Logwood and territoriality in the Yucatan peninsula, in the final stages of colonial New Spain

Abstract

The Spanish colonization of the region known as Laguna de Términos, in the Gulf of Mexico, was constructed around the exploitation of logwood in the second half of the eighteenth century. From the perspective of how the licenses for the cutting of this valued tree were granted, this article investigates the effects of the logwood harvest on the territorial order of the region based on the Spanish notion of vecino.