Evolución del paisaje forestal y cambios en los derechos de propiedad en Madrid en la Edad Moderna

Abstract

This paper presents the outline of the evolution of woodlands in Early Modern Age in the Tierra de Madrid. There were two different areas: the south and east, with an advanced process of deforestation at the late Middle Ages, and the north and west, where the main forest thickness was concentrated. In both of them, the spatial transformation processes (ploughing, deforestation), regulation (forest bylaws) and forms of exploitation are analyzed. Most of the woodlands were at first commons, but they experienced a gradual change in property and access rights, leading to their conversion to property of the municipality of Madrid (bienes de propios) or its integration into the Royal Forest of El Pardo. The resulting restriction of access to forest resources to neighbors caused the practice of poaching, a reflection of increasing social unrest.forest history, forest bylaws, commons, landscape history