Introduction

The introduction sets the parameters for the upcoming volume. It surveys the existing literature on the Iberian presence in the Pacific Ocean and identifies the gaps the book intends to fill. Most prominently, the introduction surveys both English- and Spanish-speaking scholarship, thus recognizing the differences between these two bodies of scholarship and suggesting avenues of fruitful intersection that the volume investigates. Most importantly, the volume indicates opportunities to unite the insights from Anglo and Iberian writers with Pacific scholarship. Lastly, the book seeks to sidestep the inherent bias of merging the Spanish Pacific with the rest of the Iberian colonies, obliterating any possibility of understanding the Spanish colonial period from a Pacific perspective.