Overview

Padrón reveals the evolution of Spain’s imagining of the New World as a space in continuity with Asia. Narratives of Europe’s westward expansion often tell of how the Americas came to be known as a distinct landmass, separate from Asia and uniquely positioned as new ground ripe for transatlantic colonialism. But this geographic vision of the Americas was not shared by all Europeans. While some imperialists imagined North and Central America as undiscovered land, the Spanish pushed to define the New World as part of a larger and eminently flexible geography that they called las Indias, and that by right, belonged to the Crown of Castile and León. Las Indias included all of the New World as well as East and Southeast Asia, although Spain’s understanding of the relationship between the two areas changed as the realities of the Pacific Rim came into sharper focus. At first, the Spanish insisted that North and Central America were an extension of the continent of Asia. Eventually, they came to understand East and Southeast Asia as a transpacific extension of their empire in America called las Indias del poniente, or the Indies of the Setting Sun. The Indies of the Setting Sun charts the Spanish vision of a transpacific imperial expanse, beginning with Balboa’s discovery of the South Sea and ending almost a hundred years later with Spain’s final push for control of the Pacific. Padrón traces a series of attempts—both cartographic and discursive—to map the space from Mexico to Malacca, revealing the geopolitical imaginations at play in the quest for control of the New World and Asia.

Full Product Details

9780226455679

Table of Contents

Reviews

The Indies of the Setting Sun is an original and thoughtful study of the 'invention' and subsequent reinventions of the Pacific Ocean as part of the Spanish empire. Padron brings to this project the same lucid, elegant prose and methodology that characterized his earlier monograph, and again he provides an argument supported by a careful study of sources employing the best historical approaches, closely contextualized reading, and an expansive definition of cartography. This is a much needed intervention, highlighting the importance of Spanish Asia in the history of Spanish imperial expansion. --Maria M. Portuondo, author of The Spanish Disquiet: The Biblical Natural Philosophy of Benito Arias Montano The Indies of the Setting Sun examines the way that Spanish knowledge about the South Sea--now known as the Pacific Ocean--was developed. Challenging the historical idea that Magellan's circumnavigation had established Europeans' understanding of the Americas as divided from Asia by the vast Pacific, Padron reveals an 'alternative European cartography' that persisted across the sixteenth century. In this odd parallel universe, America was merely the forecourt to Asia, and the South Sea was a small basin within the larger Indies, then Spain's overseas empire. This is the first book I've ever read that colors the larger 'Indies' so vividly. --Barbara Mundy, author of The Death of Aztec Tenochtitlan, the Life of Mexico City

The Indies of the Setting Sun examines the way that Spanish knowledge about the South Sea--now known as the Pacific Ocean--was developed. Challenging the historical idea that Magellan's circumnavigation had established Europeans' understanding of the Americas as divided from Asia by the vast Pacific, Padron reveals an 'alternative European cartography' that persisted across the sixteenth century. In this odd parallel universe, America was merely the forecourt to Asia, and the South Sea was a small basin within the larger Indies, then Spain's overseas empire. This is the first book I've ever read that colors the larger 'Indies' so vividly. --Barbara Mundy, author of The Death of Aztec Tenochtitlan, the Life of Mexico City The Indies of the Setting Sun is an original and thoughtful study of the 'invention' and subsequent reinventions of the Pacific Ocean as part of the Spanish empire. Padron brings to this project the same lucid, elegant prose and methodology that characterized his earlier monograph, and again he provides an argument supported by a careful study of sources employing the best historical approaches, closely contextualized reading, and an expansive definition of cartography. This is a much needed intervention, highlighting the importance of Spanish Asia in the history of Spanish imperial expansion. --Maria M. Portuondo, author of The Spanish Disquiet: The Biblical Natural Philosophy of Benito Arias Montano

Author Information

Ricardo Padrón is associate professor of Spanish at the University of Virginia and the author of The Spacious Word: Cartography, Literature, and Empire in Early Modern Spain, also published by the University of Chicago Press.  

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available