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Caribbean island ecosystems underwent significant landscape transformations in the centuries after Columbus landed in the archipelago in AD1492, but there is no agreement as to the degree and extent of pre-Columbian human impacts and the long-term trends of ecosystem disturbance and recovery. Here, we present an integrative analysis of three palaeoenvironmental records in the northern Caribbean island of Haytí (currently Dominican Republic and Haiti), to assess regional landscape transformation and human impacts in pre- and post-Columbian times. We examine biotic and abiotic indicators of landscape and ecosystem change along the Columbus’ Route, the first European extractive transport route built in the Americas. Our data show that indigenous populations transformed the landscape between 1000 and 450 cal yr BP through slash-and-burn agricultural practices. Depopulation and forced population displacement through relocation of indigenous people into Spanish mining areas triggered the recovery and expansion of forests in the valley, coastal plain and mountains. In contrast, mangroves near the first permanent European colonial outpost in the Americas (La Isabela) underwent no significant impacts related to climatic, indigenous, and early colonial pressures. All ecosystems studied have suffered degradation through deforestation during the last 200 years leading to the present fragmented landscapes. In islands with long histories of human settlement such as Haytí, reconstructing temporal and spatial aspects of human transformations and impacts on the environment is crucial to improving our understanding of the drivers and mechanisms of ecosystem degradation and recovery.

Abstract The 1100-year sedimentary record of Laguna Biajaca reveals human-driven landscape changes in the central Cibao Valley, Dominican Republic, Hispaniola. This sediment-filled cutoff meander is located in close proximity to pre-Colonial archaeological sites and a Colonial urban hub. It provided a nutrient-rich floodable locus for agricultural activities for indigenous communities and for the first introduction of Old World crops and cattle in the Americas. Integration of paleoecological proxies revealed the formation of a clear-water body surrounded by a palm-rich forested landscape around 1100 cal yr BP. Changes in the drainage system were linked to human-driven deforestation, which also changed the composition of the vegetation and fungal communities around the site between AD 1150 and 1500 (800 and 700 cal yr BP). Pre-Colonial modifications of the landscape were primarily the result of fire-use and small-scale clearings. Crop cultivation developed between AD 1250 and 1450 (700–500 cal yr BP). Within decades after Columbus’ arrival in Hispaniola in AD 1492, the first impacts of European colonization included the abandonment of indigenous sites and the introduction of Old World domesticated animals. During the 15th and 16th centuries the area underwent intensive land-clearing that allowed for larger scale crop cultivation. An increase of aquatic vegetation points to sediment-filling around AD 1700 (250 cal yr BP). At that time, cattle breeding expanded and rapidly provoked eutrophication while, concurrently, monocultures became regionally established. This paper provides a framework of past environmental dynamics and offers an opportunity to place archaeological findings in a context of natural and anthropogenic change.

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd This study sought to investigate the extent and processes through which indigenous technologies were passed on in the production of indigenous pottery in the Greater Antilles, the Caribbean, during the early colonial period in the late 15th and early 16th centuries AD. We examined a selection of black wares and red wares recovered from an early colonial archaeological site of Pueblo Viejo de Cotuí, Dominican Republic. We devised an integrated approach, which combined anthropological theory of cultural transmission and archaeological science. Thin-section petrography was used to characterise five main aspects of the production of the ceramic assemblage, including raw materials selection, paste preparation, forming, surface finish, and firing methods. We then compared the results with the analyses we had previously conducted on the production of pre-colonial Meillacoid and Chicoid ceramics, which allowed us to delineate the extent and processes of technology transmission. Our findings reveal that indigenous technologies were neither fully replicated nor discontinued in the production of black wares and red wares at Cotuí during the early colonial period. Instead, the producers of both black wares and red wares continued to use certain aspects of indigenous technologies, but each with varying extents. The black wares largely followed the local indigenous ways as expressed in the selection of local raw materials, low level of standardisation in paste preparation, the use of coiling and low firing temperatures. As for the red wares, it is certain that their production continued with the use of local raw materials and low firing temperatures, whereas it is possible that the use of grog temper and red slips also represents the transmission of indigenous technologies that were linked to roots other than the Meillac and Chican ceramics.

Abstract Europe before the European Coal and Steel Community. Dutch civil society organisations in the interwar period Before Robert Schuman proposed the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1950, European cooperation had been long discussed, in particular by civil society actors. If we follow the New Political History approach and understand European integration as a process rather than as a set of events that started in the late ’40s, we need to analyse the interaction between state and civil society actors and examine this from a longer-term and global perspective. The period after World War I saw intense debate on how to prevent war in Europe and about the changing position of Europe in the world. Ideas of European cooperation were central to these debates. This article will analyse the interaction between grass roots and elite activists in the interwar Dutch European movement. It will show how objectives and imaginations of a European future differed, included colonial arguments, and how this activity prepared the ground for initiatives after 1945.