This dissertation addresses a fundamental question: how did the English, French, and Dutch establish successful colonies and trade routes in the Iberian-dominated Americas? It argues that the English, Dutch, and French (a group I refer to as the “Upstart Empires”) relied upon Iberian and indigenous knowledge and trade networks in a series of illicit commercial operations and failed colonies in South America and the Caribbean before they were able to establish themselves permanently in the Americas. These little-studied colonial experiments all had one thing in common: tobacco. A crop in high demand that grows nearly anywhere and requires little special equipment, tobacco was an obvious choice for new colonies. The Spanish Empire was founded on mineral extraction and the subjugation of extant empires. For other colonizers, the development of plantation economies was crucial. Cultivating Colonies looks at how this came to be. This dissertation relies upon a diverse source base, using Spanish, Dutch, French, and English archives to tell a story that transcends imperial boundaries. The dissertation begins by considering the intersection of botany and European expansion. It situates European voyages of discovery and colonization in the context of a search for plants and their products, including spices, and argues that early colonization efforts involved a close understanding of local environments. Tobacco was a plant Europeans encountered nearly everywhere they went in the Americas, but it was only a century after Columbus that smoking became fashionable in Europe. Thus, tobacco’s rise as a transatlantic commodity coincided with the Upstart Empires’ increased presence in the Americas. Spanish colonists and Africans learned how to grow and consume tobacco from indigenous peoples. Spanish colonies on the margins of empire began to produce it to trade with the English, Dutch, and French from the late sixteenth century. Through this trade, the Upstart Empires learned more about tobacco, and also about the environment and geography of places just beyond the reach of the Spanish and Portuguese. They began to establish trading posts and colonies in such places, and especially in the Guianas—a vast stretch of land between the limits of the two Iberian powers. There, Carib, Arawak, and other indigenous groups were willing to ally with small numbers of interlopers against their Spanish enemies. In these settlements, Northern Europeans participated in indigenous warfare and traded commodities in exchange for agricultural knowledge, labor, and goods. Even as the Upstarts established permanent colonies in North America and the Caribbean, they continued to settle in South America, too. Moreover, the Upstarts’ experiences in South America were crucial to the development of their colonies to the north. Colonies as diverse as St. Christopher, Virginia, and New Netherland all grew tobacco using methods and seeds from South America. In each settlement’s early years, the Upstarts were also reliant upon indigenous and African agricultural knowledge, an overlooked foundation of European colonization. Cultivating Colonies argues that the illicit tobacco trade and the short-lived colonies that sprang from it were crucial to the ultimate success of the English, Dutch, and French empires in the Americas.

Thesis--Groningen, 1937. / Summary in English, p. [142]-152.

No description available.

Rooks (Corvus frugilegus) are colonially breeding corvids found in most agricultural landscapes. Colonies in the County Durham area tend to be clustered at distances up to 500 m, but otherwise show little pattern in terms of spacing or size. Colony size was comparable between sites as changes in colony nest counts were allowed to stabilise before the whole area was surveyed. When measuring nest build-up at a sample of colonies in 1996, no further significant increases occurred after 9th April. The spatial size distribution of colonies was maintained between years. The distribution and size of breeding colonies is modelled in relation to the interaction between the spatial distribution of the foraging habitat and potential intraspecific competitors, with the identification of the distance over which this interaction is strongest. The satellite derived habitat data used for the modelling were part of the ITE Land Cover Map of Great Britain. However, their correspondence with ground reference data was found to be severely lacking. Thus, for modelling the availability of nesting habitat, OS woodland data were used as these identified more of the extant rookery sites, whilst the ITE data were retained for quantifying the foraging habitat. Logistic regression showed that the distribution of colony sites was influenced by the availability of woodland blocks large enough to hold a colony, proximity to roads and buildings, and by the amount of pasture within 1 km. Other suitable sites with these characteristics remained unoccupied within the distribution. Partial Correlations showed that interactions between the spatial distribution of the foraging habitat and competitors influenced colony size at distances up to 6 km, suggesting their effect outside of the breeding season. The multiple regression model built with variable values for this distance explained 31% of the variance in colony size. When applied to the potential breeding sites identified using the logistic regression, most sites still remained suitable. This suggests the distribution is not saturated and that limited availability of breeding habitat is not the cause of the nesting aggregations. The broad correlation of Rook abundance to foraging habitat and potential competitors corresponds to an ideal free distribution of individuals across colony sites. This is supported by models of Rook numbers in relation to parish agricultural statistics produced by MAFF. These again show the importance of pasture as a probable foraging resource, and how pasture quality could be important to Rook numbers. The models also supported the ideal free predictions of spatial variation in Rook abundance in relation to habitat, and the response of colony sizes to temporal change in habitat quality.

The thesis is concerned with assessing the scale and importance of the interaction between Scotland and the West Indies in the later part of the eighteenth century. In analysing the symbiotic relationship between a metropolitan region and a colonial sphere, this study seeks to further the on-going reappraisal of British imperial activity. Within the West Indies, the thesis focuses particularly on Jamaica and on the Windward Islands, which were ceded to Britain in 1763. For Scots, the new opportunities in the Windwards were especially attractive. In this period, Scots formed a significant, and disproportionately large, part of the white population and tended to conduct their affairs in networks based on ties of kinship or local association. These were essentially transatlantic, and were often based on pre-existing networks which were extended from Scotland to include Great Britain and its Atlantic empire. In addition to facilitating all aspects of the Scottish-West Indian interaction, the networks helped to forge new, concentric identities within a imperial framework. The thesis considers this transoceanic interaction by examining a number of key themes. The two opening chapters discuss the Scottish and Caribbean contexts in which the thematic chapters. The first of these is concerned with the structure of Scottish affairs on the plantations, and the next examines the role of Scots in medical practice. Two further chapters assess the political implications of the Scottish presence, one in a West Indian context, the other from a British imperial perspective. Chapter seven reviews Scottish mercantile activity. The final chapter looks at the nature and direction of the repatriation of people and capital from the Caribbean to Scotland.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1921 / Reproduction of original in the Newberry Library. Includes bibliographical references (p. 70-74). Also issued in print and microfiche.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1921. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 70-74).

These--Paris. / Bibliography: p. [199]-201. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Part of Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 1932. / First part photolithographed. "Private edition, distributed by the University of Chicago libraries, Chicago, Illinois." "I, private printing; III and IV, reprinted from the American journal of sociology, vol. XLI, no. 3, November, 1935."