The “Spanish Pacific” designates the geographical space Spain colonized or aspired to rule in Asia between 1521, the year Ferdinand Magellan reached the East by sailing West, and 1815, the year when the yearly galleon that linked Mexico to the Philippines stopped operating. It includes the Philippines and the Marianas – territories ruled by the Spanish Crown – but also parts of China, Japan, and other parts of Asia that Spanish officials and missionaries imagined as extensions of their American colonies. This course introduces the Spanish Pacific through the examination of a varied selection of primary sources written mainly in Spanish.
