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    May-June 2003 P2 Q2

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    Suneil R Als
    The physical landscape has strongly influenced settlement patterns in the Caribbean. In pre-colonial times, the Amerindians settled in villages on mountains or near coasts for defense and trade. With European arrival, settlements shifted to leeward coasts to shelter ships. The Spanish favored larger Caribbean islands' flatlands for agriculture. Escaped slaves established maroon communities in hard-to-access mountains. After emancipation, freed Africans and indentured workers settled away from plantations, establishing farming communities on fertile lowland outskirts. The landscape shaped where and how different groups lived in the Caribbean over time.

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    May-June 2003 P2 Q2

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    Suneil R Als
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    The physical landscape has strongly influenced settlement patterns in the Caribbean. In pre-colonial times, the Amerindians settled in villages on mountains or near coasts for defense and trade. With European arrival, settlements shifted to leeward coasts to shelter ships. The Spanish favored larger Caribbean islands' flatlands for agriculture. Escaped slaves established maroon communities in hard-to-access mountains. After emancipation, freed Africans and indentured workers settled away from plantations, establishing farming communities on fertile lowland outskirts. The landscape shaped where and how different groups lived in the Caribbean over time.

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    The physical landscape has strongly influenced settlement patterns in the Caribbean. In pre-colonial times, the Amerindians settled in villages on mountains or near coasts for defense and trade. With European arrival, settlements shifted to leeward coasts to shelter ships. The Spanish favored larger Caribbean islands' flatlands for agriculture. Escaped slaves established maroon communities in hard-to-access mountains. After emancipation, freed Africans and indentured workers settled away from plantations, establishing farming communities on fertile lowland outskirts. The landscape shaped where and how different groups lived in the Caribbean over time.

    Copyright:

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    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    5K views2 pages

    May-June 2003 P2 Q2

    Uploaded by

    Suneil R Als
    The physical landscape has strongly influenced settlement patterns in the Caribbean. In pre-colonial times, the Amerindians settled in villages on mountains or near coasts for defense and trade. With European arrival, settlements shifted to leeward coasts to shelter ships. The Spanish favored larger Caribbean islands' flatlands for agriculture. Escaped slaves established maroon communities in hard-to-access mountains. After emancipation, freed Africans and indentured workers settled away from plantations, establishing farming communities on fertile lowland outskirts. The landscape shaped where and how different groups lived in the Caribbean over time.

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    Question 2, May/June 2003: Describe how the physical landscape has influenced settlement

    patterns in the Caribbean.

    In the Caribbean, choices of settlement have been dictated by the topography or physical

    structure of the land and the needs of the men and women who settled.

    In the Pre-Colombian period, the Amerindians usually settled in large villages on

    mountainous territories or near the coast. This is attributed to the communal farming methods an d

    the need to see into the distant seas to warn of attacks by the Caribs. Most Amerindians also settled

    near water because they were generally sea-faring people who promoted inter-island trade. Also,

    the water was necessary for carrying out daily activities such as watering crops, fishing, cooking

    and bathing. In Belize, the Mayans settled in forested areas as the land was sturdier than that of the

    coast, it provided excellent cover from enemy attacks, the full force of hurricanes and the

    necessary building materials needed for their city states.

    With the coming of the Europeans, settlement patterns underwent a shift. The European

    technological advancements in naval warfare and sea faring created large ships which needed to be

    harboured on the Leeward side of the island so as to shelter them from hurricane damage prone to

    the Windward side. Hence, settlement began on the Leeward side of the island. The initial

    Europeans to penetrate into the Caribbean were Spanish. They tended to settle in the Greater

    Antilles over the lesser Antilles since there were greater distances of flat land for agriculture. On

    the other hand, the Lesser Antilles was mountainous and difficult to use productively.

    At the enslavement of the Amerindians, the Arawakan people who attempted to escape the

    encomienda were forced to move to more mountainous regions where they survived and tried to

    settle anew where the Europeans would not attempt to penetrate the unfamiliar terrain. The period
    of European domination is marked by land settlement patterns in such a way as to exploit the land

    in order to create maximum produce for the mother country and to develop profit from sales.

    Slavery of the Africans was a period marked by rebellion and marronage. Africans were

    largely trained in the Guerrilla tactics of warfare and were accustomed to the difficult terrain from

    their native homelands. Hence, those slaves that escaped their plantation settled in mountainous

    regions where they survived off the land and were able to protect their strongholds producing large

    maroon settlements.

    At emancipation, the exodus from the plantations throughout the Caribbean by masses of

    freed Africans was followed by mass settlements away from the plantation and the development of

    the peasantry. The Africans settled on state lands as squatters and began to produce crops for sale

    at local markets. However, the peasantry extended to a greater meaning, one of independence from

    the plantation system.

    During and after indentureship, many indentured workers stayed in the islands and settled in

    much the same way and in some cases the same as the Africans. They developed human ecology,

    holding land in reverence for the development of their well being and sending money back to their

    families. The physical landscape dominated by these parties were fertile, flat land on the outskirts

    of the larger communities.

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