Nature and Resources in the Process of Foundation of the Agricultural Colonies of Santa Fe

Abstract

The article intends to make a first approximation from environmental history to an aspect of the implementation process of the Santa Fe agricultural colonies that began in the 1850s. Firstly, it tries to reveal the characterization made by some contemporary authors, travelers but also businessmen, government agents and intellectuals who promoted the colonization policy, based on their conception of the environment and natural resources and the possible landscape transformations that were raised as a result. Likewise, literature of the time is reviewed in search of definitions and analysis of three fundamental resources: soil, native vegetation and water, also paying attention to the interventions that the different actors involved in the colonizing project carried out on each one of them to bring your business to fruition. The different proposals for productive zoning that would derive from previously existing landscapes (meadows, marshes, forests, etc.) and even how they would be transformed to adapt them to the requirements of the world market are also analyzed.