The Global History Podcast

Welcome to the 19th episode of the Global History Podcast. Today, we’d like to welcome Charles Walker, Professor of History and former Director of the Hemispheric Institute on the Americas at the University of California, Davis. He held the MacArthur Foundation Endowed Chair in International Human Rights from 2015 to 2020. Professor Walker has published widely on Latin American social, cultural, and intellectual history, with a focus on the Andean region.

He is the co-editor of The Lima Reader (Duke University Press, 2017) and co-editor and co-translator of In Search of an Inca: Identity and Utopia in the Andes (Cambridge University Press, 2010). He is the author of The Tupac Amaru Rebellion (Harvard University Press, 2014), Diálogos con el Perú: Ensayos de Historia (Fondo Editorial del Pedagógico San Marcos, 2009), Shaky Colonialism: The 1746 Earthquake-Tsunami in Lima Peru and its Long Aftermath (Duke University Press, 2008), and Smoldering Ashes: Cuzco and the Creation of Republican Peru, 1780-1840 (Duke University Press, 1999). The book under discussion today, Witness to the Age of Revolution: The Odyssey of Juan Bautista Tupac Amaru, was published in 2020 by Oxford University Press. A part of Oxford University Press’s ‘Graphic History Series’, the book combines historical commentary by Walker with illustrations by Liz Clarke. The book is the winner of an Association of American Publishers 2021 Prose Award in the category nonfiction graphic novels. Witness to the Age of Revolution is now available in Spanish translation under the title, La Odisea De Juan Bautista Túpac Amaru. Un Testigo De La Era De Las Revoluciones.

In September of 2020, I spoke with Professor Walker about his new book. We spoke about Juan Bautista Tupac Amaru, the half-brother of the famous Andean revolutionary Tupac Amaru II, and how his life and experiences provide a valuable lens through which to view the Tupac Amaru Rebellion and the Global Age of Revolutions in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Listen on to find out more.

If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments about this episode, or would like to pitch us an idea for a new episode, feel free to email us at [email protected], or send us a message on our website’s contact form, facebook, twitter, or instagram. If you would like to consult further resources on global history, feel free to visit our Further Resources page.

IMAGE 1: “Don Juan Tupacamaro” (fourth from top) registered as living on San Simón in 1818. The cross indicates that he had confessed and taken communion in Lent. Archivo Parroquial de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios. Padrones Parroquiales. Año 1818, Ceuta. Caption Credit: Charles Walker.

IMAGE 2: “Juan Tupamaro” signature from undated testimony about domestic abuse that he witnessed. The signature indicates his literacy. The document gives his age as thirty-eight, impossible as he reached Ceuta in his forties. Archivo General de Ceuta, fondo Carlos Posac Mon, legajo 30, fotocopia de documento manuscrito de procedencia desconocida. Caption Credit: Charles Walker.

IMAGE 3: 1819, “Don Juan Tupacamaro” and “Friar Marcos Martel” (4th and 5th from bottom right) registered as living together on San Simón, 1819. Archivo Parroquial de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios. Padrones Parroquiales. Año 1819, Ceuta. Caption Credit: Charles Walker.

IMAGE 4 and Cover Image: Illustration by Luis Macaya, in Pedro Blomberg, “Las cadenas del Inca” (The Inca’s Chains), La Nación (Buenos Aires), March 23, 1930. Caption Credit: Charles Walker.

IMAGE 5: Plaque Honoring Juan Bautista Tupac Amaru, Cuzco Municipality, 1973. Caption Credit: Charles Walker.

IMAGE 6: Cover, Witness to the Age of Revolution. Copyright Oxford University Press.

The Global History Podcast is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://theglobalhistorypodcast.com/

Welcome to the 18th episode of the Global History Podcast. Today, we’d like to welcome Rachel Kaufman, a rising second-year graduate student in the Department of History at UCLA.

In her own words, Rachel “works on Latin American and Jewish history. Her current research focuses on crypto-Jewish memory practices in New Mexico and Mexico from the late 15th century to the 20th century.” She is the author of the article, ‘Translating History’, published in Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice (2020). Her Yale senior essay, ‘Whispered Tradition: New Mexico Crypto-Jewish Memory, Origins to 2007’, was published in The Yale Historical Review (Spring, 2019). She is a contributing editor at the Journal for the History of Ideas Blog, where she has contributed pieces about her work.

Her poetry has appeared in multiple publications, including but not limited to poets.org, JuxtaProse, The Raw Art Review, Carve Magazine, Levee Magazine, and Good Works Review. She spent the year before she started graduate school in New Mexico, researching and writing her first poetry collection, based on the archival history and collective memory of New Mexican crypto-Judaism and the Mexican Inquisition. The completed work, entitled Many to Remember, was published by Dos Madres Press this past year. A selection of Rachel’s published poetry can also be found on her website: rachel-kaufman.com.

In September of 2020, before both of us started our PhD program in History at UCLA, I spoke with Rachel over skype about her work on crypto-Judaism in the New World, the complexities of memory practices, and the importance of poetry in translating the emotions and materiality of the historical archive. Listen on to find out more.

If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments about this episode, or would like to pitch us an idea for a new episode, feel free to email us at [email protected], or send us a message on our website’s contact form, facebook, twitter, or instagram. If you would like to consult further resources on global history, feel free to visit our Further Resources page.

COVER IMAGE: Page from the Mexican Inquisition trial record of Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva, Gobernador del Nuevo Reino de León, 1589. Image courtesy of The American Jewish Historical Society, and kindly provided by Rachel Kaufman.

The Global History Podcast is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://theglobalhistorypodcast.com/

Click on the images below to open the gallery and view them full size.

Welcome to the seventeenth episode of the Global History Podcast.

Today, we’d like to welcome back to the podcast Sujit Sivasundaram, Professor of World History at the University of Cambridge, Fellow and College Lecturer in History at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, and Director of the Cambridge Centre of South Asian Studies.

Professor Sivasundaram teaches and publishes widely on world history in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, especially the history of the Pacific and Indian Oceans and their islands, the history of race, global histories of science, and the history of the British Empire, c. 1780-1840.

His previous works include Nature and the Godly Empire: Science and Evangelical Mission in the Pacific, 1795-1850 (Cambridge University Press, 2005), Islanded: Britain, Sri Lanka and the Bounds of an Indian Ocean Colony (University of Chicago Press, 2013), and most recently, Waves Across the South: A New History of Revolution and Empire (William Collins, 2020).

This February, Chase spoke with Professor Sivasundaram over skype about his new book, Waves Across the South, discussing the age of revolutions in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Listen on to find out more. 

If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments about this episode, or would like to pitch us an idea for a new episode, feel free to email us at [email protected], or send us a message on our website’s contact form, facebook, twitter, or instagram. If you would like to consult further resources on global history, feel free to visit our Further Resources page.

IMAGE 1: Carte plate qui comprend l’Isle de Ceylan, et une partie des Côtes de Malabar et de Cormandel, engraved by De La Haye for Jean-Baptiste d’Après de Mannevillette’s Neptune Oriental (Paris; Brest, 1775). 27 in (68.5 cm) x 20 in (50.8 cm). Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons.

IMAGE 2: Buginese Nautical Chart [Boeginese zeekaart van de Indische Archipel] (Kaart: VIII.C.a.2  external link); Anoniem, 1816. Utrecht University Library Special Collections.

IMAGE 3: William Hodges, ‘Tahitian War Canoes’, in A COLLECTION Of large Drawings in Indian ink, made by Wm. Hodges, during the second voyage of Capt. Cook, in 1772-1774, viz., Fayal; -Tonga Tabu or New Amsterdam;-Mallicolo;-Resolution Harbour, in St. Christina, one of the Marquesas;-Savage Island;- Sandwich Island;-Alietea;-War Canoes of Otaheite ;-Otaheite; New Caledonia. Created: 1774, Tahiti. Format: Drawing. Creator: William Hodges. Description: “William Hodges made these drawings of Tahitian war canoes during James Cook’s second voyage. One shows a fleet drawn up on shore at Pare, home of Tahitian chief Tu. Although ostensibly preparing for an expedition against the neighbouring island of Mo‘orea, the display was probably also intended to impress the British, and to help to form an alliance.” Shelfmark: Add MS 15743 f.8. Held by © British Library. Public Domain.

