A Patchwork Columbian Exchange: Ecological Imperialism, Animals, and the <i>Relaciones Geográficas</i> of New Spain

This article reconsiders Alfred Crosby’s Columbian exchange by turning from sweeping generalizations to the granular realities of New Spain. Drawing on the sixteenth-century relaciones geográficas, it argues that colonial environments were patchworks: mosaics of local ecologies, animal assemblages, and human choices. Cross-referencing the animals mentioned by local survey respondents with their environments illustrates how practitioners observed and sought to shape a new combination of American and European nature. The essay reframes ecological imperialism as contingent and uneven, foregrounding variation, resistance, and the dynamism of early modern nature and the actors who shaped it.