José Araneda Riquelme (Pisa): The Messenger of the Empire. A Social History of Communication in the Southern Frontier of the Spanish Empire (Chile, 17th Century)

This project analyzes the challenges of postal communications of Chile's colonial government within the Spanish Empire during the seventeenth century through its messengers and transatlantic journeys. The circulation of the letter in the colonial empire was important in order to sustain the political dominance of the territory. However, many places, including Chile, did not have an official mail service until the end of the eighteenth century. Therefore, the argument of this ongoing doctoral research seeks to comprehend how this distant and poor colony had diverse communications strategies to send a sealed letter from Santiago de Chile to Madrid and even Rome (1597-1694). Thus, the political role of the messenger, mostly informal, was important in order to keep the empire connected, especially in a context of the mapuche insurrections – Araucanian wars—and different Anglo Dutch expeditions in the Southeast Pacific territories.

• Zeit: 17-19 Uhr c.t.

• Ort: Historicum, Raum K 302