The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex
Over a period of several centuries, Europeans developed an intricate system of plantation agriculture overseas which was quite different from the agricultural system used at home. Though the plantation complex centered on the American tropics, its influence was much wider. Much more than an economic order for the Americas, the plantation complex had an important place in world history. These essays concentrate on the intercontinental impact.
- Successful first edition (1990)
- The second edition has a new preface, new bibliographic material, some light revisions to the text, new improved cover
- Eminent author, a great historian, now in his 70s, well known for pioneering work on the slave trade and for helping to define the modern study of Africa
Reviews & endorsements
'This study of the transfer of slave plantations from the eastern Mediterranean to the tropical New World demonstrates [Curtin's] insight into transregional patterns. The detail in his wide-ranging account is impressive, and it provides the reader with an informative overview.' David A. Chappell, Journal of World History
'Anyone interested in New World foundations should begin with this collection; even experts will find thought-provoking moments here.' Choice
Product details
May 1998Paperback
9780521629430
238 pages
227 × 152 × 17 mm
0.33kg
2 b/w illus. 22 maps
Available
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Part I. Beginnings:
- 1. The Mediterranean origins
- 2. Sugar planting: from Cyprus to the Atlantic islands
- 3. Africa and the slave trade
- 4. Capitalism, feudalism, and sugar planting in Brazil
- 5. Bureaucrats and freelances in Spanish America
- Part II. Seventeenth-Century Transition:
- 6. The sugar revolution and the settlement of the Caribbean
- 7. Anarchy and imperial control
- 8. Slave societies on the periphery
- Part III. Apogee and Revolution:
- 9. The slave trade and the West African economy in the eighteenth century
- 10. Atlantic commerce in the eighteenth century
- 11. The democratic revolution in the Atlantic basin
- 12. Revolution in the French Antilles
- Part IV. Aftermath:
- 13. Readjustments in the nineteenth century
- 14. The end of slavery in the Americas
- Retrospect.