The Colombian Caribbean: A Regional History, 1870-1950

This book began as a doctoral thesis completed at St Antony's College, Oxford in 1990. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Malcolm Deas, whose constant guidance and support has been a major stimulus to my research. His work on Colombian history has inspired many pages of this book.

I owe my special thanks to Darío Jaramillo Agudelo who has supported me throughout my academic career. I am grateful to Karl Parrish Jr., David Parrish, María Teresa de Gómez, and Felipe Laserna, for giving me free access to their family papers. Diego de la Peña, Julio Tovar D'Andreis, Carlos Daniel Abello, Adolfo Meisel, Gustavo Bell, Ramiro de la Espriella, and Margarita Garrido also provided me with useful materials. Colin Clarke and Marco Palacios made useful comments and suggestions to the manuscript. Jacques Gilard also read the manuscript and made helpful comments. The chapter on cattle benefited from observations by José Antonio Ocampo. Catherine Legrand read and made some useful observations on the different sections on bananas. They, of course, do not bear any responsibilities for the final result of the book.

During all my years of research I have received support and hospitality from many friends and institutions. I want to acknowledge in particular the help of Constanza Toro and Cecilia Inés Restrepo in the Fundación Antioqueña para los Estudios Sociales, Arturo Sarabia and Felipe Tovar in the Cámara de Comercio de Barranquilla, Gilma Rodríguez in the Banco de la República, Moisés Alvarez in the Archivo de la Gobernación de Bolívar, Ruth Hodges in the Latin American Centre at St Antony's College, Oxford, and of members of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the Biblioteca Nacional and the Luis Angel Arango Library in Bogotá, the Biblioteca Departamental in Barranquilla, and the National Archives in Washington. The Banco de la República deserves a special mention for its support to Colombian scholarship, from which I have benefited.

My sojourns in Medellín, Bogotá, Cartagena, and Valledupar were made all the more pleasant by the kindness and hospitality of Horacio

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