Overview

This second collection of primary sources in English translation ranges across a gamut of places and moments in the early modern Spanish Pacific. It may be used in conjunction with Volume 1 or on its own.

While its focus continues to be on the encounters and entanglements that arose in the Spanish Pacific, it more strongly emphasizes the challenges faced by secular and ecclesiastical authorities in their attempts to control a distant colony and reshape its culture, from the complex forms of identity formation in the diverse world of the colonial Philippines to the complexities of inter-imperial rivalry in East and Southeast Asia as a whole.

As with Volume 1, each document is introduced by a specialist in the field and includes a list of suggestions for further reading. An introductory essay surveys current work in the field of early modern Spanish Pacific studies and provides a lengthy bibliography.