Transformación de los ecosistemas áridos para su uso agrícola en Baja California Sur, México. Un análisis desde la historia ambiental

This paper forms part of a wider research whose main purpose is to establish the pattern and evolution of the population and agrarian output in Spain during the early-modern period. Its main objectives are: 1) to study the population movement between 1530 and 1860 in what is today the province of Guadalajara; 2) to assess the reliability of the censuses of 1591, 1752, 1787 y 1860. Baptism records and population statistics are the principal sources for this research. This paper's more relevant conclusions are: a) that from the late xvi century onwards Guadalajara experienced a long period of acute demographic decline; b) within this general population movement in the province sharp contrasts can be observed, mainly from 1650 onwards; c) the quality of the demographic returns is broadly acceptable, however, both the so-called 'census of the millions' of 1591 and the later census of 1860 miscounted the population of the province of Alcarria; the former overestimating it, while the latter underestimates it.