State and societal responses to natural disasters in Latin American and Caribbean history
Date of Publication
1-1-2020 12:00 AM
Publication Date
January 3, 2020
Security Theme
Environmental Security
Keywords
Natural Disasters, Extreme Events, srhreports, natural hazards, political, social, economic, culture, relief effort, culture of disaster
Description
Natural hazards—earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, droughts, volcanoes, famines, epidemics, and climatic events such as El Niño–Southern Oscillations—have repeatedly struck Latin America and the Caribbean since pre-Columbian times. Natural disasters provide historians with an optic into political, social, economic, and cultural structures. Catastrophes reveal the ability of governments and administrators to efficiently and adequately respond, highlight embedded mentalities and social relationships, contribute to political and economic transformations, underscore scientific and technological advances, and the persistence of religious perspectives of calamities. States and societies that repeatedly experience natural hazards develop a culture of disaster to adapt and cope with catastrophic events by creating institutions and building codes, architecture, and mentalities. A historical perspective of contemporary calamities examines the political decisions, social and economic structures, and cultural milieu overtime that created the natural disasters.
State and societal responses to natural disasters in Latin American and Caribbean history
Natural hazards—earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, droughts, volcanoes, famines, epidemics, and climatic events such as El Niño–Southern Oscillations—have repeatedly struck Latin America and the Caribbean since pre-Columbian times. Natural disasters provide historians with an optic into political, social, economic, and cultural structures. Catastrophes reveal the ability of governments and administrators to efficiently and adequately respond, highlight embedded mentalities and social relationships, contribute to political and economic transformations, underscore scientific and technological advances, and the persistence of religious perspectives of calamities. States and societies that repeatedly experience natural hazards develop a culture of disaster to adapt and cope with catastrophic events by creating institutions and building codes, architecture, and mentalities. A historical perspective of contemporary calamities examines the political decisions, social and economic structures, and cultural milieu overtime that created the natural disasters.