The Share of Spain in the History of the Pacific Ocean (Classic Reprint) - Tapa blanda

Excerpt from The Share of Spain in the History of the Pacific Ocean

Of course the term Pacific Ocean, as it appears in the title of my address, must not be interpreted strictly as an allusion to the history of the Spanish sea expeditions to this part of the world. In the true geographical sense the Pacific includes all lands of the continents bordering upon it and receiving from it some of its conditions of life. Both elements are inseparable. To speak of the work of Spain in the Pacific does not mean, in my judgment.

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Excerpt from The Share of Spain in the History of the Pacific Ocean

This point agreed, it may be observed that the history of Spain in the Pacific contains not only everything substantial in our work of colonization, but in quantity and even quality the greater part of it. One may say that here in this portion of the Pacific is the spot where the Spanish people, especially in the sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries, and also in California in the eighteenth, applied the maximum of their energies and afforded the greatest proofs of their service in the civilization of the world. It is curi ous that it should have been so, but it was not merely a casual or arbitrary occurrence. For some reason the action of the Span iards on the American continents took place above all on the shores of this ocean, that is to say on the coast remote from Europe and not in the Atlantic just Opposite to them. Consideration of the reasons connected with this fact, those at least visible to us, is a primary point worthy of the attention of the true historian who does not detain himself over minute details of erudition.

That this is true was due at first to the initial enterprise that resulted in the discovery of America the westward passage to the Indies. The barrier of new lands encountered on the way, with all its attractiveness in wealth, actual and dreamed about, and in the zest, so human then and now, for domination, could not check the ultimate desire. One must go onward toward the West, fulfil the thought of Columbus, arrive at the real Indies. Thence came the efforts to find a passage through, by the northwest, by the centre, by the south, the enter prise of Balboa, the projects for a canal, the multiple voyages of Spanish sailors across the seas from the time of Magellan and Elcano onward.

The direction taken by Columbus in his first journey also brought the Spaniards to the Pacific. Had the course been shifted somewhat to the northward, they, rather than the English, would perhaps have colonized Virginia and New England at a consider able distance from the Pacific. Had it inclined more to the south ward, the great continental point of the Guianas and Brazil, to the Spaniards would have been entrusted a task of another sort.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.