2023/01/01 by Elizabeth Montañez-Sanabria · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Colonialism, slavery, and trade #Historical Studies on Spain #Latin American history and culture
paper · doi:10.1007/978-981-19-8417-4_4
openalex publication_date 2023/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/01/20
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, pirates and privateers sought to forge alliances with local populations in strategic borderlands of the Spanish American Empire. This was the case in Darien, in the Isthmus of Panama, where English and French pirates allied with Cuna Indians, and in southern Chile, where Dutch privateers established coalitions with Huilliche Indians. In doing so, European enemies of Spain not only tried to undermine Iberian power but also challenged Spanish sovereignty in these territories. By examining these alliances between pirates and local populations, this article seeks to understand the nature of the borderlands of the Spanish Empire defined as an “empire of archipelagoes.” Despite early modern cartographic representations, portraying Spanish American overseas possessions under Iberian control, the Spanish Empire was composed of (polycentric) enclaves across the Americas as several regions, which, though technically part of the empire, remained outside of Spanish control.