IMAGE 4: ‘Indigenous Australians in bark canoes, drawing by Tupaia’. Published: 1770. Format: Drawing. Creator: Tupaia. Description: “Tupaia’s drawing shows two canoes, in one of which a man is using a three-pronged spear to catch a fish. Banks described how, as the Endeavour entered Botany Bay, he observed ‘four small canoes’ under the southern headland: ‘In each of these was one man who held in his hand a long pole with which he struck fish, venturing with his little imbarkation almost into the surf. These people seem’d to be totaly engag’d in what they were about: the ship passd within a quarter of a mile of them and yet they scarce lifted their eyes from their employment.’” Shelfmark: MS 15508 f. 10. Held by © British Library. Public Domain.

IMAGE 5: Tupaia, ‘Longhouse and Canoes in Tahiti’, in Drawings, in Indian ink, illustrative of Capt. Cook’s first voyage, 1768 -1770, chiefly relating to Otaheite and New Zealand, by A. Buchan, John F. Miller, and others. Large Folio. Bequeathed by Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. Created: 1769. Format: Pen and Indian Ink, Watercolour, View. Creator: Tupaia. Description: “Tupa’ia, a navigator and priest from Raiatea, assisted Captain James Cook on his first voyage to the South Pacific (1769–71). The drawing shows a traditional longhouse in Tahiti situated on a beach fertile with different types of trees and plants (pandanus, breadfruit, banana, coconut and taro can all be identified). In the foreground three canoes are being navigated by local men. The double-sailed vessel on the left is a sailing canoe and the other two boats are used for war. The bow and stern of each war canoe is decorated with a wooden ‘tiki’ sculpture (a carved image of a god or ancestor). Warriors armed with spears stand on platforms raised from the sterns of both vessels ready for battle.” Shelfmark: Add MS 15508. Held by © British Library.

IMAGE 6 and COVER IMAGE: Augustus Earle, ‘Portrait of Bungaree, a native of New South Wales’ c. 1826. Place made: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Materials & Technique: painting, oil on canvas. Dimensions: 68.5 h x 50.5 w cm framed (overall) 815 h x 640 w x 70 d mm. Accession number: NGA TEMP.319. National Gallery of Australia.

IMAGE 7: ‘Cora Gooseberry, Widow of King Bungaree, Brocken Bay Tribe.’ From the collections of the State Library of New South Wales [a1114024 / SAFE/PXA 615, 34] published by J.G. Austin & Co. No. 12 Bridge Street, Sydney as W.H. Fernyhough’s “A series of twelve profile portraits of Aborigines of New South Wales”, Sydney 1836. Caption and Images from Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

IMAGE 8: Portrait of Tipu Sultan. Plate 1, ‘Picturesque Scenery in the Kingdom of Mysore’, James Hunter © British Library (Item Number 30001). Downloaded from National Museums Scotland.

The Global History Podcast is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://theglobalhistorypodcast.com/

Click on the images below to open the gallery and view them full-size. Thank you to Dr. Stephen Whiteman for providing the images.

Welcome to the sixteenth episode of the Global History Podcast.

Today we’d like to welcome Dr. Stephen Whiteman, Senior Lecturer in Art and Architecture of China and Head of the Research Degrees Programme at the Courtauld Institute of Art. In his own words, Dr. Whiteman’s “research and teaching focuses on the visual and spatial cultures of early modern China in their global contexts. His current work looks at connected histories of landscape and space in the Qing Dynasty as expressed through gardens, visual culture, and cultural memory.” 

He is the author of Where Dragon Veins Meet: The Kangxi Emperor and His Estate at Rehe (Washington University Press, 2020) and Thirty-Six Views: The Kangxi Emperor’s Mountain Estate in Poetry and Prints (Dumbarton Oaks/Harvard University Press, 2016), with Richard E. Strassberg.

In July of 2020, Jeffery and I spoke with Dr. Whiteman over skype about his new book, Where Dragon Veins Meet, discussing topics including landscape and space in the Qing estate at Rehe and its global connections. Listen on to find out more.

If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments about this episode, or would like to pitch us an idea for a new episode, feel free to email us at [email protected], or send us a message on our website’s contact form, facebook, twitter, or instagram. If you would like to consult further resources on global history, feel free to visit our Further Resources page.

IMAGE 1: Anonymous, Kangxi Reading, ca. 1699–1704. Hanging scroll, ink and colors on silk, 137 x 106 cm. The Palace Museum, Gu6411.

IMAGE 2: Shen Yu, et al., “A Lingzhi Path on an Embankment to the Clouds,” Imperial Poems on the Mountain Estate to Escape the Heat,Scene 2, 1713. Woodblock print. Chinese Collection, Harvard-Yenching Library, © President and Fellows of Harvard College.

IMAGE 3: Waterway connecting Lower and Mirror Lakes, Bishu shanzhuang, Chengde, Hebei province. Photograph by Stephen H. Whiteman.

IMAGE 4: “Map of a Complete Survey of Imperial Territories.” Originally prepared as 41 individual sheets, this illustration visualizes the atlas digitally knitted together. Courtesy of QingMaps.org.

IMAGE 5 and COVER IMAGE: Leng Mei, View of Rehe, 1709? Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, 254.8 x 172.5 cm. The Palace Museum, Gu8210.

IMAGE 6: Wang Hui, et al., Kangxi’s Southern Inspection Tour, Scroll Seven: Wuxi to Suzhou, 1698. Detail of a handscroll, ink and color silk, 67.7 x 2220 cm. Mactaggart Art Collection, University of Alberta Museums, Gift of Sandy and Cécile Mactaggart, 2004.19.75.1.

IMAGE 7: Anonymous, Fuling, 18th c. Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk. Collection of the First Historical Archives of China, Yu1809.

IMAGE 8: Attr. Matteo Ripa, “Morning Mist by the Western Ridge,” Imperial Poems on the Mountain Estate to Escape the Heat, Scene 11, 1713. Copperplate engraving. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C.

IMAGE 9: Wang Yuanqi, et al., Magnificent Record of Longevity, j. 42, f. 59, 1717. Woodblock print. Chinese Collection, Harvard-Yenching Library, © President and Fellows of Harvard College.

IMAGE 10: Stages of development at the Mountain Estate to Escape the Heat under the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors. Map: Daniel P. Huffman, based on the Bishu shanzhuang Historical GIS.

IMAGE 11: Visualization of possible water routes during the Kangxi period. Map: Daniel P. Huffman, based on the Bishu shanzhuang Historical GIS.

The Global History Podcast is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://theglobalhistorypodcast.com/

Click on the images below to open the gallery and view them full-size.

Welcome to the fifteenth episode of the Global History Podcast, which is also the next installment in our series, ‘Global Histories of Health, Medicine, and Disease in the Early Modern World’. 

Today we’d like to welcome Janet Gyatso, Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies and Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs at Harvard Divinity School. In her own words, Professor Gyatso “is a specialist in Buddhist studies with [a] concentration on Tibetan and South Asian cultural and intellectual history.” She is the editor of In the Mirror of Memory: Reflections on Mindfulness and Remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism (SUNY Press, 1992) and Women in Tibet: Past and Present (Columbia University Press, 2006), and she is the author of Apparitions of the Self: The Secret Autobiographies of a Tibetan Visionary (Princeton University Press, 1998), and Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern Tibet (Columbia University Press, 2015).

This past June, Chase spoke with Professor Gyatso over skype about her book Being Human in a Buddhist World, discussing topics including the entanglement of Buddhism and medicine in early modern Tibet, the cross-cultural influences of diverse medical traditions on Tibetan medicine, and the importance of adopting a non-Eurocentric perspective when studying ways of knowing, debating, and gathering information about the human body and the natural world. Listen on to find out more.

