cultural identity, the qualities of being of African descent in the Americas.

The Legacy of fracture, hate & fear: Contemporary problems of economic and social development in the Western Hemisphere.

The Legacy of fracture, hate & fear:

V. S. Naipaul's observations & criticisms of slavery, culture, & behavior are examined in his travel narrative The Middle Passage.

Crosby index

Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude
Paz's symbols, pyramid, & critique of colonialism & imperialism

Juno Diaz, The Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic

Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place, (essay about Antigua)

Graham Green, The Comedians ( a novel ) set in Haiti

Details to know, find on maps, or interpret in reading for your essays.
Define each blank or complete the ideas:

Caribbean basin as the geographical doorway to the America's
Olmec, Maya, Aztec & Inca as a models for understanding indigenous peoples.

Indigenous peoples of the Greater and Lesser Antilles, called by Europeans: the West Indies.

Ciboney
Arawak
Taino
Carib

invasions

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Invasions

The Iberian occupation of the Americas required cultural hearths to maintain European hegemony in the basin.

ecological aspects of invasions and Crosby's model of ecological imperialism

Spanish cultural hearth in the Greater Antilles, (1490s-1590s)

Hispaniola
Cuba
Puerto Rico

English cultural hearth (1680s-1790s), Lesser Antilles

Barbados,

Jamaica,

Guyana,

French cultural hearth (1640s-1760s)

Haiti

Guadeloupe

Martinique

Guiana

Dutch cultural hearth (1620s-1750s)

Guyana (Surinam)

Aruba, Bonaire & Curacao

Danish cultural hearth (1650s)
Virgin Islands

The West Indies

East Indian cultural hearth of both Hindu and Moslem communities (1800s-1900s)
Asian cultural hearths, both Chinese and Japanese labor (1850s-1930s)

Definitions | Syllabus | Nations of the region | Jamaica Case Study | Chronology | Vocabulary | Five parts

Three characteristics of any ecological problem are:

Physical conditions

Biological situation

Social settings

Place means a sense of being somewhere distinctive.

Places have four dimensions and three characteristics
The four dimensions of all Places are characterized by:

X - is linear distances usually measured as length in meters / miles.
Y - is width or breadth as a square measure usually in hectares or acres.
X and Y plotted on a globe give (Latitude & Longitude) location.
Z - is height or depth usually expressed as cubic measure (mass) (altitude).
T - is time or duration usually measured as short versus long term.

The three characteristics that are also aspects of any ecological problem are:

Physical, Biological, Social

Physical conditions

(habitat) (radiation, climate, hydrology, slope)
Geology, geomorphology and plate tectonics
Geography: longitude, latitude, altitude.
biogeography: adaptive radiation and endemism
terrain, landscape, country, “places”, cultural and economic geography.

WEAL (be able to define the word: weald and its meaning in this class relating to:
water, runoff, ground water, rivers or hydrological cycles,
energy, or fuel sources (vegetative, wind and water).
atmosphere, or air.
land, country, terrain, and landscape.

Biological situation

(biotic community) (isolation, endemism, corridors)
Biomes, or life zones; “hot spots,” refuges, natural areas.
biodiversity (ecological, species richness and genetic variety)
vegetation
wildlife

Sea or marine turtles as food sources

ecological services (healthy air and water, wildlife, soil, sanitation, botanicals)
climate (long term {decadal} changes in atmospheric conditions)
watershed and renewable resources
carrying capacity, assimilative capacity for air and water.
waste assimilation, recycling, renewable resources.

Scenic views, cliffs, water sources (oases, springs), mines & harbors.
fisheries - forests - and nature’s products: four Fs: fuel, food, forage, fiber.

Social

(nationalities) Empires, nation states, colonies, subject peoples Population and demographical change: Creoles and Mestizahje process
density, consumption and environmental management of resources

Historical and cultural dimensions
ethnic identification: culture as opposed to ethnicity: color and caste
political and economic relations among colonies and their Empires

Spiritual practices, beliefs & values: Afro Caribbean, Indigenous, Catholic, Protestant

Economic versus Aesthetic values with respect to minerals, forests, scenery, reefs.

