Traces the changes in the economy and land use in the Greater Caribbean from the colonial period to the present. The Greater Caribbean was long defined by plantations dependent on slave labor. They exported crops such as sugarcane, coffee and bananas to Europe. Later the United States became an important market for these products. During the twentieth century, other export-oriented economic activities began to vie with the dominance of the plantation: oil and coal, and iron, copper, gold, nickel, and bauxite. Tourism took off after about 1960, with the boom of commercial aviation, mass tourism, and shifting tastes that favored sun and beach destinations.
DOI: doi.org/10.5282/rcc/6260