If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments about this episode, or would like to pitch us an idea for a new episode, feel free to email us at [email protected], or send us a message on our website’s contact form, facebook, twitter, or instagram. If you would like to consult further resources on global history, feel free to visit our ‘Further Resources‘ page.

IMAGE 1: ‘The Medicine Buddha Bhaisajyaguru holding the myrobalan fruit and alms bowl.’ Origin Location: Central Tibet. Date Range 1400 – 1499. Size: 19 x 18 cm (7.48 x 7.09 in). Material: Ground Mineral Pigment, Fine Gold Line on Cotton. Collection Publication: Hugo Kreijger, Tibetan Painting: The Jucker Collection (2001). Downloaded from Himalayan Art Resources, Item No. 89118. © 2020 Himalayan Art Resources Inc. Photographed Image Copyright © 2004 Publication: Tibetan Painting, The Jucker Collection.

IMAGE 2: ‘Bhaisajyaguru (the Medicine Buddha) and Padmasambhava (below, centre). Distemper painting by a Tibetan painter’. Description: “The Medicine Buddha, Bhaishajyaguru, with his right hand in the earth-touching position. His left hand, in a meditation gesture, holds a lapis lazuli bowl containing three pieces of myrobalan fruit (a species of plum), considered to have medicinal properties. To his right a miniature form of the deity, Green Tara, is depicted in a roundel. Below is Padmasambhava, who formally introduced Buddhism from India to Tibet. His two female consorts, Mandarava and Yeshe Tsogyal, flank him on either side. The Medicine Buddha sutras emphasise the value of visualising the Medicine Buddha and chanting the appropriate text, to promote the healing of body, speech and mind. Thangka 10.” Physical Description: ‘1 painting : distemper on sized linen mounted on brocade ; distemper 60 x 44 cm’. Wellcome Library no. 47081i. Genre/Technique: Tankas (Tibetan scrolls); Distemper painting. System No. .b14655317. Downloaded from the Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

IMAGE 3: ‘The medicine Buddha (Bhaiṣajyaguru) and Tsongkhapa (1357-1419). Distemper painting by a Tibetan painter’. Description: “In the centre of the painting is the Medicine Buddha (Bhaiṣajyaguru). His body colour can be blue, white or yellow: here it is yellow, and his hands and feet are adorned with henna. His hair is blue, his top knot is surmounted by a yellow crest jewel, his halo is green and his body nimbus is dark blue like lapis lazuli and traversed with golden rays. His right hand forms the meditation gesture and his left hand he holds a blue bowl containing a myrobalan plant with three pieces of fruit growing from it. His embroidered robe is red and yellow. His legs are in full lotus posture. Showing that the art of medicine depends on learning, he is surmounted by the smaller figure of Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), the founder of the Gelugpa (dGe lugs pa) school of Tibetan Buddhism which stresses the aspect of scholarship. This order is recognisable by its yellow hats. His right hand forms the preaching gesture while his left hand holds a white bowl resting on a white scarf. In the bowl is a butter lamp. … Beneath the Medicine Buddha, the Wheel of the Law can be seen which symbolises the teaching of the Buddha. …” Physical Description: ‘1 painting : distemper on linen ; distemper 69 x 40 cm’. Wellcome Library no. 47100i. Genre/Technique: Tankas (Tibetan scrolls); Distemper painting. System No. b14655500. Downloaded from the  Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

IMAGE 4: Detail, ‘Top Three Registers: Medicine Buddhas & Early Rishis’, from ‘Blue Beryl Medical Compositions (charts) commissioned by the 3rd Desi Sanggye Gyatso (1653-1705)’. Date Range: 1700 – 1799. Collection: Private. Description: ‘The overall image above is created by layering fifteen strips of register found at the top of the first fifteen Blue Beryl compositions. …. The first topic, Medicine Buddha and the Medicine Buddha Sutras, are a religious teaching and group of several texts. Initially it is using the idea of a Medicine Buddha and healing as a metaphor for suffering as sickness and healing with correct methods as the Dharma teachings of Buddhism. It was only in Tibet in the 11th and 12th century that Medicine Buddha and the Medicine Buddha Sutras began to be directly linked to medicine and the new concept of Tibetan Medicine. The linking of Medicine Buddha and Tibetan Medicine can be found in the Four Medical Tantras and in the later Yutog Nyingtig. Both of these texts are classifies as ‘terma’ Revealed Treasure teachings of the Nyingma Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. … The top register begins with the 5th Dalai Lama followed by the Eight Medicine Buddhas, and the five activity emanations of the Medicine Buddha. Those are followed by four Indian deities which include Indra and Prithi Devi, twelve Indian rishis and six further Indian gods including Brahma, Mahadeva, Vishnu, Kumara, Ganesha and Ramana. The gods and rishis are also repeated in the depiction of the Medicine Buddh[a] Realm. They surround the central figure and each has a name inscription.’ Downloaded from Himalayan Art Resources, Item No. 35810. © 2020 Himalayan Art Resources Inc. Images Provided Courtesy of Private Collections.

IMAGE 5: Tree from the Blue Beryl Medical paintings. Origin Location: Tibet. Lineages: Buddhist. Collection: Margot and Tom Pritzker. No date provided by the Himalayan Art Resources website. Description by Jeff Watt: ‘The set of Blue Beryl Medical paintings, designed by Desi Sanggye Gyatso, contain three different compositions depicting trees. The three paintings serve as the contents, outline, and map for the entire contents and artistic depictions of the medical treatise. It is interesting to note how the different artists over the past 300 years have made subtle changes and differences in the depiction without altering the overall meaning.’ Downloaded from Himalayan Art Resources, Item No. 58330. © 2020 Himalayan Art Resources Inc. Photographed Image Copyright © 2014 Margot and Tom Pritzker.

IMAGE 6: Tree from the Blue Beryl Medical paintings. Origin Location: Tibet. Date Range: 1800 – 1899. Lineages: Gelug and Buddhist. Material: Ground Mineral Pigment on Cotton. Collection: Private. Description by Jeff Watt: ‘The set of Blue Beryl Medical paintings, designed by Desi Sanggye Gyatso, contain three different compositions depicting trees. The three paintings serve as the contents, outline, and map for the entire contents and artistic depictions of the medical treatise. It is interesting to note how the different artists over the past 300 years have made subtle changes and differences in the depiction without altering the overall meaning.’ Downloaded from Himalayan Art Resources, Item No. 18304. © 2020 Himalayan Art Resources Inc. Images Provided Courtesy of Private Collections.

IMAGE 7: ‘The Interconnecting Blood Vessels: Back View (Thangka 10) [Three Tibetan anatomical figures. Watercolour, 1904]’. Description: ‘The Interconnecting Blood Vessels: Back View. Medicine Thangka 10. Watercolour on linen, 1904. Three Tibetan anatomical figures. Three human bodies showing different organs. Separate figures show the vertebral column, the solar plexus, and the system of channels connected with the five senses and with consciousness. Along the top, twelve great teachers of medicine. Assumed to be one of the four copies of a painting shown to L.A. Waddell at the Chagpori medical college in Lhasa in 1904. The painting is one in a set of eighty commissioned by Sangye Gyamtso (Regent of the fifth Dalai Lama) in 1687 and completed by 1703, as part of his treatise “The blue beryl”, a commentary on the Four tantras (Rgyud bzhi) of the Medicine Buddha (Bhaisajyaguru).’ Physical Description: ‘1 painting : watercolour, with black ink on white linen ; image 78.8 x 64 cm’. System No. .b15749149. Downloaded from the Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

IMAGE 8: ‘Blue Beryl chapter 50’. Origin Location: Tibet. Date Range: 1700 – 1799. Lineages: Buddhist. Material: Ground Mineral Pigment on Cotton. Collection: Rubin Museum of Art. Downloaded from Himalayan Art Resources, Item No. 81838. © 2020 Himalayan Art Resources Inc. Photographed Image Copyright © 2004 Rubin Museum of Art.