Social aspects are the most varied and confusing elements in any place.
Stages in the transformation of the environment
Geological formations (post glacial ice retreat and sea level rises) 100,000 to 10,000 ya
Indigenous subsistence agriculture (Arawak, Taino)
Initial Europeanizing: Portuguese and Spanish rivalry, Dutch, France & Britain
Plantation agriculture
Industrial agriculture (steam or fossil fuel based): sugar cane, bananas, & palm oil.
Commercial development: models vs. realities
Globalism
Population
Hispaniola and the Columbian Exchange: 10 million, 20 million, 100 million.
Native depopulation: 80 to 90% decrease in indigenous populations.
African slavery: Yorubans, Ibos, Angolans, Senegalese, Gambians,
Mass migration
immigrants
émigrés

Disease frontier
Indigenous population’s isolation and immune response
European diseases
Venereal infections
African resistance
Social Darwinism, Reform Darwinism: adaptive radiations & the competitive exclusion principle.
Race prejudice and ethnic diversity: Creole, Mestizo, Mulatto, Octaroon, Quadroon, Mustees.
Revolutions in government: Haiti (1803), Mexico (1810), Cuba (1898), Mexico (1910).

Dates

Definitions | Syllabus | Nations of the region | Jamaica Case Study | Chronology | Vocabulary | Five parts

Land tenure & Commercial development

labor theory of value: the time it takes to create something determines its worth.

Land * Labor = Capital
[ natural resources x work = wealth is the underlying assumption of the course.]

Environmental and social degradation: erosion, sedimentation, deforestation, & over-fishing.

Technological changes: sugar mills, cigar manufacturing, steam engines, railways, mining.
Poverty & wealth in the western political tradition: mercantilism, laissez faire, socialism.
OAS: Organization of American States. NAFTA: North America Free Trade Agreement.

Human Impact, how to measure frequency, duration, recovery, damages?

Definitions | Syllabus | Nations of the region | Jamaica Case Study | Chronology | Vocabulary | Five parts

Lectures and Discussions

READINGS:

Keen & Haynes, A History of Latin America & the Caribbean: should be read throughout the first two months for geographical and historical details, especially Chapters 1-8, 11-12, 17-18.20-21.

The other books form the focus of discussions, as follows each month:

Summarize each of these concepts from the readings and define each idea with examples:

[ January-February ]

Alfred Crosby, Germs, Seeds and Animals, Ecological Imperialism & The Columbian Exchange

16th Century Holocaust, "discovery," or disruption: why don’t we call it what it was?

The contrasts: Plato and Aristotle with Columbus and de Las Casa's
Conquistadors & "the reconquista"
Ecology of Europe in the Caribbean
Venereal disease, & conquest
European hegemony and the Wars of imperial rivalry 1660-1815.

[ February ]

Sydney Mintz, Sweetness and Power Summarize each the chapters in Mintz:

Who are we? Are we what we eat?

Compare Mintz to Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel.
Food for thought: diet and domain, influences of food on places.
Continuity & change

Land * Labor = Capital [ natural resources x work = wealth is the labor theory of value.]

landscape

Labor Theory of Value

Dates

[ March ]

Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude --

What is the theme of each of these chapters?

What do our language & symbols mean?

Pachuco
Mexican masks
Day of the Dead
La Malinche
Conquest & Colonialism
Independence to Revolution
Mexican Intelligentsia
Present Day
Dialectic of Solitude
Development & other mirages
Critique of the Pyramid
The Philanthropic Ogre

Juno Diaz, The Dominican Republic and the diaspora

[ April ] What contemporary voices say about Africa, panafricanism and the Indies.

What is the theme of each of these texts?

Juno Diaz, The Dominican Republic and the diaspora
W.E.B. Dubois, The Negro
Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place
Derek Walcott, The Antilles

Graham Green, The Comedians ( a novel )
V. S. Naipaul, The Middle Passage

Middle Passage West African Slaving
Trinidad The Indies where east & west meet
British Guiana Life & Labor
Surinam
Martinique Mulattoes, & Le Code Noir
Jamaica The Barbados Slave Code
Marcus Garvey
Rastafarianism

Caribbean summary

The Legacy of fracture, hate & fear: Contemporary problems

[Late April ] Course wrap-up.

How the past disproportionately influences our present.

Revolutions

The Caribbean as a crucible of multi-racial cultural fusion.

What are the "badges and the symbols" of slavery today?

The native voices: Walcott, Kincaid, Du Bois & Naipaul.
Barbados - Antigua - Jamaica - Trinidad
repression, resurgence, renunciation

WEB DuBois, The Negro: modern imperialism's dominance and cultural disdain for the indigenous, the African, the mulattoes & the Mestizäje peoples based on hatred of alleged “inferior” races.

Issues confronting Caribbean historical understanding:

Defining the Caribbean

The problem of Slavery in Western Civilization
A moral, religious, ethical, economic, & personal dilemma.

