干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

In this paper, unpublished archival documentary sources are used to explore the vulnerability to-and implications of-climatic variability and extreme weather events in colonial Mexico. Attention focuses on three regions covering a variety of environmental, social, economic, and political contexts and histories and located at key points along a north-south rainfall gradient: Chihuahua in the arid north, Oaxaca in the wetter south and Guanajuato located in the central Mexican highlands. A number of themes are considered. First, the significance of successive, prolonged, or combined climate events as triggers of agrarian crisis. Second, a case study demonstrating the national and regional impacts of a particularly devastating climate induced famine, culminating with the so-called ’Year of Hunger’ between 1785 and 1786, is presented. The way in which social networks and community engagement were rallied as a means of fortifying social resilience to this and other crises will be highlighted. Third, the impacts of selected historical flood events are explored in order to highlight how the degree of impact of a flood was a function of public expectation, preparedness and also the particular socio-economic and environmental context in which the event took place. An overview of the spatial and temporal variations in vulnerability and resilience to climatic variability and extreme weather events in colonial Mexico is then provided, considering those recorded events that could potentially relate to broader scale, possibly global, climate changes.