IMAGE 9: ‘Anatomical chart. Tibetan (?) showing two male figures.’ No date provided by the Wellcome Collection. Downloaded from the Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

IMAGE 10: ‘Anatomical chart. Tibetan (?) showing back of one figure’. No date provided by the Wellcome Collection. Downloaded from the Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

IMAGE 11: ‘Medical Chart from the Blue Beryl painting set, #35, Chapter 23-28. Prophylactics, Diagnostics & Therapeutic Principles.’ Origin Location: Tibet. Date Range 1800 – 1899. Lineages: Gelug and Buddhist. Material: Ground Mineral Pigment on Cotton. Collection: Yale University Art Gallery. Catalogue # 2003.74.1. Downloaded from Himalayan Art Resources, Item No. 58881. © 2020 Himalayan Art Resources Inc. Photographed Image Copyright © 2010 Yale University Art Gallery.

IMAGE 12: Detail from ‘Medical Chart from the Blue Beryl painting set, #35, Chapter 23-28. Prophylactics, Diagnostics & Therapeutic Principles.’ Origin Location: Tibet. Date Range 1800 – 1899. Lineages: Gelug and Buddhist. Material: Ground Mineral Pigment on Cotton. Collection: Yale University Art Gallery. Catalogue # 2003.74.1. Downloaded from Himalayan Art Resources, Item No. 58881. © 2020 Himalayan Art Resources Inc. Photographed Image Copyright © 2010 Yale University Art Gallery.

IMAGE 13: ‘Or Tibetan 114 – Bloodletting chart, Tibet’. Description: ‘Chart indicating good and bad bloodletting days and when to guard against demons. The chart also contains a sme ba, 9 figures symbolising the elements in geomancy, in the centre with the Chinese pa-kua, 8 trigrams, surrounded by 12 animals representing months and years. Below this, symbols of the 7 days of the week. 106 compartments containing an ornamental letter in each and written in dbu indicate bloodletting days. The protector deities, top, are Manjursri, the White Tara and Vajrapani, below them the 8 fortune signs and other symbols.’ Downloaded from the Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

IMAGE 14: Part of ‘A Selection of Substances used for the Production of Medicine based on the Teaching of the four (medical) Tantras’. No date provided by the Wellcome Collection. Description: ‘Illustrations of Tibetan materia medica, plant and animal, used in the production of medicine. Title: ‘A Selection of Substances used for the Production of Medicine based on the Teaching of the four (medical) Tantras’ This anonymous manuscript is written in the ‘Trungpa’ (‘khrungs dpe) genre of Tibetan medical literature. Entitled, ‘Sman bla’i dgongs rgyan rgud bzhi’i nang gi ‘khrungs dpe re zhig’, it deals with various material medica, plant and animal, used in the production of medicine. The book comprises unbound sheets of thick (perhaps Russian?) paper held together by two boards and wrapped in a piece of cloth. The medical illustrations are finished in colour. The manuscript is very rare and obviously very expensive. Its owner made a significant effort to obtain illustrations for every medicine mentioned, including plants, stones and animals. There are several suggestions about the origin of the manuscript. It might well be a copy from Sangye Gyatso’s ‘tankas’, possibly written by a painter or doctor who travelled from Mongolia to Lhasa. It could have been transcribed in Tibet and subsequently sold to Mongolia. There is a similarity between the images of material medica in this manuscript and those found in the 19th century Tibetan xylographs of medical works, like the ‘Mdzes mtshar mig rgyan’, which circulated in the territory of Mongolia in the nineteenth century.’ Downloaded from the Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

IMAGE 15: Part of ‘A Selection of Substances used for the Production of Medicine based on the Teaching of the four (medical) Tantras’. No date provided by the Wellcome Collection. Downloaded from the Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

IMAGE 16: Part of ‘A Selection of Substances used for the Production of Medicine based on the Teaching of the four (medical) Tantras’. No date provided by the Wellcome Collection. Downloaded from the Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

IMAGE 17: Enduring medical knowledges and artistic traditions in modern Tibetan society. Romio Shrestha, ‘Tangka, Materia Medica IV: Herbal Medications’. Collection: Asian Ethnographic Collection, Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History. Catalog No: 70.3/ 5489. Culture: Tibetan. Country: China. Material: Canvas, Pigment, Gilt [Ground Mineral Pigment on Cotton]. Dimensions: Height: 75 cm. Width: 56.8 cm. Technique: Painted. Subject: Medical Tangka, Materia Medica IV: Herbal Medications. Acquisition Year: 1998 [gift]. Donor: Emily Fisher. Artist: Romio Shrestha. Exhibition History: ‘Body and Spirit: Tibetan Medical Paintings. Amnh, New York, Ny. January 2011 – July 2011’. Exhibition Label: ‘High Altitude Medicinal Plants. Although much of Tibet lies at very high altitudes and consists of sparse grasslands, the region contains forests and semi-deserts as well. These produce thousands of different plant species, many used in traditional Tibetan medicine. This painting shows some of that variety, including grasses and funguses as well as sedum, a succulent. Blue Gentian: According to the humoral classifications of Tibetan medicine, gentian is used to treat an excess of bile or wind. Its taste is bitter and its nature is cooling. Many varieties of gentian, like this Tibetan blue gentian, grow at high altitudes around the world. (4th row, 1st image)’. Downloaded from Himalayan Art Resources, Item No. 94106. © 2020 Himalayan Art Resources Inc. Photographed Image Copyright © 2009 American Museum of Natural History.

IMAGE 18: Detail from Romio Shrestha, ‘Tangka, Materia Medica IV: Herbal Medications’. Collection: Asian Ethnographic Collection, Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History. Catalog No: 70.3/ 5489. Downloaded from Himalayan Art Resources, Item No. 94106. © 2020 Himalayan Art Resources Inc. Photographed Image Copyright © 2009 American Museum of Natural History.

The Global History Podcast is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://theglobalhistorypodcast.com/

Click on the images below to open the gallery and view them full-size.

Welcome to the fourteenth episode of the Global History Podcast. Today, we’d like to welcome Craig Lambert and Steven Mentz.

Craig Lambert is Associate Professor in Maritime History at the University of Southampton. In his own words, Dr. Lambert’s ‘primary research focus is on maritime history, especially the study of maritime communities, merchant shipping, and naval logistics c.1300-c.1600’. He is the author, co-author, and co-editor of several academic works on these subjects, including Agincourt in Context: War on Land and Sea (Routledge, 2018), Military Communities in Late Medieval England: Essays in Honour of Andrew Ayton (Boydell & Brewer, 2018), and Shipping the Medieval Military: English Maritime Logistics in the Fourteenth Century (Boydell & Brewer, 2011).

Steven Mentz is Professor of English at St. John’s University in New York City. In his own words, Professor Mentz’s research focuses on ‘Shakespeare, 16th and 17th-century English literature, environmental humanities, ecocriticism, [and] oceanic culture’. He is the author of several academic books on these subjects, including Ocean (Bloomsbury, 2020), Break Up the Anthropocene (University of Minnesota Press, 2019), and Shipwreck Modernity: Ecologies of Globalization, 1550 – 1719 (University of Minnesota Press, 2015), and the editor or co-editor of Oceanic New York (Punctum Books, 2015), The Age of Thomas Nashe: Text, Bodies and Trespasses of Authorship in Early Modern England (Routledge, 2014) and Rogues and Early Modern English Culture (University of Michigan Press, 2004).

Along with Claire Jowitt, Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of East Anglia, these two scholars are also co-editors of a new edited volume, The Routledge Companion to Marine and Maritime Worlds, 1400-1800, published this year. About three weeks ago, Chase spoke with Craig Lambert and Steven Mentz over skype about this new volume, discussing topics including how the book situates itself in scholarship on the late medieval and early modern oceans, the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in writing about the sea, and the significance of the period 1400-1800 in the history of maritime worlds. Listen on to find out more.

If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments about this episode, or would like to pitch us an idea for a new episode, feel free to email us at [email protected], or send us a message on our website’s contact form, facebook, twitter, or instagram. If you would like to consult further resources on global history, feel free to visit our ‘Further Resources‘ page.

