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Accepted Paper:
"Iberi Imperii finis limes et orbis erit". China, Spain and the Ocean through the propagandistic and cartographic representations (XVI-XVII centuries)
Diego Sola
(University of Barcelona)
Paper short abstract:
This paper will analyze how the Monarchy of Spain represented the Sea of China and its imperial confines after the establishment of the Castilians in the Philippines through the cartography as well as the ethnographical, political and missionary literature in the service of the king.
Paper long abstract:
The Spanish Monarchy of the second half of the Sixteenth century was a real laboratory of knowledge about the Chinese Empire and its seas. During the reign of Philip II the Castilians were established in the Philippines and the union of the Spanish and Portuguese crowns began, with its various domains in Asia: the frontier of Philip's Iberian empire was adjoining to the borders of the «Gran Reino» of China.
It is in this favorable context for the generation of news, accounts and cultural products that the Monarchy was projected as an emergent power in the Pacific Ocean and on the borders of the Chinese Empire. Ethnographic works, maps and treatises were elaborated trying to record useful information on the sea, the islands and the continent, while at the same time wanted to glorify the Iberian presence in Asia.
As we shall try to explain, some of these representations served the cause of a messianic imperialism that represented the king as lord of the oceans, sent from God, able to dominate the oldest of civilizations, China, through its Christianization.