Colonial Deforestation and Ecological Damage

Explore the hidden environmental history of the Caribbean in this deep-dive documentary into colonial deforestation and the ecological damage that reshaped Jamaica, Haiti, and Barbados. While we often discuss the Caribbean through the lens of politics and revolution, the most permanent scars were left on the land itself. Between the 1600s and 1900s, the "Pearl of the Antilles" was systematically dismantled as ancient hardwood forests were cleared to fuel the global sugar and coffee trades. This episode of our Caribbean history series uncovers how Barbados was stripped of its legendary bearded fig trees in just thirty years, creating the world’s first man-made tropical droughts, and how Jamaica’s Blue Mountains were carved out for British naval timber, leading to massive soil erosion that continues to affect the island today.

We examine the grim reality of ecological liquidation and the "destruction" theme that defined the colonial era. Discover how the French mahogany trade in Saint-Domingue—the land we now call Haiti—created a legacy of environmental vulnerability that persists as a permanent scar on the landscape. This is not just a story of lost trees; it is a case study in how systemic exploitation broke the natural infrastructure of the islands. From the introduction of invasive species like the mongoose to the shift from a primary forest to a charcoal economy, we analyze how the pursuit of profit transformed self-sustaining ecosystems into fragile, dependent territories. Join us as we preserve the truth of our history, centering the environmental cost of empire and the resilience of the land that still carries the trauma of the axe.