Industrial Islands: Ecological Impacts of the steam-powered mills of the El Progreso plantation, Galápagos Islands.

Summary

From 1880 to 1917 "El Progreso" plantation operated on the humid highlands of San Cristóbal Island in the Galápagos archipelago (Ecuador). The plantation enterprise used steam-powered machinery for sugar refining and alcohol distillation. Despite its remote location, 1000 km west from the South American coast, this large operation took advantage of the latest industrial technology. A number of specialized machines were used in sugar processing which were imported from factories in Scotland and the United States. The implementation of the industrial machinery required large quantities of wood for fuel, permanent sources of water, and the construction of large buildings. After the murder of the plantation owner at the hands of his workers in 1904, the machinery and the mill operated for another decade before being abandoned. Parts of the machinery were removed to mainland Ecuador but some have remained on site. This paper explores the characteristics of the technology used during the industrialization of El Progreso plantation and its effects on the local ecology of San Cristóbal Island.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Northern South America II: Mobility, Landscapes, and Socialscapes   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16665