Before the Trans-Pacific Partnership: Pacific Coast Ports in the Americas, and Beyond
Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2018
Pacific Ports in the Americas were the key sites where people, goods, and ideas circulated along the Pacific Rim, literally creating the stuff of economic and political capital. Bridging together seascapes and landscapes, these were multicultural hubs where maritime routes, terrestrial roads, and riverine systems intersected. Ports served both indigenous and European powers, often in succession and sometimes in conjunction. Starting from the 16th century and culminating with the establishment of the Manila Galleons, these and newly founded ports were the scene of fierce competition between the Spanish, Portuguese, English, Dutch and others in their race to establish a foothold in the first global economy. Countless African slaves passed through these ports, and in the process changed the cultural fabric of the Pacific Coast. The session brings together case studies which employ terrestrial and underwater archaeology, to historical, cartographic, and art historical research.
Other Keywords
Mexico •
Underwater Archaeology •
Mineralogy •
English Ceramics •
Geochemistry •
Ships •
Pirates •
Technology Transfer •
Shipyard •
Chinese Porcelain
Temporal Keywords
XVI-XIX Century •
16th Century •
Nineteenth Century •
Early Modern Period •
XVIII-XIX century •
500-300BP •
Early Spanish Colonial
Geographic Keywords
North America •
North America (Continent) •
USA (Country) •
Mexico •
United Mexican States (Country) •
Belize (Country) •
Republic of Guatemala (Country) •
Coahuila (State / Territory) •
New Mexico (State / Territory) •
Oklahoma (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-10 of 10)
- Documents (10)
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Archaeozoological studies of the Maritime Archaeology of the Port of Acapulco Project: Taphonomic and taxonomic analysis on faunal remains from San Diego Fort (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The history of the Fort of San Diego in the Port of Acapulco de Juárez as a key defensive building, intended to protect the Asian valuable goods brought by the Manila Galleon, has been barely studied. Recently a garbage dump was located along the external wall of the fortification with an important quantity and variety of materials of remarkable archaeological and historical value. One of the studies that are being carried out is that concerning with the daily life of the population settled in...
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Bound for America：An archaeological investigation to Yuegang (crescent) seaport as a main origin of Galleon cargo (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Yuegang (crescent seaport) was both the most famous and flourishing seaport of China during the late Ming dynasty, and as important as other seaports such as Macao in mainland China, Keelung in Taiwan, Nagasaki in Japan, Borneo in Indonesia, and Siam in Thailand, which connected with the key center of the Manila galleon trade in eastern Asia. Yuegang had not only been the main origin and outbound seaport of galleon cargoes such as Kraak ceramic, silk and tea from China, but also the main inbound...
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The Chinese porcelains from the port of San Blas, Mexico (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The port of San Blas in the Pacific coast of Mexico was designated in 1768 by the viceroy of New Spain as a Spanish navy base. It had a short life span as a port due to its poor planning and changes to the banks of the local river. However, for a few decades it was a busy port rivaling that of Acapulco. From this port, the Californian missions were supplied, Spanish expeditions were dispatched to the Pacific Northwest, and the Spanish forts on the actual territory of British Columbia were...
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The Colors On The Boxer Codex (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Created in early Spanish Manila, the Boxer Codex inherited the codices making tradition from the Americas. The illustrations of the Boxer Codex offer some of the earliest images of people living in the Philippine archipelago and its Asian neighbors during the late sixteenth century. This study focuses on the visuality and materiality of the codex illustrations and aims to investigate the nature of the pigments and dyes used in these images. Scientific analysis was conducted with two non-invasive...
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Defending Acapulco. Weaponry from Fort San Diego as archaeological sources for the Port maritime history (2018)
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The Fort of San Diego, at Acapulco, was built and garrisoned since the early 17th-century, in order to repel pirates or naval forces of enemy countries. After the 1776 earthquake, the fortress was entirely redesigned, rebuilt and fitted, according to criteria then in use. This new structure was besieged by an insurgent army, leaded by Morelos during the Mexican Independence War in 1813. The fort was continuously occupied by military personnel until 20th-century, when it became the local...
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Early Sixteenth-Century Shipbuilding in Mexico: Dimensions and Tonnages of the Vessels Designed for Pacific Ocean Navigation (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Shortly after the conquest of Mexico, Cortes ordered the construction of a second shipyard on the Pacific coast, known as El Carbón. The new shipyard was located in Tehuantepec (Oaxaca) and shipwrights were brought to Mexico to build and repair the ships for the spice trade with the Moluccas Islands, and even China and Japan. The ships built in this shipyard included San Vicente, San Lázaro, and Santa Agueda which were employed in trade with Peru, and the exploration of the Pacific coast of...
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English ceramics in the Mexican Pacific: notes from two port (2018)
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This paper presents the analysis of English earthenware that has been recovered from two of the most important Mexican Pacific ports: Acapulco, in Guerrero, and San Blas, in Nayarit by the Underwater Archaeology Office of INAH Mexico. It also presents a proposal for the distribution and routes of this material in the Pacific Ocean, relating to the information obtained from this project as well as those of other colleagues. The context of this ceramic type in the Americas is intertwined with...
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The Glass of New Spain: Exploring Early Modern Networks through Material Culture (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The arrival of glass in the Americas and its development as a technology in New Spain needs to be understood within the complex global networks that begin to develop during the early modern period as part of trans-oceanic trade. During this time, people, objects, materials, technologies, and ideas traveled around the world like never before. These movements and encounters had a direct impact on craft production as well as in the consumer demands of colonial societies. Understanding material...
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Mineralogical and geochemical characterization of botijas peruleras from the Fort of San Diego, Acapulco (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
One of the challenges in the historical archeology for the Mexican Viceregal Period, is to determinate the provenance and distribution of several goods which were recovered in archaeological excavations in the San Diego fortress, Acapulco, on the Pacific coast of Mexico. These ceramic shipping containers, generally referred in the historical sources as "botijas peruleras", were made for the transatlantic trade between the Iberian Peninsula and the New World since the sixteenth century. At the...
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Pirates of the Pacific: A view from Oaxaca, Mexico (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
In the last half a century since Peter Gerhard published his seminal study titled Pirates of the West Coast of New Spain, 1575-1742, little research has been conducted on the historicity, materiality, and ethnography of these fascinating players in one of the most dynamic periods in Pacific history. We know that pirates engaged with Northern European merchants in systems of "trade." But how did they become so successful with so little infrastructure at sea? Prior to the establishment of Port...