Plantations as Battlefields

At the beginning of the twentieth century, demand for consumer goods such as tires for bicycles and automobiles grew rapidly. In French Indochina, this demand led to the creation of vast plantations of hevea brasiliensis, a type of tree that produces late that can be used to produce rubber. These plantations did not disappear with the end of colonialism. In fact, they served as key battlefields during the American War in Vietnam, or the Vietnam War as it is known in the United States. Dr. Aso's talk explores the role of rubber plantations during this war and uses these iconic landscapes as a case study of how the environment shaped decolonization and Vietnamese nationalism.
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