Veracruz and the Caribbean in the Seventeenth Century
Embargo until
2019-12-01
Date
2016-10-18
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Publisher
Johns Hopkins University
Abstract
This dissertation examines the relationship between the Mexican port city of Veracruz and Caribbean in the seventeenth century. Drawing evidence from archival research conducted primarily in Mexico and Spain, I argue that Veracruz was part of a coherent urban system in the early modern Caribbean. Its first chapter uses early chronicles and conquest narratives, archived correspondence of Veracruz’s town council (cabildo), hospital records, and traveler accounts to examine Veracruz’s environmental struggles from the city’s foundation in 1519 until the end of the seventeenth century. Chapter Two builds on a database of import and export tax duties assessed in the ports of Veracruz and Havana to argue that Veracruz was part of a discrete regional trading network that followed patterns that were independent of the transatlantic silver fleet. The third chapter reassesses Veracruz’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, showing that the African captives who arrived in the city were a larger and more diverse group than previous studies have acknowledged. A particular contribution is the use of previously unused Mexican archival sources for the transatlantic slave trade. Chapter Four evaluates the ethnic and religious acculturation of African and free-black communities in Veracruz using the lens of a religious borderland. The final chapter examines how Veracruz’s role in colonial defenses changed over the course of the seventeenth century. In particular, I cite the formalization of the free-black militia to argue that Veracruz was integrated into a military-strategic system in the Spanish Caribbean that evoked explicit invocations of regional consciousness. By applying an alternate regional lens in Veracruz, this dissertation demonstrates how understandings of early Mexican history are enhanced by more thorough consideration of New Spain’s maritime borderlands.
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Keywords
Veracruz, Caribbean, Mexico, Colonial, Port Cities, Urban History, African Diaspora, Slavery, Afro-Mexico, Afro-Mexicans, Atlantic World, Trade, Environment, Ethnicity, Imperial Competition