IMAGE 1: In what ways does this new volume challenge ‘chauvinism’ and narratives of ‘European mastery’ of the oceans? Portrait, ‘An aged Vasco da Gama, as Viceroy of India and Count of Vidigueira’, from the c. 1565 compendium, Livro de Lisuarte de Abreu. Pierpont Morgan Library, M.525, downloaded from Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

IMAGE 2: What role does the idea of ‘heroism’ play in maritime history? Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, Portrait, ‘Sir Francis Drake wearing the Drake Jewel or Drake Pendant at his waist’, 1591. Height: 116.9 cm (46 in); Width: 91.4 cm (35.9 in). Medium: oil on canvas. Accession Number: BHC2662. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Caird Collection, downloaded from Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

IMAGE 3: How can scholars use cartography to write global maritime histories? Describing the West-India Navigation, from Hudson’s Bay to the River Amazones… (London: Mount and Davidson, 1794), Book 4, 1794 edition. Dimensions: Object Height: 48 cm; Object Width: 81 cm. Scale: 1: 5,700,000. List Number: 12434.067. Pub List Number: 12434.000. Image Number: 12434067.jp2. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. © 2000 by Cartography Associates. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

IMAGE 4: In what ways does cartography reveal the ways in which the sea was a space of cultural encounter? Northern Indian Ocean, in Atlas nautique du Monde, dit atlas Miller, 1519, fol. 3r. Notice n° : FRBNF40887480. Description from the World Digital Library: “The map presented here is from the Miller Atlas in the collections of the National Library of France. Produced for King Manuel I of Portugal in 1519 by cartographers Pedro Reinel, his son Jorge Reinel, and Lopo Homem and miniaturist António de Holanda, the atlas contains eight maps on six loose sheets, painted on both sides. The maps were richly decorated and illuminated by António de Holanda, a Dutch native who had been in Portugal for nearly ten years. … For other parts of the world about which Europeans still had limited knowledge, geographic details are drawn from the cartographer’s imagination or informed by views that originated with Ptolemy. One side of the map (folio 3 recto of the atlas) shows the Northern Indian Ocean with Arabia and India. The equator is shown; other features include the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Persian Gulf, Ganges Delta, and the Nicobar Islands. … Both sides of the map have ornamental gold leaf, red banners with gold lettering for place-names, heraldic shields and flags, and vessels flying either the Portuguese Cross of the Order of Christ or the Ottoman crescent…” Bibliothèque nationale de France, downloaded from the World Digital Library.

IMAGE 5: What can sources like poetry and plays tell us about how early modern people conceived of their relationship with the seas? Title page, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, from the 1623 ‘First Folio’. The Internet Shakespeare Editions, downloaded from Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

IMAGE 6: Early modern port cities like London were important centers of global trade. ‘Bird’s eye view of the City of London from Hampstead to St. Dunstan in the East’, 1600. Engraving. After John Norden. Downloaded from Barrie Cook, ‘Historical city travel guide: London, late 16th century’, 10 July 2020, The British Museum Blog.

IMAGE 7: Manila offers a good example of a port city in Asia where individuals from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds mingled. Detail of the city of Manila from the ‘Carta hydrographica y chorographica de las Yslas Filipinas : dedicada al Rey Nuestro Señor por el Mariscal d. Campo D. Fernando Valdes Tamon Cavallo del Orden de Santiago de Govor. Y Capn’. Contributors: Pedro Murillo Velarde and Nicolás de la Cruz Bagay. Manila, 1734. Description: “Relief shown pictorially. Shows names of coastal towns and historical sailing routes. In lower portion of map: Le esculpio Nicolas de la Cruz Bagay … 1734. Includes text, descriptive notes, ancillary maps of Guam, cities of Manila, Cavite, and Zamboanga, and illustrations depicting episodes from the daily life of different peoples on the islands.” Call Number/Physical Location: G8060 1734 .M8. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, Washington, D.C.

IMAGE 8: Lisbon was an important early modern port city. View of Lisbon, in Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg, Civitates orbis terrarum (Cologne, 1572), vol. I. Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

IMAGE 9: What would it have felt like for a Dutch sailor to arrive in the port city of Malacca in the Malay Peninsula in the seventeenth century? ‘De stad Malacca: Dutch Ships in Malacca Harbor’, in Wouter Schouten, Oost-Indische Voyagie, Tome III (1676), p. 376. Etching, copper plate. Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

IMAGE 10: Potatoes were an important plant which crossed the Atlantic from the New World in the early modern period, as part of the ‘Columbian Exchange’. John Gerard, The Herball, or, Generall historie of plantes (London: Imprinted by John Norton, 1597). Description: “There had been an earlier written description (but with no illustration) of the plant in Gaspard Bauhin’s Phytopinax of 1596. The Dibner Library of the Smithsonian Libraries has this first edition. The Biodiversity Heritage Library has digitized the copy in the Peter H. Raven Library, Missouri Botanical Garden”. Downloaded from Julia Blakely, ‘Celebrate the Potato’, 12 September 2016, Smithsonian Libraries Blog: Unbound.

IMAGE 11: To what extent were early modern states able to exercise authority over the seas? Anonymous English School, ‘English ships and the Spanish Armada’, 16th century. Medium: oil on poplar panel. Dimensions: Frame: 1380 mm x 1700 mm x 110 mm; Painting: 1120 mm x 1435 mm. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, downloaded from Wikimedia Commons. Artwork: Public Domain. Descriptive Information: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0 license.

IMAGE 12: In what ways were ships important spaces of encounter, violence, and knowledge-making in the early modern world? ‘Illustration of the carrack Peter Pomegranate, also known as the Peter‘, ca. 1546, from the ‘Anthony Roll’ as reproduced in C. S. Knighton and D. M. Loades (eds), The Anthony Roll of Henry VIII’s Navy: Pepys Library 2991 and British Library Additional MS 22047 With Related Documents (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2000), p. 42. Photograph: ‘Own scan. Photo by Gerry Bye. Original by Anthony Anthony.’ Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

IMAGE 13: To what extent was the early modern sea characterized by violence? ‘[An anonymous] 16th century Portuguese illustration depicting the Nautaques – fishermen who inhabited the shores of eastern Persia and around the mouth of the Indus and frequently attacked tradeships, including Portuguese ones. The inscription reads: “Noutaques are thieves who go robbing over the sea.”‘ Album di disegni, illustranti usi e costumi dei popoli d’Asia e d’Africa con brevi dichiarazioni in lingua portoghese, ca. 1540. Biblioteca Casanatense, Rome. Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons.

IMAGE 14: What are the challenges and opportunities of reconstructing indigenous peoples’ perspectives of the sea and of European engagement with their cultures? Tupaia, ‘Longhouse and Canoes in Tahiti’, in Drawings, in Indian ink, illustrative of Capt. Cook’s first voyage, 1768 -1770, chiefly relating to Otaheite and New Zealand, by A. Buchan, John F. Miller, and others. Large Folio. Bequeathed by Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. Created: 1769. Format: Pen and Indian Ink, Watercolour, View. Creator: Tupaia. Description: “Tupa’ia, a navigator and priest from Raiatea, assisted Captain James Cook on his first voyage to the South Pacific (1769–71). The drawing shows a traditional longhouse in Tahiti situated on a beach fertile with different types of trees and plants (pandanus, breadfruit, banana, coconut and taro can all be identified). In the foreground three canoes are being navigated by local men. The double-sailed vessel on the left is a sailing canoe and the other two boats are used for war. The bow and stern of each war canoe is decorated with a wooden ‘tiki’ sculpture (a carved image of a god or ancestor). Warriors armed with spears stand on platforms raised from the sterns of both vessels ready for battle.” Shelfmark: Add MS 15508. Held by © British Library.

