Wanderlust World Wanderlust World The Atlantic system—triangular trade linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas—triggered profound ecological transformation across the Western Hemisphere from 1500 to 1771.
Sugar (Brazil, Caribbean), tobacco (Chesapeake), and later cotton demanded massive land clearing. Brazil's Atlantic Forest reduced from 1.3M km² to <12%; Caribbean islands denuded for cane.
European rats, pigs, cattle, horses, and grasses (and pathogens) devastated naive island and mainland ecosystems. Native flora/fauna had no defenses.
Overhunting (beaver, bison, manatee), habitat loss, and introduced diseases caused extinctions (Caribbean monk seal, great auk). Keystone species removal cascaded through food webs.
Monoculture, plowing on slopes, and lack of fallow caused erosion and nutrient mining—especially in Caribbean sugar islands where soils were abandoned.
Wetland drainage for plantations, river channeling for mills, and deforestation altered flood regimes, dried streams, and increased sedimentation.
Mercury (amalgamation in silver mining—Potosí, Mexico) contaminated waterways. Urban waste (Port Royal, Lima, Boston) fouled harbors.
Deforestation reduced evapotranspiration and carbon sequestration, contributing to early anthropogenic climate influence—precursor to industrial-era warming.
These changes were not incidental; they were the metabolic cost of extracting wealth. Their legacies—degraded soils, simplified ecosystems, altered fire regimes—persist today.