A basic bibliography on the history of Ibero-America and the Spanish Caribbean in the colonial period

No. 2021-01

This bibliography offers a comprehensive list of relevant literature about the history of Ibero-America and the Spanish Antilles during the colonial era (late 15th to early 19th century). The main focus is on secondary literature, published mainly in Spanish, Portuguese and English but also in French, Italian and German. We have organised the material along a tripartite structure. The first part introduces key reference works: research aids, journals, manuals and digital resources. The second part presents Ibero-American history in a regional perspective. By far the most extensive sections can be found in the third, chronological part. Framed by a pre-Columbian chapter and a ‘post-colonial’ one, the historiography of colonial Ibero-America is divided into general histories, literature on specific regions and on central issues (e.g. conquests, law, religion, knowledge, art, demography, ethnicity, gender, economy, slavery, Atlantic history). Our intent to treat Hispanic and Portuguese America together as equally important to Ibero-American history is reflected in the systematic sections; pertinent studies on the Hispanic Caribbean have been included. The bibliography is ‘basic’ in the double sense of fundamental and elementary. If, in addition, experts find useful references for their research, and colleagues who teach the subject are provided with a stimulating tool, the bibliography will have served its purpose well as a subsiduum et instrumentum ibero-americanum.

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