IMAGE 15: Forms of sea travel were diverse around the world, revealing the deep and varied ways in which different societies engaged with the sea. Description: ‘Indigenous Australians in bark canoes, drawing by Tupaia’. Published: 1770. Format: Drawing. Creator: Tupaia. Description: “Tupaia’s drawing shows two canoes, in one of which a man is using a three-pronged spear to catch a fish. Banks described how, as the Endeavour entered Botany Bay, he observed ‘four small canoes’ under the southern headland: ‘In each of these was one man who held in his hand a long pole with which he struck fish, venturing with his little imbarkation almost into the surf. These people seem’d to be totaly engag’d in what they were about: the ship passd within a quarter of a mile of them and yet they scarce lifted their eyes from their employment.'” Shelfmark: MS 15508 f. 10. Held by © British Library. Public Domain.

IMAGE 16: How did Europeans view non-European societies, for example, through their ships? William Hodges, ‘Tahitian War Canoes’, in A COLLECTION Of large Drawings in Indian ink, made by Wm. Hodges, during the second voyage of Capt. Cook, in 1772-1774, viz., Fayal; -Tonga Tabu or New Amsterdam;-Mallicolo;-Resolution Harbour, in St. Christina, one of the Marquesas;-Savage Island;- Sandwich Island;-Alietea;-War Canoes of Otaheite ;-Otaheite; New Caledonia. Created: 1774, Tahiti. Format: Drawing. Creator: William Hodges. Description: “William Hodges made these drawings of Tahitian war canoes during James Cook’s second voyage. One shows a fleet drawn up on shore at Pare, home of Tahitian chief Tu. Although ostensibly preparing for an expedition against the neighbouring island of Mo‘orea, the display was probably also intended to impress the British, and to help to form an alliance.” Shelfmark: Add MS 15743 f.8. Held by © British Library. Public Domain.

IMAGE 17: To what extent was cultural encounter, as manifested through the arrival of a ship in a new location, a ‘performance’? John Webber, NINETY drawings, some in Indian ink, some colored, executed by J. Webber, during the third voyage of Captain Cook in the South Seas, in the years 1777-1779 ; contained in two large Portfolios. Presented, in 1843, by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Created: 1777-78. Format: Pen and ink, watercolor, view. Description: “The views made during Captain Cook’s third expedition are John Webber’s best-known works. After being spotted by the famed botanist, Daniel Solander, who recommended him to the Admiralty, Webber was given the task of compiling a visual record of the voyage of the Resolution and the Discovery from 1776–80. A number of the drawings were later engraved and published in A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean in June 1784. … Cook’s third voyage reached Nootka Sound in April 1778 while searching for the Northwest Passage. Webber’s view shows the native residents of Yuquot in canoes surrounding the Resolution.’” Shelfmark: Add MS 15514, f.10. Held by © British Library. Public Domain.

IMAGE 18: Sven Larsson Waxell, ‘Bering’s first encounter with Aleuts at Shumagin Island. Drawing by Sven Waxell, the mate of Bering’s ship St. Peter’, circa 1741. Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

IMAGE 19: What are the challenges and opportunities of foregrounding women’s experiences of the sea in the early modern period? Mary Read (1690-1721). Engraving from A General History of the Pyrates (1725, 3rd edition?). Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

IMAGE 20: What were some of the challenges in keeping individuals healthy on long sea voyages? Title Page, Leonard Gillespie, Advice to the commanders and officers of His Majesty’s fleet serving in the West Indies on the preservation of the health of seamen (London: J. Cuthell, 1798). Physical Description: vii, 31 pages. The University of Leeds Library, downloaded from the Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 21: The sea could also be a space of potential despair, fear, and the unknown, as captured poignantly by the experience (and potentiality) of shipwreck. The Hurricane at Madras: Wrecks on the Beach, from the 8 June 1872 issue of the Illustrated London News. “Our Engraving is from a sketch by Mr. R. S. [F.] Chisholm…”, p. 557. Downloaded from The Victorian Web: Literature, History, & Culture in the Age of Victoria, which in turn downloaded the engraving and the accompanying article from “The Hurricane at Madras”, Illustrated London News (8 June 1872), 555. Hathi Trust Digital Library version of a copy in the University of Michigan Library. Web. 10 December 2015.

IMAGE 22: How does thinking from an oceanic perspective shed light on early modern globalization, and how does ‘oceanic thinking’ help to decenter the nation-state in historical analysis? ‘North America divided into its pricipall parts, viz. Arctick lands, New North Wales, N. South Wales, N. Brittain, Canada, N. France, N. Scotland, N. England, N. York, N. Jarsey, Mary-Land, Virginia, Carolina, Florida, Mexico, the islands of New Found Land, California, the Antilles, in which are distinguished the severall countries as they are possessed by the English, Spanish, and French, &c.’ (London: Sold by William Berry at the sign of the globe between Charing Cross and White-Hall, 1680). Description: “Relief shown pictorially. At upper right: Described by Sanson, corrected and amended by William Berry. Prime meridian: Ferro. Includes ill. Sectioned and mounted on cloth backing.” Medium: 1 map : hand col. ; 53 x 86 cm. Call Number/Physical Location: G3300 1680 .B4. Library of Congress Control Number: 2002621143. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, Washington, D.C.

IMAGE 23: How can historical sources like ship logs shed light on the weather and climate of the past? ‘Part of a ships log kept by Philips Grimmaert on the ship Zeelandia, June 1599’. National Archives, The Hague, East India Company, no. 54, downloaded from Adriaan M.J. de Kraker, ‘Historical climatology, 1950-2006: An overview of a developing science with a focus on the Low Countries‘, Belgeo: Belgian Journal of Geography 3 (2006), 307-338 (Figure 1).

IMAGE 24: In what ways is the Black Lives Matter movement linked with the sea? ‘The empty pedestal of the statue of Edward Colton in Bristol, the day after protesters felled the statue and rolled it into the harbour. The ground is covered with Black Lives Matter placards.’ Photographer: Caitlin Hobbs. Created: 7 June 2020. Twitter, downloaded from Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 3.0 license.

The Global History Podcast is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://theglobalhistorypodcast.com/

Click on the images below to open the gallery and view them full-size.

Welcome to the thirteenth episode of the Global History Podcast, which is also the next installment in our series on ‘Global Histories of Health, Medicine, and Disease in the Early Modern World’.

Today, we’d like to welcome Suman Seth, the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of the History of Science in the Department of Science & Technology Studies at Cornell University. * In his own words, Professor Seth “works on the social, cultural, and intellectual history of science and medicine. His interests include the history of medicine, race, and colonialism, the physical sciences (particularly quantum theory), & gender and science.”

Professor Seth is the author of Crafting the Quantum: Arnold Sommerfeld and the Practice of Theory, 1890-1926 (MIT Press, 2010) and Difference and Disease: Medicine, Race, and the Eighteenth-Century British Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2018). ** His editorial work includes serving as guest editor of a special issue of Postcolonial Studies, titled “Science, Colonialism, Postcolonialism” (2009) and a “Focus” section of the Journal Isis, titled, “Re-Locating Race”. He is also the co-editor of Osiris.

About three weeks ago, Chase spoke with Professor Seth over skype about his book, Difference and Disease, discussing topics including ideas about the process of ‘seasoning’ undergone when a person migrated from one kind of climate to another, gender and susceptibility to disease, and the entanglement of transatlantic slavery and abolition with ideas about race and medicine. Listen on to find out more.

If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments about this episode, or would like to pitch us an idea for a new episode, feel free to email us at [email protected], or send us a message on our website’s contact form, facebook, twitter, or instagram. If you would like to consult further resources on global history, feel free to visit our ‘Further Resources‘ page.

CORRECTIONS: * In the audio, Suman Seth’s title is stated as ‘professor’, but his full title is the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of the History of Science. ** The book title stated in the audio introduction, Difference and Disease: Medicine, Race, and Locality in the Eighteenth-Century British Empire, should be Difference and Disease: Medicine, Race, and the Eighteenth-Century British Empire.

