Ruling the colonies: Iberian imperialism in global context

Lecture archives:

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Bartolomé Yun-Casalilla, ‘Early Modern Iberian Empires, Global History and the History of Early Globalization’, Journal of Global History 17, no. 3 (2022): 539–61.
Charlene Villaseñor Black, ‘The Iridescent Enconchado’, in Iberian Empires and the Roots of Globalization, ed. Ivonne Del Valle, Anna More, and Rachel Sarah O’Toole (Vanderbilt University Press, 2020). pp 262-292.
Primary source: Enconchados of the Museo de AméricaLink opens in a new window

In what ways can early modern Iberian empires be considered “global”?
Why do you think scholars tended to separate the history of Latin America from global histories?
What can be gained from exploring Latin American history from a global standpoint?

Look at the enconchados below and contrast with the article by Villasenor-Black.

Primary source: Enconchados of the Museo de América, Galería de las Colecciones Reales, Madrid. https://www.galeriadelascoleccionesreales.es/en/guest-artwork/enconchados-of-museo-de-america/c8cb5d32-ff7b-82f5-6753-7d2b88bef9c6

Activity questions:

What elements (material AND symbolic) do enconchados have?
How did the production of goods like enconchados articulate with the institutions of Iberian empires in the Americas?
In what ways can enconchados be considered global?

On Iberian globalisation and global history

Matthew Brown, ‘The Global History of Latin America’, Journal of Global History 10, no. 3 (2015): 365–86.
Joan Bristol, ‘A Trail of Precious Goods: Colonial Latin American Commodity History’, History Compass 11, no. 11 (2013): 948–56.
Allison Margaret Bigelow, ‘Imperial Projecting in Virginia and Venezuela: Copper, Colonialism, and the Printing of Possibility’, Early American Studies 16, no. 1 (2018): 91–123.
Sanjay Subrahmanyam, ‘Holding the World in Balance: The Connected Histories of the Iberian Overseas Empires, 1500–1640’, The American Historical Review 112, no. 5 (2007): 1359–85.
Ivonne Del Valle, Anna More, and Rachel Sarah O’Toole, eds, Iberian Empires and the Roots of Globalization (Vanderbilt University Press, 2020).
Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, ‘Introduction’, in Entangled Empires: The Anglo-Iberian Atlantic 1500-1830, ed. Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018).

On the structures of colonial administration in the Americas

Pilar Ponce Leiva and Alexander Ponsen, ‘Administration and Government of the Iberian Empires’, in The Iberian World (Routledge, 2019).
Giuseppe Marcocci, ‘Iberian EXPLORATIONS: The Construction of Global Empires (1450–1650)’, in The Iberian World (Routledge, 2019).
Fernando Bouza, Pedro Cardim, and Antonio Feros, eds, The Iberian World: 1450–1820 (Routledge, 2019).
Regina Grafe and Maria Alejandra Irigoin, ‘The Spanish Empire and Its Legacy: Fiscal Redistribution and Political Conflict in Colonial and Post-Colonial Spanish America’, Journal of Global History 1, no. 2 (2006): 241–67.
John Lynch, ‘The Institutional Framework of Colonial Spanish America’, Journal of Latin American Studies 24, no. S1 (1992): 69–81.
Bruno Romero Ferreira Miranda and Mariana Albuquerque Dantas, ‘A Government of Indigenous Peoples: Administration, Land, and Work in the State of Brazil during the Portuguese Empire (1548-1822)’, E-Journal of Portuguese History 19, no. 2 (2021): 24–50.
Stuart B. Schwartz, ‘Indian Labor and New World Plantations: European Demands and Indian Responses in Northeastern Brazil’, in Plantation Societies in the Era of European Expansion (Routledge, 1997).
Lane, Kris “Africans and Natives in the Mines of Latin America,” in Matthew Restall (ed.), Beyond Black and Red: African-Native Relations in Colonial Latin America (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005)

On enconchados and using material culture to study colonialism in Latin America

Ilona Katzew, ‘Recentering the Globe: The Lure of Shells and Enconchado Furnishings in Spanish America’, The Art Bulletin 107, no. 1 (2025): 9–41.
Barbara E. Mundy and Dana Leibsohn, ‘History from Things: Indigenous Objects and Colonial Latin America’, World History Connected 9, no. 2 (2012).
Anne Gerritsen, ‘Global Material Culture in Early Modern and Modern Europe’, in Globalizing Europe: A History, ed. David Motadel (Cambridge University Press, 2025).
Bartolomé Yun-Casalilla, ‘The Spanish Empire, Globalization, and Cross-Cultural Consumption in a World Context, c. 1400-c. 1750’, in Global Goods and the Spanish Empire, 1492–1824 (Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2014).

Primary Sources for additional reading:

Guaman, Poma de Ayala, Felipe. The First New Chronicle and Good Government : On the History of the World and the Incas up To 1615, University of Texas Press, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/warw/detail.action?docID=3443464.
Restall, Matthew, Lisa Sousa, and Kevin Terraciano, editors. Mesoamerican Voices: Native Language Writings from Colonial Mexico, Yucatan, and Guatemala Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
“Government and Church in the Spanish Indies”, in ed. Benjamin Keen, Latin American Civilization: History and Society, 1492 to the Present, Westview Press (Boulder, 1996), 6th edition, pp. 103-112
Pizzigoni, Caterina and Townsend, Camilla. Indigenous Life After the Conquest: The De la Cruz Family Papers of Colonial Mexico, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, 2021.(E-Book in the Library)