Journal of World History

Writing a comprehensive and accessible account of more than five hundred years of Caribbean history is no easy task. Completing such a project by weaving together thirty-nine essays by forty different experts in Caribbean studies (including historians, anthropologists, geographers, political scientists, and sociologists) is even more difficult to do well. Stephen Palmié and Francisco A. Scarano, the editors of The Caribbean: A History of the Region and Its Peoples, should be commended for doing so successfully.

In covering the history of the Caribbean from pre-Columbian times to the present, the editors and their contributors present a number of important concepts with two main arguments standing out. First, the Caribbean was and is an important site of destruction and creation in both a material and a cultural sense. Materially speaking, colonialism led to the virtual elimination of the Caribbean’s indigenous peoples and the subsequent development of plantation slavery with imported African labor. Slavery was a destructive force that ripped people away from their homes and cultures and worked many to death, but it also allowed Europeans to produce unprecedented amounts of wealth through sugar and other commodities. Out of the dislocation and destruction caused by colonialism and plantation society emerged new cultural formations. As this book makes evident, a process of creolization (i.e., massive cultural transformation through the creation of new and blended cultural traditions from the remnants of older destroyed ones) has been a definitive characteristic of the Caribbean. Indigenous and African traditions (especially the latter) merged with European ways to create vibrant creole Caribbean cultures (in terms of language, religion, social relationships, farming techniques, food, and more). During the long nineteenth century, Asians migrated to this region, as did a new wave of Europeans (particularly Spaniards to Cuba), both [End Page 437] of whom further contributed to the creation of hybrid cultures in the Caribbean. The cultures of different societies have constantly come into contact with each other and changed through these interactions, but the Caribbean was particularly a hotbed of cultural blending and new cultural formation.

The second main argument is that the Caribbean has played a crucial role in world history and processes of globalization. The book makes this clear in a number of ways. The Caribbean was central to the making of the “Atlantic World.” The region linked Africa to both Europe and the New World more directly through the slave trade. The Haitian Revolution had reverberations throughout the Americas and in Europe, inspiring some and terrifying others. Caribbean colonial slave societies and plantation agriculture (especially sugar which originated in the Old World) allowed European nations to gain massive amounts of wealth and have the capital and markets needed for industrialization and modernization. In fact, the Caribbean sugar plantation, despite (and in part due to) slavery, served as the world’s first modern industry. Abolitionism linked transnational actors. The islands of the Caribbean became important sites of competition among European powers in their battles over the balance of power in Europe. The region loomed large in the U.S. imagination and U.S. intervention contributed to the rise of the United States as a global power. During the twentieth century, the Caribbean may have seemed to have lost much of its global importance, but in reality it continued to play an important role in world developments, particularly through the impact of Garveyism, the Cuban Revolution, and the large-scale migration of many residents of the region to the United States, Canada, and Europe.

In making these arguments about creolization and the connection between the Caribbean and global history, the book is right to suggest that the history of this region is one filled with “triumphs and tragedies” (p. 4). Examples abound. Europeans succeeded in dominating the Caribbean, but this “triumph” led to the decimation of the indigenous population, the development of the horrors of plantation slavery, and war between European rivals. Slaves succeeded in destroying the institution of slavery in St. Domingue, but Haitians continued to suffer after independence and the French re-imposed slavery in their empire until 1848. Cubans succeeded in overthrowing Spanish rule and challenging racial division at the end of the nineteenth century, but soon found themselves under U.S. domination and continuing racial inequality. The Cuban Revolution succeeded in improving the material conditions of poor Cubans, reducing racial inequality, and eliminating U.S. power in Cuba, while allowing Cuba to play a larger role in the world [End Page 438] through the promotion of revolution, support of anticolonial movements, and the sending of medical personnel abroad. Yet these changes came with the costs of having to rely on the Soviet Union, the fracturing of a nation (i.e., Cubans in Miami), failure in establishing new revolutionary states, and, as critics of the revolution are quick to point out, limitations on freedoms and a lack of liberal democracy in Cuba. By the twentieth century, Caribbean nations had developed vibrant national cultures and largely achieved independence, but they continued to suffer from neocolonialism, dictatorship, governmental corruption, poverty, and racial division.

In keeping with the notion of triumph is the fact that these essays convey that ordinary and marginalized peoples (i.e., slaves, indigenous groups, pirates, maroons, free people of color, peasants, indentured servants, poor immigrants, members of the working and middle classes, etc.) played crucial roles in shaping the history of this region and its impact on the rest of the world. The authors do not deny that the European powers, the United States, and local elites dominated this region. Throughout much of this book it is made clear that the Caribbean has been acted upon by outside actors and forces, and that local power has been concentrated in the hands of few. However, those at the bottom of society were not passive and their actions helped make their world a livable one and contributed to significant developments, such as the end of slavery, nationalism, independence, and the challenge to racial inequality.

Moreover, this book stresses the reality of similar historical developments among nations as well as variation in the region. The authors remind us that the Caribbean remained under colonial rule well into the twentieth century, but that colonial rule and colonial societies took different forms at different points in time and in different parts of the region. Although sugar appeared first in the Spanish Caribbean, the area remained a backwater for much of the colonial period. The other European powers really developed the first plantation slave societies based on sugar, and they profited much more from the Caribbean during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries than the Spaniards did. Cuba only became a major importer of slaves and a leading sugar producer at the end of the eighteenth century. Unlike the other European actors, the Dutch were much more interested in commerce than controlling territory. Abolition and independence occurred at different points in time throughout the Caribbean under comparable and varying circumstances. The examples of similar patterns of development but also of variation could go on and on.

Combining the works of so many authors with overlapping topics [End Page 439] leads to a rather lengthy collection with a considerable amount of repetition. Despite the effort to balance the histories of so many different places, the book could benefit from a deeper discussion of slavery and abolition in Cuba, Garveyism, and the international impact of the Cuban Revolution. These last two topics would strengthen the interpretation that the Caribbean continued to shape world history well into the twentieth century. At times the essays touch on the larger Caribbean (i.e., Central America, New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of the United States, northern South America), but the book could delve more into the histories of these areas and their links to the islands. In reality, these are minor concerns. The editors and authors of this book have produced an informative history of the Caribbean. The glossary and suggested reading list at the end of the book are particularly helpful for readers new to Caribbean studies. This book is a welcome addition to the field.