Spanish Colonialism

Written by Geoffrey A. P. Groesbeck  San Javier (originally San Francisco Xavier de los Piñocas), the earliest permanent Jesuit mission in the Chiquitania, was founded by the missionaries José de Arce and Antonio de Rivas on 31 December 1691. It was rebuilt three times (in 1696, 1698, and 1705-6) before assuming its present form in 1708. Today it is a ...

Written by Geoffrey A P Groesbeck Introduction There is much still to discover regarding the early history of the Jesuit missions (reducciones1) of Chiquitos2 (1691-1767). By now it has been reasonably well documented3, albeit in greater detail in Spanish and German than in English. Over the last three decades, scholarly research on these missions’ individual and collective artistic, musical, and ...

Written by Geoffrey A P Groesbeck Introduction It is a simple fact that no comprehensive history of the Jesuit missions of Chiquitos1 exists in English.2 There are numerous accounts in Spanish, most of which rely primarily upon two secondary sources dating from the nineteenth century: D’Orbigny’s recollections of his travels in the region between 1831 and 18333, and René-Moreno’s numerous ...

On the occasion of the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of Ferdinando Magellano’s first trip around the world. A new book about the Spice Islands has just been published by the Spanish publishing house Desperta-Ferro, specialized in Spanish military history. It is a large format book (384 pages, 189 x 246 mm), and includes old maps. I had the honor ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. On this page I want to write about an interesting book that has just been published. The book tells the story of the spice islands and focuses on the fortifications that Europeans built on these islands to control their trade. The story narrated in Simon Pratt’s book begins with the first contacts with Europeans and reaches ...

Written by Randy Shaw. General Luis José de Orbegoso y Moncada, scion of an aristocratic criollo family from Trujillo, in northern Peru, was Provisional President of the country between 1833 and 1834, and was named in 1837-1838 President of the short-lived Republic of North Peru, set up by the Peru-Bolivia Confederacy after the invasion of the country by Bolivian strongman ...

Written by Randy Shaw Several years ago General Jose Ramon Pizarro who was many times over the great grandson of the Spanish Chronicler and Conquistador Pedro Pizarro passed away in Lima Peru his widow contacted a mutual friend to discuss an item that had descended down through the family of Pedro Pizarro. So on my next trip to Lima my ...

Written by Simon Pratt Forts of the Banda Islands The Banda Islands, reached via Ambon, contain some of the most historic and evocative forts of the old Dutch East Indies. Most impressive is Dutch-built Fort Belgica (constructed 1611) towering over the tiny township of Bandaneira. Following refurbishment in the 1990’s it remains the best preserved of all forts scattered across ...

Written by Dietrich Köster German-Micronesia – also called “Island Territory” of German New Guinea – is the far-flung island world north of the equator in the Western Central Pacific and was up to 1914/1920 the northern part of German New Guinea, supplemented by the island of Nauru, lying just south of the equator. The land area is only slightly more ...

Written by Marco Ramerini If you know something on colonial remains or if you have photos of such remains – they may be anywhere in the world -, send them to me. I’ll be happy to publish them on this website. Thank you. Marco. My e-mail is on the home page. SPANISH COLONIAL REMAINS AFRICA CANARY ISLANDS CEUTA, MELILLA EQUATORIAL ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. SPANISH EMPIRE GENERAL: – Lannoy, Charles de and van der Linden, Herman. “Histoire de l’expansion coloniale des peuples européens. Portugal et Espagne (jusuq’au début du XIXe siècle)” ? VI-[2]-451 pp. 4 maps Henry Lamertin, 1907, Bruxelles, Belgium. AFRICA: – Banciella, J. César, “Rutas del Imperio. Fernando Poo y Guinea” ? Victoriano ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Geoffrey A. P. Groesbeck The islands formerly known as the Moluccas – the Spice Islands – are five islands of volcanic origin (Ternate, Tidore, Moti, Makian, and Bacan). They are found off of the west coast of the island of Halmahera, in the Indonesian archipelago. These islands were the only ones in ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. English translation of a small part of my work entitled “La presenza Spagnola alle Isole Molucche, 1606-1663”. In the propositions of the governor of the Philippines, Don Juan de Silva, a big joint expedition of Spaniards and Portuguese should succeed in getting rid of the Dutch forces present in Indonesian ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. Photos by Geoffrey A. P. Groesbeck  Santa Ana de Velasco is a small village in the department of Santa Cruz  in the Amazonian plains of Bolivia near the border with Brazil. The village lies at an altitude of 464 metres and at about 40 km south-east of San Ignacio de Velasco. The mission of Santa Ana de Velasco is one of the last ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. Photos by Geoffrey A. P. Groesbeck  San Javier is a small town in the department of Beni in the Amazonian plains of the State of Bolivia. The city lies at an altitude of 537 metres between the Rio Paquius and the Río San Julián. The town of Concepcion is located 60 km north-east, while the city of Santa ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. Photos by Geoffrey A. P. Groesbeck  This mission is located in the town of  San Rafael de Velasco which is located in Eastern Bolivia, about 40 km east of the city of San Miguel de Velasco and approximately 470 km north-east of the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The city lies at an altitude of 408 meters in the ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. Photos by Geoffrey A. P. Groesbeck  This mission is located in the town of  San Miguel de Velasco which is located in Eastern Bolivia, about 30 km south of the city of San Ignacio de Velasco. The city lies at an altitude of 485 meters in the region of Chiquitanía, an unspoilt area of Bolivia between the cities of Santa ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. Photos by Geoffrey A. P. Groesbeck  This mission is located in the town of San Ignacio de Velasco which is located in Eastern Bolivia, about 480 kilometers north-east of the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra on a hill near the headwaters of the river Paragua. The town is located at a height of 410 meters on the banks ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. Photos by Geoffrey A. P. Groesbeck  This mission is located in the town of Concepción which is located in Eastern Bolivia, about 280 km north-east of the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The mission of Concepción was founded in 1699 by the Jesuits Fr. Francisco Lucas Caballero and Fr. Francisco Herbás. A few years after its foundation, ...

Evanescence and Permanence: Toward an Accurate Understanding of the Legacy of the Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos. Written by Geoffrey A. P. Groesbeck – Part 2: How Many Jesuit Missions Were Founded? Who Constructed the Mission Churches? Another often-repeated error is that the first permanent (not provisional) churches of the mission complexes, or conjuntos misionales, of the Jesuit missions in the ...