Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period Vol. 2 of 2

Watson, Robert Grant, -1892Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.9
Word count
627K words
Chapters
63

Tags

English Originals World History Human GeographyHistorical ReappraisalRise and FallAcademic StudySocial ObservationCross-Cultural View

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period; Vol. 2 of 2Author: Watson, Robert Grant, -1892,Language: English, Class: F2201: Latin America local history: South America. General, Release Date: Jun 6, 2016

Editor's review

This is the second volume of Watson's two-volume history of South America during the colonial period, a public-domain historical work digitized by Project Gutenberg. Its value lies in its combined chronological and regional approach, surveying Spanish and Portuguese colonial rule, administrative structures, trade, and social organization in South America, and offering a fairly systematic English narrative for understanding institutional change in the colonial era. Reading highlights include the author's organization of archives and existing histories; the narrative emphasizes political and institutional developments, making the book suitable as an introductory framework for thematic history or as course supplementary material. Readers should note that this is nineteenth-century historiography carrying the perspectives and judgments of its time, and should read it in comparison with modern research; moreover, as Volume Two continues from the first, reading it alone requires filling in the background oneself.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read Volume One or the introductory chapters first to grasp the timeline and regional divisions before turning to specific chapters
  2. Keep a map of South America at hand and mark viceroyalties, major ports, and mining regions as you read
  3. Take notes on institutional and trade chapters for comparison with modern research
  4. Annotate passages showing clear period bias, distinguishing factual narrative from the author's judgments

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
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  15. 15
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  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
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  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63

FAQ

Can Volume Two be read on its own? Yes, but you will need to fill in the background yourself. Volume Two continues the narrative of Volume One; starting here, it is advisable first to learn the overall timeline of colonial South America and its main viceroyalties, or the antecedents of some institutions and events will be unclear.
What is the historiographical stance of this book? It is nineteenth-century English historical writing, emphasizing political, administrative, and commercial institutions and carrying the perspectives and judgments of its time. Read it as a source-based narrative in comparison with contemporary Latin Americanist scholarship, not as settled fact.
Is it accessible to beginners in Latin American history? It has a certain threshold. The book is dense with facts and names of people and places, and the pace is slow. Beginners may first read a general introduction to build a framework, then use this book to supplement institutional and regional detail for more efficient reading.
What preparation is needed for reading the electronic text? The Gutenberg electronic edition is a public-domain text; use a searchable reader and keep notes on maps and timelines. Verify names of people and places before continuing, to avoid confusion from alternative spellings or old transliterations.

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About the author

Watson, Robert Grant, -1892 Author · British

Watson, Robert Grant, -1892, was a nineteenth-century British diplomat and historian who died in 1892; details of his life are limited in publicly available sources. Two of his works are held in this collection, namely the two volumes of Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period, indicating sustained research into the colonial history of the Iberian powers in the Americas. According to the existing introduction, he also wrote a History of Persia, showing that his scholarly interests ranged from South American colonial history to West Asian history—a typical orientation for a nineteenth-century British diplomat who also wrote history. His writing chiefly surveys political change and regional development during the colonial period, with a largely narrative organization of materials, serving contemporary English readers who wished to learn about overseas colonies. The two-volume work, divided by volume and substantial in length, is his representative achievement in South American colonial history and remains an early English-language reference for understanding the field.