The Caribbean responses
Creativity & resiliency of African-American island cultures.
Haiti and the embarrassing legacy of rebellion: Afro Caribbean religion: Voudon [voodoo]
Mayan, Raramuri, Arawak resistance, persistence, and rebirth.

Fractured past, fragmented present, hybrid ecology, are all characteristic of the Caribbean today.

map

Current colonial patterns
British independence:
Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad, Bahamas, Antigua
French & Dutch dependence;
Guadeloupe, Martinique, Bonaire, Aruba, Curacao

Reluctant rivals

The Mestizähje Republic: Estados Unidas de Mexico;
U.S. myths, Christian veneer, and Amerindian cores.

USA imperialism

(Monroe Doctrine 1819, manifest destiny 1839, Cold War 1945, preemptive strike, 1960.)

Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guantanamo, Grenada, Panama, Honduras, & Nicaragua.
Jamaican workers; the Panama canal & Florida sugar
Cuban Revolution & counter-revolution; social justice.

What are the nations of the Caribbean?

How do we judge one culture through the eyes of another?
Eric Said, Culture & Imperialism
How does history contribute to present social conditions, cultural patterns, and national identity?

Definitions | Syllabus | Nations of the region | Jamaica Case Study | Chronology | Vocabulary | Five parts

Nations of the Caribbean basin:

Regional Map

Nation or place population density per capita income

Greater Antilles:
Cuba
Haiti
Dominican Republic
Puerto Rico
Jamaica

Lesser Antilles:
US Virgin Islands
British Virgin Islands
Antigua
Barbuda
Nevis & St. Kitts

French West Indies: Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana

St Barts
Barbardos
Trinidad & Tobago
Dominica
Grenada
St. Vincent & The Grenadines
Saint Lucia

Netherlands’s Antilles, or Dutch West Indies:

Aruba
Bonaire
Curacao

Bahamas
Turks and Caicos
Cayman Islands

Guyana
Surinam
Venezuela
Colombia
Panama
Costa Rica
Nicaragua
Belize (British Honduras)
Honduras
Mexico (Estados Unidas de Mexico)

Definitions | Syllabus | Nations of the region | Jamaica Case Study | Chronology | Vocabulary | Five parts

U. S. A. Foreign Policy:

Mission and manifest destiny as an explanatory historical perspective.

Five fundamental & influential realities:

Geopolitical reality of the United States' illusion of “free security” is 1

Three protective oceans until 1945
militia dependent until 1917
small defense costs until 1940
naive diplomacy of isolationism, withdrawal, fear
bravado, exclusivity, interventionism.

Ideological: National greatness coupled to the mission to promote liberty is 2

Thomas Paine, Common Sense, (1776)
Renaissance -- humane reason & utopianism
Protestant Reformation -- moral mission
Enlightenment -- republican virtue & romantic sensibility
Essential tension between domestic liberty & strong central govt.

Economically inevitable: Ideas & ideals triumph as part of laissez faire beliefs is 3

humanitarian problem solving
self-determination for subject peoples
aid & intervention: economic, social, and political expansion
Open Door Policy (Asia, 1899-1900)
“the firm conviction, even dogmatic belief, that America’s domestic well-being depends upon such sustained, ever-increasing overseas economic expansion.”
“The control of policy making by the industrialists and financiers”

Pragmatic expansionism: revolutionary & counter-revolutionary power is 4

Manifest Destiny ( John L. O’Sullivan, 1839)
natural right
America's Protestant mission to Christianize and civilize the world

Mexican War, 1846-48.

geographical determinism
population growth
political stability (necessity)

The Spanish-American War, 1898.

geopolitical expansionism: Admiral Mahan
widespread popular unrest in Cuba
political stability of the island allegedly in our interests

Imperialism for the sake of national security;

elimination of rivals inequality of power based on culture & technology is 5

1803 Purchase of Louisiana from Napoleon Bonaparte of France.
1819 Adams-Onis Treaty by which Spain ceded Florida (La. to Atlantic) to US.
1846-1848 Mexican War, ended with Treaty of Guadaloupe-Hidalgo.
1850s filibustero -- US filibusters try to seize Caribbean & Central American countries.
1896-98 Spanish American War cedes Philippines, Puerto Rico & Cuba to US.

* compare to older dates concerning international intervention.

Jamaica
Xaymaca is an Arawak word meaning: land of wood & water

Definitions | Syllabus | Nations of the region | Jamaica Case Study | Chronology | Vocabulary | Five parts

Contemporary Voices in the Caribbean