The Caribbean was Europe's first colony, its landscapes transformed to produce tropical staples and its decimated aboriginal populace replaced with African slaves. As European power has waned in the Caribbean, it has been replaced by the geopolitical domination of the United States. Professor Richardson examines this colonization and recolonization of the Caribbean during the past half millennium, portraying a region victimized by natural hazards, soil erosion, overpopulation and gunboat diplomacy. Most importantly, he explains the ways in which Caribbean peoples have reacted and adapted to their external influences. No other single survey of the region provides equivalent breadth--ranging from aboriginal ecologies to today's narcotic traffic--or harnesses so effectively elements of the past to illuminate the present.