Free Lecture

Thursday, 3/11/2010

7:00 pm
Visitor Center Auditorium
Free. Open to the public.

Topic: Spanish Colonial Harbors of the Caribbean Basin
Presented by Claude Alix
For Spain, the discovery, exploration and colonization of the Americas lead her to exert a tight control over the Caribbean Basin. To do so, a comprehensive infrastructure of military coastal strongholds has to be devised and built from scratch. There, the galleons will find protection and victuals. There, merchants will trade goods of all kinds. There, the administrative authorities will plan for expansion and levy taxes to finance the operations! Period documents (sea charts, country maps, fortified harbor plans, etc.) show evidences and clues. In an epic journey, Cartography joins History, to make alive again this formidable colonial adventure.