Introduction

The primary sources included in this volume are meant to supplement the selection available in our original anthology, The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815: A Reader of Primary Sources, but in preparing this volume, we have not assumed any familiarity on the part of the reader with that publication. If anything, this very introduction may be the best place for the reader to start, since it has been designed to situate the sources provided herein within the field of Spanish Pacific studies, as the editors understand it. It begins by defining what we mean by the Spanish Pacific, and then discusses current scholarship on the topic before outlining the contents of the anthology itself. A generous bibliography of work on the Spanish Pacific published since 2016 has been added to our introduction. We hope these materials will be useful to newcomers and seasoned specialists alike.