IMAGE 1: A sea of trade and empires. ‘A New and Correct Chart of the Trading Part of the West Indies’, 1794, in The English Pilot. Describing the West-India Navigation, from Hudson’s Bay to the River Amazones… (London: Mount and Davidson, 1794), Book 4, 1794 edition. Dimensions: Object Height: 48 cm; Object Width: 81 cm. Scale: 1: 5,700,000. List Number: 12434.067. Pub List Number: 12434.000. Image Number: 12434067.jp2. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. © 2000 by Cartography Associates. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

IMAGE 2: An expanding Atlantic empire. Detail of several Atlantic islands from John Senex, ‘A New Map of the English Empire in the Ocean of America or West Indies’, 1721, in A New General Atlas, Containing a Geographical and Historical Account of All the Empires, Kingdoms, and other Dominions of the World… (London: John Senex, 1721). Dimensions: Object Height: 52 cm; Object Width: 62 cm. List Number: 10014.262. Pub List Number: 10014.000. Image Number: 10014262.jp2. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. © 2000 by Cartography Associates. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

IMAGE 3: An important British island colony in the Caribbean. Detail: John Senex, ‘A New Map of the Island of Jamaica’, from ‘A New Map of the English Empire in the Ocean of America or West Indies’, 1721, in A New General Atlas (London: John Senex, 1721). David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. © 2000 by Cartography Associates. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

IMAGE 4: Detail: Henry Popple, ‘Kingston Harbour in Jamaica’, from Sheet 16 of A Map of the British Empire in America with the French and Spanish Settlements adjacent thereto… (London: Willm. Henry Toms & R.W. Seale, 1746). Engraver or Printer: B. Baron, C. Lempriere, W.H. Toms. Dimensions: Object Height: 49 cm; Object Width: 30 cm. Scale: 1 : 2,000,000. List Number: 5810.032a. Pub List Number: 5810.000. Image Number: 5810032a. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. © 2000 by Cartography Associates. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

IMAGE 5: Transatlantic slavery was deeply intertwined with race and medicine in the eighteenth-century British Empire. ‘Plantation Yard and Slave Village, Jamaica, 1758’, published in Barry W. Higman, Jamaica Surveyed: Plantation Maps and Plans of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Institute of Jamaica Publications Ltd., 1988), fig. 4.13, pp. 95-9; original located in the National Library of Jamaica. Description: “Shows Parnassas Estate, Clarendon parish. Slave houses on left, sugar works on right; owner/manager’s house in upper right. (slide of image, courtesy of Barry W. Higman).” Identifier: NW0086. Downloaded from Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora. Image: Public Domain. Metadata: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).

IMAGE 6: In what ways was susceptibility to disease in the eighteenth century differentiated based on race and gender? Agostino Brunias (1728–1796), Italian, active in Britain (1758–70; 1777-80s), ‘West Indian Creole woman, with her Black Servant’, ca. 1780. Oil on canvas. Dimensions: Support (PTG): 12 x 9 7/8 inches (30.5 x 25.1 cm). Accession Number: B1981.25.82. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 7: In what ways were the medical constitutions of ‘European’ inhabitants of the Caribbean conceptualized differently from those of ‘African’ inhabitants? Agostino Brunias (1728–1796), Italian, active in Britain (1758–70; 1777-80s), ‘Planter and his Wife, with a Servant’, ca. 1780. Oil on canvas. Dimensions: Support (PTG): 12 x 9 3/4 inches (30.5 x 24.8 cm). Accession Number: B1981.25.81. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 8: ‘Harbour Street, Kingston’, in James Hakewill, A Picturesque Tour of the Island of Jamaica, from Drawings Made in the Years 1820 and 1821 (London, 1825; reprinted, Kingston, Jamaica and San Francisco, 1990), plate 4. Copy in Archives and Special Collections, University of Miami Library. Description: “[View] looking eastward. James Hakewill (1778–1843) was an English architect known for illustrated publications. Several of his works relating to Jamaica can be found in T. Barringer, G. Forrester, and B. Martinez-Ruiz, Art and Emancipation in Jamaica: Isaac Mendes Belisario and his Worlds (New Haven: Yale Center for British Art in association with Yale University Press, 2007), passim.” Identifier: HAKE6. Downloaded from Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora. Image: Public Domain. Metadata: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).

IMAGE 9: In what ways were slavery and abolition entangled with ideas about medicine and race in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries? ‘Sugar Cane Harvest, Jamaica, 1820s’, in H. T. De La Beche, Notes on the Present Condition of the Negroes in Jamaica (London, 1825), frontispiece. (Copy in the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University). Description: “Caption: ‘Jamaica Negroes Cutting Cane in their Working Dresses.’ Men and women in first gang cutting cane; supervised by a black driver with his staff.” Identifier: NW0055. Downloaded from Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora. Image: Public Domain. Metadata: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).

IMAGE 10: ‘Sugar Cane Cultivation, British West Indies (Jamaica?), 1840s’, in The Illustrated London News (June 9, 1849), vol. 14, p. 388; see also Ballou’s Pictorial (Feb. 10, 1855), pp. 84-85. Description: “Field gang of men and women, digging cane holes in preparation for planting. Image accompanies article, Sugar Cultivation in the West Indies. Although about a decade after slave emancipation in the British West Indies, this scene (one of four in the article) can easily serve for the later slave period. This same illustration and accompanying article appeared in Ballou’s Pictorial (Boston); however, the Ballou article specifies that the locale is Jamaica and that the engraving was made from the designs of an artist who resided for a long time in that island.” Identifier: NW0272. Downloaded from Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora. Image: Public Domain. Metadata: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).

IMAGE 11: A Changing Political Landscape in South Asia. Edinburgh Geographical Institute, ‘Map of India under the British East India Company, comparing 1765 and 1805’ (1907), in J.G. Bartholomew, Imperial Gazetteer of India (New edition, published under the authority of His Majesty’s Secretary of State for India in Council. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907-1909). Downloaded via Wikimedia Commons.

IMAGE 12: An Expanding Territorial Empire. Edinburgh Geographical Institute, ‘Map of India under the British East India Company, comparing 1837 with 1857’ (1907), in J.G. Bartholomew, Imperial Gazetteer of India (New edition, published under the authority of His Majesty’s Secretary of State for India in Council. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907-1909). Downloaded via Wikimedia Commons.

IMAGE 13: The British Empire in South Asia in the early twentieth century. Edinburgh Geographical Institute, ‘Map of the British Indian Empire from Imperial Gazetteer of India’ (1909), in J.G. Bartholomew, Imperial Gazetteer of India (New edition, published under the authority of His Majesty’s Secretary of State for India in Council. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907-1909). Downloaded via Wikimedia Commons.

IMAGE 14: Continuing influences from Hippocrates? Title Page, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies (London: Printed for J. Tonson, 1733). Physical Description: xi pages, 2 unnumbered leaves, 224 pages ; (8vo). Notes: Signatures: A-P8. Shelfmark: EPB/B/11146. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 15: An infamous duel between two medical practitioners, recorded in print. Title Page, John Williams and Bennet Parker, Essays on the Bilious Fever: Containing the Different Opinions of Those Eminent Physicians John Williams and Parker Bennet, of Jamaica: Which Was the Cause of a Duel, and Terminated in the Death of Both (Jamaica and London : T. Waller, 1752). Physical Description: v, 1 unnumbered page, 76 pages; 19 cm. Shelfmark: EPB/B/54935. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 16: In what ways did eighteenth-century writers link disease with transatlantic slavery? Title Page, [attributed to] James Grainger, An essay on the more common West-India diseases; and the remedies which that country itself produces : To which are added, some hints on the management, &c. of negroes (London : T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, 1764). Physical Description: 8 unnumbered pages, 75 pages, 1 unnumbered page ; 22 cm (8vo). Shelfmark: MST.9. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 17: The ship, traveling between ‘hot countries’, as a space of medical practice and knowledge-making. Title Page, William Northcote, The marine practice of physic and surgery, including that in the hot countries, particularly useful to all who visit the East and West Indies, or the coast of Africa : to which is added, Pharmacopoeia marina, and some brief directions to be observed by the sea-surgeon in an engagement … (London: Printed by W. and J. Richardson for T. Becket and P.A. de Hondt …, 1770). Physical Description: 2 volumes ; 21 cm (8vo). Shelfmark: /NOR Vol. 1. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 18: How was health maintained during ‘long voyages to hot countries’? Title Page, John Clark, Observations on the Diseases in Long Voyages to Hot Countries, and Particularly on Those Which Prevail in the East Indies (London: Printed for D. Wilson and G. Nicol, 1773). Physical Description: XVI, 366 [1] p. ; 8º. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, downloaded from HathiTrust Digital Library. Public Domain.

