Abstract
Exploration, Religion and Empire in the Sixteenth-Century Ibero-Atlantic World seeks to reappraise the role of the early modern Spanish Empire in the history of science. Mauricio Nieto Olarte intends to demonstrate that the Copernican Revolution and other more celebrated milestones of the seventeenth and eighteen centuries did not emerge in a historical vacuum, but rather built on the new intellectual and epistemological foundations laid by southern and Catholic Europe, and their overseas offshoots.
By analysing two sets of primary sources – namely, seamanship manuals and chronicles (natural and moral histories) – Nieto Olarte argues that early modern Iberia was an essential preliminary stage of ‘modernity’ insofar as it introduced two pillars of modern scientific knowledge: empiricism and the mathematization of the natural world. According to the book, after 1492, the first-hand experience of qualified witnesses became the main way to learn more about the climate, astronomy, geology, botany and the fauna of extra-European regions. Moreover, data obtained by means of calibrated instruments and expressed with increasing frequency in standardized units of measurement could be considered valid irrespective of the locations where, and circumstances in which, it was gathered.
A second central argument of the book involves the relationship between knowledge and power. The author sides with the social scientists who have been arguing for decades that the production of knowledge works as a form of ‘domestication’ of nature, and that knowledge is inextricably linked to the creation of an apparatus of control and coercion. The impetus for the search for new knowledge was that of finding solutions to very concrete problems of imperial governance, such as the implementation of efficient communications and transportation systems linking Spain to its American possessions, which required the mastery of shipbuilding, sailing, cartography, astronomical observation and logistics. The same could be said about the need to map out the dimensions, topography, population and natural resources of the West Indies, which, as Chapter 6 argues, was a precondition of empire-building. The book emphasizes the Crown's efforts to promote and systematize a deeper understanding of nature in the Atlantic and the New World. Individuals were appointed by the king to conduct in situ studies and write textbooks, and, in the decades following Columbus’s voyages, government agencies were created that were dedicated to teaching, reviewing new findings and controlling flows of information. The role of political administrative institutions in knowledge production and transfer is revealed by the in-depth analysis of ocean-going ships in Chapter 4. They are aptly described as microcosms of empire in the sense that all the technical and logistical challenges of running a pluricontinental empire were encapsulated in the naos and galleons of the Carrera de Indias. But, obviously, the Crown did not monopolize the technical and scientific enterprise that was empire-building. As with every other aspect of colonial rule, the applicable knowledge and technology necessary to operate a transatlantic sea route was the result of a nexus of social practices, devices, credit and goods, know-how and expertise, legal enforcement, and military and financial resources.
The explicit reference to religion in the title of the book serves as a reminder that the new epistemological vistas opened by the Renaissance and overseas expansion, while introducing many material and intellectual novelties, did not fundamentally change society's relationship with God and, in the case of Iberia, adherence to the doctrine of the Catholic Church. Conversely, the new discoveries lent themselves well to the mental frameworks of most sixteenth-century Iberians, which were shaped by Catholicism and the reverence shown to the classical texts of Greek and Roman antiquity and medieval scholastics. During the 1500s, religiosity and devotion to God did not preclude the desire to know more about the world and understand better the seas and territories with which the Portuguese and Spaniards were coming into contact for the first time and tried to rule. On the other hand, notwithstanding the fact that classical authors continued to be held in high regard in universities and court circles, their treatises were now open to scrutiny and revision. A consensus was reached that the frameworks of the old masters were often out of step with the first-hand experience of sailors, explorers, settlers, missionaries and Crown officials, which now carried more weight.
The book's introduction and seven chapters do a very good job of presenting the theoretical framework, explaining the structures of Spanish administration, and offering an in-depth analysis of myriad texts, instruments of observation, maps and ships. The final chapter works as a conclusion, where, in addition to reprising the main ideas presented in the introduction, the author seeks to bridge the gap between Iberia's naval and colonial knowledge and the Copernican Revolution. He attempts to do so by resorting to some anecdotal, but nonetheless suggestive, evidence of continuities between the intellectual world and the modes of representation of sixteenth-century Spain and England. The issues of circulation, audience and reception, particularly outside the domains of Habsburg Spain, are alluded to but inevitably receive much less coverage, since Nieto Olarte primarily focuses on intra-imperial contexts of production and systematization. A good companion piece to this book would be a re-examination of the channels through which knowledge produced within the framework of 1500s Iberia circulated and was taken on board by institutions and agents located outside the Hispanic monarchy. By complementing these two approaches, the thought-provoking new perspectives proposed by Exploration, Religion and Empire could become (even) more convincing.
Overall, this is a very informative and well-written book that invites a wider, primarily anglophone, audience to become better acquainted with the history of proto-scientific knowledge in the Iberian world. It will also be of interest to maritime historians who wish to learn more about the intellectual underpinnings and knowledge-production contexts of Europe's interoceanic shipping.