Sancti Spiritus (1526-1529), an Ephemeral but Diagnostic Spanish Fort

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Colonial Forts in Comparative, Global, and Contemporary Perspective", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The arrival of the first European settlers in the Southern Cone of America was followed by a settlement policy with marked military characteristics. The forts located along the waterways were the strategic enclaves from which the conquest of the La Plata Basin was developed. These forts were also the constructive axes of further European settlements built on the other side of the Atlantic. In this paper, we will analyze the main features of Sancti Spiritus fort in order to contribute to a comparative characterization of the colonial forts along the globe. On the one hand, we will analyze the construction techniques and spatial arrangement of the fort. On the other hand, we will characterize their relation with natives and its memory up to the present. Such an approach, will contribute understanding the material strategies of the European colonizers in the face of the different local realities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Colonial Forts in Comparative, Global, and Contemporary Perspective   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow