Landscapes of Freedom and Inequality:Environmental Histories of Colombia’sPacific and Caribbean Coasts, 1850s-1950s

The social and environmental history of Colombia’s two coastal regions is a study of contrasts. After emancipation, in the humid jungles of the Pacific littoral a black peasantry emerged living off the extraction of natural resources for export. Its particular relation to the environment gave this Afro-descendant population more autonomy than that achieved by almost any other group of heirs of slaves in the Americas. On the Caribbean coast, the expansion of cattle ranching resulted in a story of tropical deforestation and land concentration. Paying close attention to the materiality of this environmental transformation sheds new light on the underlying logic of ranching.

Prof. Dr. Claudia Leal and Prof. Dr. Shawn Van Ausdal are currently fellows at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich.