Blog Two

The technology and environment of Latin America was ever changing as a result of technology not just brought over by colonists, but also from the advancements of the indiginous people used in their daily lives that wouldn’t be openly appreciated until much later. Pre colombian peoples varied intensely and each had unique ways of living and unique strides in technological development even if they were not always credited. Many indiginous people lived either sedentary lives in cities such as the Maya who lived in the capital city of Tenochtitlan but also non sedentary lives which consisted of traveling in small groups. Semisendentary groups would settle in villages and frequently move, along with their agriculture using a method known as “shifting cultivation” or the slash and burn method. Many native people relied on agriculture as a result of frequent rainfall, such as the sedentary Mayan civilizations making garden platforms called chinampas which would deposit water from the surrounding city and aid in the soil’s fertility.

 Some examples of technological advancement include the stonework of Incan civilizations, because of how it was structured it would be earthquake resistant was was later used in spanish construction as well. While not all advancements were credited that doesn’t mean there was no such thing as a non european group of people known for their advancements. The Moors for example were well known by the Spaniards for their advancements in physics, farming, engineering, and furnishing making them well known within the Iberian Christian community. As a result of European conquest and colonialism new animals such as cows, horses, and other traditionally European Livestock were brought to the Americas. This introduction to a species the ecosystem was unprepared for did lead to destruction of the environment along with other colonial intervention leading to the extinction of various subspecies of corn and other plants.

 Along with the removal of forests to create pastures for these new forms of livestock to graze, along with livestock, cotton also became a major cash crop in the colonized nations. Countries such as Mexico were one of the larger exporters of cotton until the invention of the cotton gin in the United States made keeping up with foreign competition more difficult for Spanish colonies. While colonists may not have been completely aware of how what they were doing was destructive to the environment, they did know they needed to learn to use it to their benefit in order to maintain food and economic profit. In Brazil it quickly became clear that despite the lush jungles, the soil was not as fertile as initially seemed, with a lot of fertility in the soil coming from the various animals and insects in the environments. This revelation would eventually lead to Spaniards not just in Brazil but all around Latin America to try and find new ways and areas to irrigate their crops.

 Along with this environmental debate, particularly about water distribution would be commonplace throughout society. Various water laws would eventually be passed to distribute water to various farmers for agricultural purposes, and with it came a desire to find more sources of water to be used for said crops. In Mexico, Francisco L. Madero for a long time proposed building a dam near the Nazas as a way to store and better distribute water for crops. This process and the final results lends us a good look at technology during this time. For example, the process of getting this together, let alone for people to take Madero’s suggestion was time consuming to say the least.

 Eventually federal engineers proceeded to record the flow volumes of the Nazas along with Madero’s own studies, despite there already being advanced irrigated agriculture at a river known as the Laguna. The research was also somewhat selective, despite this, the research along with research today shows that colonists were aware of the dynamic ecology of the Laguna. The Nazas river’s in comparison were a source of confusion even after the rise in geographic and scientific research after Mexico’s independence until the nineteenth century. Of the two principal branches the river had, one of the branches flow of water ceased between 1829 and 1845. This natural phenomenon typical of rivers like the Nazas lead to the impression that the rivers had shifted course to a different direction rather than extinguishing one of the branches.

 So while colonists were not completely ignorant to the environment, it is clear that they weren’t fully equipped to study and understand it as extensively as they would have liked. Despite this, nineteenth century colonists, much like the rest of the developed world during the industrial revolution, were enthusiastic about technological progress that was present then and would be coming to the future.