The Persistence, Elaboration and Eventual Modification Of Humboldt's View Of The Lowland Tropics

Abstract

Most travellers who came to Mexico in the nineteenth century entered at Veracruz and proceeded inland through the coastal lowlands along the Jalapa road. While in the lowlands many recalled and elaborated on Humboldt's dictum that although nature was highly promising in this region the lowlanders had been unequal to its challenge. Extraneous intervention would be necessary for the development of commercial agriculture, the economic optimum. Such widely accepted evaluations influenced, and prejudiced, the planning of tropical lowland development well into the second half of the twentieth century. In recent years, amid the litter of failed projects, traditional and even Pre-Hispanic adaptations and techniques have been rediscovered by Mexican as well as foreign observers. It is clear now that there was more wisdom in traditional lowland agricultural practice than was expected.