Strangers On Familiar Soil: Rediscovering the Chile-California Connection
Edward Dallam Melillo
Abstract
This history explores the many unrecognized, enduring linkages between the state of California and the country of Chile. The book begins in 1786, when a French expedition brought the potato from Chile to California, and it concludes with Chilean president Michelle Bachelet's diplomatic visit to the Golden State in 2008. During the intervening centuries, new crops, foods, fertilizers, mining technologies, laborers, and ideas from Chile radically altered California's development. In turn, Californian systems of servitude, exotic species, educational programs, and capitalist development strategie ... More
This history explores the many unrecognized, enduring linkages between the state of California and the country of Chile. The book begins in 1786, when a French expedition brought the potato from Chile to California, and it concludes with Chilean president Michelle Bachelet's diplomatic visit to the Golden State in 2008. During the intervening centuries, new crops, foods, fertilizers, mining technologies, laborers, and ideas from Chile radically altered California's development. In turn, Californian systems of servitude, exotic species, educational programs, and capitalist development strategies dramatically shaped Chilean history. The book develops a new set of historical perspectives—tracing eastward-moving trends in U.S. history, uncovering South American influences on North America's development, and reframing the Western Hemisphere from a Pacific vantage point.
Keywords:
California,
Chile,
Michelle Bachelet,
Golden State,
Chilean history,
South America,
North America
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2015 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780300206623 |
| Published to Yale Scholarship Online: May 2016 |
DOI:10.12987/yale/9780300206623.001.0001 |
