Navigating the Spanish Lake examines Spain’s long presence in the Pacific Ocean (1521–1898) in the context of its global empire. Building on a growing body of literature on the Atlantic world and indigenous peoples in the Pacific, this pioneering book investigates the historiographical “Spanish Lake” as an artifact that unites the Pacific Rim (the Americas and Asia) and Basin (Oceania) with the Iberian Atlantic. Incorporating an impressive array of unpublished archival materials on Spain’s two most important island possessions (Guam and the Philippines) and foreign policy in the South Sea, the book brings the Pacific into the prevailing Atlanticentric scholarship, challenging many standard interpretations. By examining Castile’s cultural heritage in the Pacific through the lens of archipelagic Hispanization, the authors bring a new comparative methodology to an important field of research. The book opens with a macrohistorical perspective of the conceptual and literal Spanish Lake. The chapters that follow explore both the Iberian vision of the Pacific and indigenous counternarratives; chart the history of a Chinese mestizo regiment that emerged after Britain’s occupation of Manila in 1762-1764; and examine how Chamorros responded to waves of newcomers making their way to Guam from Europe, the Americas, and Asia. An epilogue analyzes the decline of Spanish influence against a backdrop of European and American imperial ambitions and reflects on the legacies of archipelagic Hispanization into the twenty-first century. Specialists and students of Pacific studies, world history, the Spanish colonial era, maritime history, early modern Europe, and Asian studies will welcome Navigating the Spanish Lake as a persuasive reorientation of the Pacific in both Iberian and world history.

This work is a history of the Pacific, the ocean that became a theatre of power and conflict shaped by the politics of Europe and the economic background of Spanish America. There could only be a concept of &�the Pacific once the limits and lineaments of the ocean were set and this was undeniably the work of Europeans. Fifty years after the Conquista, Nueva Espaą and Peru were the bases from which the ocean was turned into virtually a Spanish lake.

Discovery; Exploration; Civilization; Economic conditions; European influences; History; Spain; Latin america; Pacific area.

Through a number of significant case studies, this volume examines changing Iberian dynamics in the Pacific, bridging the gaps between English and Spanish speaking scholarship to highlight understudied actors and debates in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The book shifts the predominant emphasis on Anglo-American studies and the historical neglect of Iberian endeavors in this ocean by focusing on several episodes that illuminate Spanish engagement in the Pacific. It describes Spain’s treatment of this sea from its discovery to the end of the overseas empire in 1899, becoming the first book to place its analytical focus in the heart of the islands rather than the Pacific Rim. In tracing shifting Spanish positions and policies, the book cautions against making generalities about the distinct histories of Pacific islands and their Indigenous populations, uncovering a much more heterogeneous world than previous research may convey. Exploring Iberian Counterpoints in the Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Pacific is the perfect resource for students and researchers of the Iberian world, Hispanic studies, and the Pacific Ocean in early modern and modern eras.

More than four centuries have passed since Europeans first set eyes on the Pacific, that vast ocean about which earlier generations had theorized and fantasized. They soon ventured forth in search of undiscovered lands, unknown peoples, and imagined riches . Eventually, the Pacific came to reflect the rivalries of Europe, as Spanish explorers were followed by the Dutch, the English, and the French, and then by traders and colonizers. Now, for the first time, collected in a single, convenient reference volume, readers will be able to find details of the lives and achievements of those who took part in this great era of exploration. This biographical dictionary includes the major figures of the voyages of exploration, as well as missionaries, traders, whalers, naturalists, and others who by accident or design contributed to European discovery in the Pacific between the sixteenth and early twentieth centuries. Scholars and others interested in this era will be able to identify easily and promptly the people they come across in their reading, situate them in their proper context, and gain an idea of their background, travels, and achievements. John Dunmore has scrutinized a wealth of primary and secondary sources to amass the information collected here. Some biographies are lengthy-noted individuals, like Cook, have spawned a massive bibliography — while others reflect the sparsity of the historical record. Who 's Who in Pacific Navigation includes a detailed bibliography, organized by country, to aid those wishing to delve further into any subject. The comprehensive index makes the information in the volume easily accessible.