Where is the Caribbean?
In
An Aqueous Territory: Sailor Geographies and New Granada's Transimperial Greater Caribbean World (
Duke University Press, 2017)
Ernesto Bassi makes the case for a transimperial space shaped by ships' journeys and sailors' imaginings. Defiance of exclusive trading restrictions and aspirations to create revolutionary alliances were instrumental, as were pragmatic commercial decisions and naming practices of emerging nations. 18th and 19th century actors produced a Caribbean space in this context, and then, in some places, engaged in deliberate forgetting. This book combines meticulous research with an innovative conceptual framework and wonderfully detailed glimpses into this period.