Shadows over Anáhuac: an ecological interpretation of crisis and development in Central Mexico, 1730-1800

The majority of the population of colonial New Spain resided in the central Mexican region of An?huac. Drought, overpopulation, and the Bourbon Reforms eroded An?huac's prosperity during the eighteenth century. After a famine in 1786, both Indians and Spaniards sought to reverse this economic decline. These efforts are analyzed using an ecological approach to the interrelationship among population density, landscape, climate, and culture in shaping the rural economy. Ouweneel argues that Indians actively and astutely countered the downward spiral of the economy through emigration and urbanization, proto-industrialization, and charity solicited from the state, hacendados, and their own caciques. Indian caciques and Spanish entrepreneurs also collaborated for mutual benefit. "A pathbreaking work . . . among the most original and important ever to appear on the economy of colonial Latin America."?Eric Van Young, University of California at San Diego