Trans-Imperial Networks in the Crisis of the Spanish Monarchy: The Rio de Janeiro-Montevideo Connection, 1778–1805

2016 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-236
Author(s):  
Fabrício Prado
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Spanish Empire ◽  
Spanish American ◽  
General Increase ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Military Conflicts ◽  
Multiple Challenges ◽  
Overseas Territories ◽  
Independence Movements

The late eighteenth century brought deep changes to the Atlantic World. Imperial competition, warfare, revolutions and a general increase in transatlantic commerce changed the balance of power among European empires and their overseas territories. The Spanish empire in particular faced multiple challenges, especially intermittent warfare and economic crises, which many historians regard as having paved the way for the Spanish American independence movements after 1808. Warfare in Europe and in the Atlantic weakened Spain's economy and its control over trade and administration in its American territories. Military conflicts in the 1790s and 1800s disrupted the commercial routes connecting the Peninsula and the colonies, forcing the opening of the colonial economies to foreign agents. Because of the perils faced by Spanish vessels crossing the Atlantic, the Castilian crown allowed colonial merchants to trade directly with foreign neutral nations. Apart from legal commerce, contraband trade also flourished.

Conclusions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn L. Ness
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Spanish America ◽  
Spanish Empire ◽  
Spanish American ◽  
Spanish Society ◽  
French Culture ◽  
Spanish Atlantic ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
The Impact

This chapter concludes Setting the Table and summarizes the argument that individuals on both sides of the Atlantic were participating in developing a Spanish-Atlantic identity that amalgamated Spanish heritage with new ideas and goods from other parts of Europe, Asia, and the Americas. It emphasizes that Spain and Spanish America were closely connected as late as the eighteenth century and that Spanish Americans continued to look to Spain as a model for fashion and culture. The chapter argues that data from the St. Augustine sites suggest that traditional interpretations of status and displays of Spanish identity need to be reevaluated in light of changing fashions in eighteenth-century Spain and the similarities between eighteenth-century Spanish and Spanish-American sites. It also contends that the transition away from traditional stews and the possible adoption of French culinary techniques by middle class Spaniards and elite Spanish Americans calls into question previous hypotheses regarding the impact of French culture on Spanish society after the advent of the Bourbon dynasty in 1700. Lastly, it considers other directions and ways in which this study could benefit those studying other parts of the Spanish empire.

Orientalism, Medievalism, Colonialism, and Militarized Mercantilism

2020 ◽  
pp. 415-429
Author(s):  
Kathleen Davis ◽  
Nadia R. Altschul
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Spanish Empire ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
The World ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
History Of

This chapter investigates the intersections of British medievalism and colonialism in two very different places in the world: early nineteenth-century Chile, as Britain exercised economic domination over parts of the former Spanish Empire (thus it will be termed neocolonial); and late eighteenth-century India, as British officials devised strategies for extracting revenue from Bengal. Despite their many differences, in both cases an area beyond Europe is defined as Moorish and its present is associated with Europe’s past, specifically with the centuries now termed ‘medieval’. In both cases, too, medievalization forwards the economic interests at the basis of this temporal discourse, which is also fully enmeshed in the history of Orientalism. These similarities demonstrate the value of studying the under-examined effects of British medievalism beyond the familiar national frameworks, and, more broadly, underscore the importance of investigating the global dimensions of temporalizing phenomena.

scholarly journals l'Ecorce grossiere, l'ame aristocrate : literary representations of Cajuns in Francophone Louisiana, nineteenth century to present

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Scott Gossett
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Native American ◽  
Spanish American ◽  
Literary Representations ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
The People ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Diverse Cultures ◽  
People Today

Cajuns have traditionally been defined as originating from French Acadian refugees who arrived in Louisiana from present-day Nova Scotia beginning in the late eighteenth century. However many of the people today who identify with the Cajun ethnicity are not descendants of those Acadian settlers. Moreover, this and other modern definitions of 'Cajun' have been solidified fairly recently in the twentieth century and have been formed through a dialogue with Anglo-American stereotypes. These stereotypes restrict the identity and ignore the major influences from a plethora of diverse cultures: French, Spanish, American, Irish, German, African, and Native American. This study provides a Francophone alternative to the English stereotypes that more accurately portrays the complexities of Cajun identity and provides an alternative portrayal with which to enter a dialogue.

Democratizing Abolitionism: Anti-slavery Discourses and Sentiments in August von Kotzebue's Die Negersklaven (1796)

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-45
Author(s):  
Sarah J. Adams
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Denis Diderot ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
German States ◽  
Political Sources ◽  
Mise En Scene ◽  
Peripheral Position ◽  
Histoire Des Deux Indes ◽  
Political Leverage

Despite their peripheral position in the Atlantic slave trade, authors of the late eighteenth-century German states composed a number of dramas that addressed imperialism and slavery. As Sigrid G. Köhler has argued (2018), these authors aimed to exert political leverage by grounding their plays in the international abolitionist debate. This article explores how a body of intellectual texts resonated in August von Kotzebue's bourgeois melodrama Die Negersklaven (1796). In a sentimental preface, he mentions diverse philosophical, historical and political sources that contributed to the dramatic plot and guaranteed his veracity. Looking specifically at the famous Histoire des deux Indes (1770) by Denis Diderot and Guillaume-Thomas F. Raynal, I will examine the ways in which Kotzebue adapted highbrow abolitionist discourses to the stage in order to convery an anti-slavery ideology to the white European middle classes. Kotzebue seems to ground abolitionism in the bourgeois realm by moulding political texts into specific generic templates such as an elaborate mise-en-scène, the separation and reunion of lost lovers, a fraternal conflict, and the representation of suffering victims and a compassionate white hero.

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