ABSTRACT
During the colonial period in Spanish America, missionaries brought new ideas about religion, viceroys brought new concepts of political governance and merchants brought ships that carried away raw materials and returned laden with new products. The British and Spanish imperial worlds continued to be interlaced in other ways through the late colonial period, even when metropolitan officials sought to tighten control over colonial possessions. This chapter divides Alexander Alexander's life into three periods: a first Atlantic journey to Curaç ao followed by a second intended but aborted Atlantic journey to Quebec; then an imperial journey in the service of the British Army in Ceylon, England, and Ireland; and a third and final Atlantic journey to the Caribbean and Spanish America. Alexander's aborted Atlantic journey to Quebec was followed by the second stage of his imperial career, extending roughly from 1802 to 1815, which took place within the explicitly imperial context of British Army postings, in England, Ireland, and in Asia.
