Iberian Visions of the Pacific Ocean, 1507-1899

by R. Buschmann

Overview

In this work, Buschmann incorporates neglected Spanish visions into the European perceptions of the emerging Pacific world. The book argues that Spanish diplomats and intellectuals attempted to create an intellectual link between the Americas and the Pacific Ocean.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349454556
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	01/01/2014
Series:	Palgrave Studies in Pacific History
Edition description:	1st ed. 2014
Pages:	292
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Rainer F. Buschmann is professor and founding faculty member of history at the California State University Channel Islands, USA. He has formerly taught at Hawaii Pacific University and Purdue University, USA. He has written extensively on the European interactions with the Pacific Ocean.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1. On Shrinking Continents and Expanding Oceans 2. On Chronometers, Cartography, and Curiosity 3. On Narrating the Pacific 4. On Useful Information 5. On History and Hydrography 6. On the Rediscovery of the Americas Epilogue: On the Lingering Spanish Lake Bibliography Endnotes

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This is a rigorous scholarly work in which archival research, printed sources from the time, and up to date secondary scholarship is deployed opportunely and clearly. The book is easy to read, very well organized and extremely informative. In addition to being a considerable contribution to the study of Spanish historiography, the book is relevant to Pacific studies, Eighteenth century studies and the cultural and scientific history of Imperial Spain. Academics and graduate students - historians of different fields, geographers, anthropologists, cultural studies practitioners, etc. - will profit a great deal from its innovative approach and its rich knowledge." - Arturo Giraldez, University of the Pacific, USA

Editorial Reviews

In Iberian Visions of the Pacific Ocean, 1507–1899, Rainer F. Buschmann provides a valuable, well-informed, and stimulating essay on Spanish responses to these changes from the early sixteenth century onward. … The author masters the literature impressively, reads accurately the sources he uses, and wields their evidence perceptively, informatively, and sometimes vividly.” (Felipe Fernández-Armesto, American Historical Review, Vol. 121 (4), October, 2016)

“Iberian Visions of the Pacific Ocean is a very ambitious project, encompassing nearly half a millennium of Pacific ‘visions’ when the ocean was not even a figment in most people’s imaginations. … Iberian Visions offers an incisive political history that documents closely the debates arising from the growing interest in the area. … especially interesting for political historians and thoseseeking information about the ‘legality’ of conquest and colonialism, extending our knowledge of the political backdrop of European imperial rivalries.” (Mercedes Camino, The Journal of Pacific History, Vol. 50 (2), May, 2015)

From the Publisher