Geopolitics and Geopolitical Imagination
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Published:January 2017
Maritime Indians, Cosmopolitan Indians
This chapter studies the connections that allowed Cunas and Wayuu to develop a lifestyle or worldview that can be called a cosmopolitan, Greater Caribbean way of being in the world. It also emphasizes how the interactions associated with cosmopolitanism put these indigenous groups on an equal footing with European allies and rivals and allowed them to successfully sustain their challenge to Spanish authorities. By emphasizing indigenous mobility, multilingualism, technological capacity, and political autonomy, the chapter challenges cartographic fictions of territorial control embedded in European-drawn maps of the Caribbean and sheds light on European perceptions of indigenous peoples. In short, this chapter argues that the Cunas and the Wayuu, like the people Ira Berlin and Jane Landers called Atlantic creoles, were cosmopolitan in the fullest of senses. The chapter is organized in three sections. The first one looks at the geographic spaces inhabited by Cunas and Wayuu. Drawing on Spanish maps prepared as part of military campaigns that sought to conquer maritime Indians, this section uses Spanish cartographic narratives to tell the story of maritime Indians’ political autonomy and Spanish veiled recognition of that autonomy. The second section analyzes the traits that made maritime Indians cosmopolitan and the ways in which cosmopolitanism allowed them to successfully assert their political independence in the face of constant Spanish attempts to conquer them. The last section contrasts the ways in which maritime Indians envisioned themselves as actors in the transimperial Greater Caribbean with how Spanish authorities saw them.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
All archives are cited using abbreviations. The name of the archive (e.g., AGNC or AGI) is usually followed by the name of a division within that archive (e.g., SC or Santa Fe). The next level corresponds to specific series within divisions (e.g., Aduanas, Milicias y Marina, or Gobierno). The numbers after a division or series correspond to specific legajos, boxes, volumes, or folders.
AGNC: Archivo General de la Nación, Bogotá
AA-I: ARCHIVO ANEXO, GRUPO I
Aduanas, 8, 16, 22, 33, 34, 41, 44, 47, 51
Gobierno, 13
Guerra y Marina, 44, 48, 61, 118, 130
Historia, 3
Fondo XI, vol. 19
Libros de Manuscritos y Leyes Originales, 34, 50
Aduanas, 2, 5, 17, 21, 22
Milicias y Marina, 80, 81, 82, 112, 115
Negocios Exteriores, 2
Virreyes, 16
AGI: Archivo General de Indias, Seville
Estado, 12, 52, 53, 57, 60, 61
MP-Panamá, 182, 184Bis, 202Bis, 262
Santa Fe, 640, 641, 645, 651, 653, 655, 952, 954, 955, 956, 957, 959, 960, 1015, 1019, 1091, 1095, 1149
AGS: Archivo General de Simancas, Valladolid, Spain
SGU: Secretaría de Guerra, 6945, 6949, 7072, 7242
TNA: The National Archives, London
CO: Colonial Office, 142/22–29, 137/142, 137/143
BT: Board of Trade, 5–4
Banco de la República, Actividad Cultural, Biografías, http://www.banrepcultural.org/blaavirtual/biografias/a
Banco de la República, Cartografía Histórica, http://www.banrepcultural.org/blaavirtual/cartografia
Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, Ministerio de Cultura, Mapoteca Digital, http://www.bibliotecanacional.gov.co/content/mapas-de–Colombia
David Rumsey Map Collection, http://www.davidrumsey.com
Razón Cartográfica, http://razoncartografica.com/mapoteca/
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, http://www.slavevoyages.org/assessment/estimates
Turning South before Swinging East
This chapter brings together the geopolitical visions of Jamaican planters and merchants, British loyalists defeated in the American Revolution, and a sector of New Granada’s colonial authorities to argue that, in the aftermath of the American Revolution, their disparate interests converged around the idea of keeping the British Empire Atlantic centered. Through a study of their economic and political schemes, the chapter inserts northern South America into a growing literature that is reconsidering fundamental aspects of long-standing narratives of British imperial history, in particular the so-called swing to the east and the characterization of British relations with Latin America as constituting what has been called an “informal empire.” The analysis is divided into five sections. The first summarizes the literature on the British Empire’s swing to the east and the establishment of British informal empire in Latin America. The second presents the proposals of Jamaican planters and merchants to overcome the economic crisis produced by the American Revolution. The third turns to the analysis of alleged and real threats of British invasion of Caribbean New Granada. The fourth examines the promotion of cotton cultivation as a way to stimulate economic development in northern New Granada. And the concluding section ties all the interests together to assess the degree of success of all designs and plans to keep the British Empire Atlantic centered.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
All archives are cited using abbreviations. The name of the archive (e.g., AGNC or AGI) is usually followed by the name of a division within that archive (e.g., SC or Santa Fe). The next level corresponds to specific series within divisions (e.g., Aduanas, Milicias y Marina, or Gobierno). The numbers after a division or series correspond to specific legajos, boxes, volumes, or folders.
AGNC: Archivo General de la Nación, Bogotá
AA-I: ARCHIVO ANEXO, GRUPO I
Aduanas, 8, 16, 22, 33, 34, 41, 44, 47, 51
Gobierno, 13
Guerra y Marina, 44, 48, 61, 118, 130
Historia, 3
Fondo XI, vol. 19
Libros de Manuscritos y Leyes Originales, 34, 50
Aduanas, 2, 5, 17, 21, 22
Milicias y Marina, 80, 81, 82, 112, 115
Negocios Exteriores, 2
Virreyes, 16
AGI: Archivo General de Indias, Seville
Estado, 12, 52, 53, 57, 60, 61
MP-Panamá, 182, 184Bis, 202Bis, 262
Santa Fe, 640, 641, 645, 651, 653, 655, 952, 954, 955, 956, 957, 959, 960, 1015, 1019, 1091, 1095, 1149
AGS: Archivo General de Simancas, Valladolid, Spain
SGU: Secretaría de Guerra, 6945, 6949, 7072, 7242
TNA: The National Archives, London
CO: Colonial Office, 142/22–29, 137/142, 137/143
BT: Board of Trade, 5–4