IMAGE 19: Warfare in the Caribbean, and its connections with disease. Title Page, Thomas Dancer, A Brief History of the Late Expedition against Fort San Juan, So Far as it Relates to the Diseases of the Troops; Together with Some Observations on Climate, Infection, and Contagion; and several of the endemial complaints of the West-Indies (Kingston, Jamaica: D. Douglass & W. Aikman, 1781). Physical Description: 63, [1] p. ; 23 cm. (4to). NLM Unique ID: 2551002R. United States National Library of Medicine, Digital Collections. Public Domain.

IMAGE 20: A medical treatise which explicitly mentions ‘tropical diseases’ in its title. Title Page, Benjamin Moseley, A Treatise on Tropical Diseases; And on the Climate of the West-Indies (London: T. Cadell, 1787). Physical Description: 1 unnumbered blank leaf, 2 unnumbered leaves, xix, 544 pages, 1 unnumbered blank leaf ; 22 cm. London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives, downloaded from the Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 21: ‘Seasoning’ was an important part of medical discourse on migration to ‘tropical’ climates in the eighteenth century. Note the reference to ‘new settlers’ here. Title Page, Robert Thomas, Medical Advice to the Inhabitants of Warm Climates, on the Domestic Treatment of All the Diseases Incidental Therein: With a Few Useful Hints to New Settlers, for the Preservation of Health, and the Prevention of Sickness (London: Printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul’s Church-Yard; J. Strahan, Strand; and W. Richardson, Royal-Exchange, 1790). Physical Description: 8 unnumbered pages, xxi, 1 unnumbered page, 342 pages, 4 unnumbered pages. University of Bristol Library, downloaded from the Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 22: In what ways was medicine entangled with the British military? Title Page, John Bell, An Inquiry into the Causes Which Produce, and the Means of Preventing Diseases among British Officers, Soldiers, and Others in the West Indies (London: Printed for J. Murray, 1791). Physical description: xv, 180 pages ; 22 cm (8vo). Biographical Note: “John Bell MD, formerly surgeon of the 94th and 5th regiment of foot (promoted in 1784 according to London Medical Journal, 1784, Volume 5).” Shelfmark: EPB RAMC /BEL. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 23: Disease and the British Army, in the metropole, in the colonies, and on the sea. Title Page, Thomas Dickson Reide, A View of the Diseases of the Army in Great Britain, America, the West Indies, and on Board of King’s Ships and Transports, from the Beginning of the Late War to the Present Time (London: J. Johnson , 1793). Physical Description: xvi, 396, [1] p., [3] en bl. ; 8º. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, downloaded from HathiTrust Digital Library. Public Domain.

IMAGE 24: Title Page, Leonard Gillespie, Advice to the commanders and officers of His Majesty’s fleet serving in the West Indies on the preservation of the health of seamen (London: J. Cuthell, 1798). Physical Description: vii, 31 pages. The University of Leeds Library, downloaded from the Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 25: Note the use of southern Spain as a comparison for the West Indies. Title Page, Robert Deverell, Andalusia; or, notes, tending to shew that the yellow fever of the West Indies, and of Andalusia in Spain, was a disease well known to the ancients; and that they assigned a cause for it, and used effective means for the prevention and cure of it, not hitherto attempted in our time. (This treatise is not intended for publication.) ([London]: [S. Gosnell], [1805]). Physical Description: 2 unnumbered leaves, 155 pages : illustrations, plates, maps ; (4to). Copy 1 Note: “There is a note written on the cover, in French, possibly in the hand of the author, commending this book to the notice of Napoleon.” Shelfmark: 20339/C. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 26: Note the geographical inclusion of Newfoundland with other marshy areas in Europe, Africa, and the West Indies. Title Page, Robert Robertson, Observations on fevers which arrive from marsh miasmata, and from other causes, in Europe, Africa, the West Indies, and Newfoundland : with occasional remarks on the principal diseases incident to seamen (London, 1807). Physical Description: 4 volumes ; 22 cm (8vo). The University of Glasgow Library, downloaded from the Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 27: Note the broad range of territories included under ‘all tropical climates’, including China and the Mediterranean. Title Page, R. W. Bampfield, A practical essay on hemeralopia, or night-blindness, commonly called nyctalopia : as it affects seamen and others, in the East and West Indies, China, the Mediterranean, and all tropical climates ; in which a successful method of curing the disease is detailed ([London]: [Printed by G. Woodfall], 1812). Note: “Extract from the fifth volume of the Medico-chirurgical transactions” (1814). Physical Description: pages [32]-66 ; 8vo (22 cm). Shelfmark: 52887/P. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 28: How were so-called ‘European constitutions’ influenced by ‘tropical climates’? James Johnson, Influence of tropical climates on European constitutions ; being a treatise on the principal diseases incidental to Europeans in the East and West Indies, Mediterranean, and coast of Africa (London: Printed for Thomas & George Underwood, etc., 1821). Physical Description: xiv pages, 1 unnumbered leaf, 544 pages ; 21 cm. London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives, downloaded from the Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 29: Note the reference to ‘strangers’ in the West Indies from ‘temperate climates’. Title Page, Nodes Dickinson, Observations on the inflammatory endemic, incidental to strangers in the West Indies from temperate climates commonly called the yellow fever … to which is added an appendix, containing abstracts of official reports upon West India fevers (London: E. Howlett for Callow, Underwood, etc., 1819). Physical Description: xiv pages, 1 unnumbered leaf, 216 pages ; (8vo). Shelfmark: 58968/B. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 30: The reference to ‘statistical pathology’ here perhaps hints at the link between statistics and medicine in the nineteenth-century British Empire. Title Page, Colin Chisholm, A manual of the climate and diseases of tropical countries : in which a practical view of the statistical pathology and of the history and treatment of the diseases of those countries is attempted to be given : calculated chiefly as a guide to the young medical practitioner on his first resorting to those countries (London: Burgess and Hill, 1822). Physical Description: 11, 5, 232 pages, 1 unnumbered leaf of plates (frontispiece) : illustrations ; 23 cm. Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, downloaded from the Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

The Global History Podcast is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://theglobalhistorypodcast.com/

Click on the images below to open the gallery and view them full-size.

Welcome to the twelfth episode of the Global History Podcast. Today, we’d like to welcome Dr. David Veevers, a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London. In his own words, Dr. Veevers is ‘interested in all aspects of early modern imperial and global history, with a particular focus on the European presence in Asia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.’ His current Leverhulme project is titled ‘Transnational Constitutions: Asian Governance in a Global World’. 

He is the author of academic articles and book chapters including: ‘”Inhabitants of the Universe”: Global Families, Kinship Networks and the Formation of the Early Modern Colonial State in Asia‘, Journal of Global History, 10/1 ( 2015), 99 – 121, ‘”The Company as their Lords and the Deputy as a Great Rajah”: Imperial Expansion and the English East India Company on the West Coast of Sumatra, 1685 – 1730‘, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 41/5 (2013), 687 – 709, and ‘The Contested State: Political Authority and the Decentred Foundations of the Early Modern Colonial State in Asia‘, in Mahesh Gopalan and William A. Pettigrew (eds), The East India Company: Essays on Anglo-Indian Connection (Routledge, 2016), 175 – 192. He is also the co-editor of The Corporation as a Protagonist in Global History, c.1550 to 1750 (Brill, 2018). His first monograph, titled The Origins of the British Empire in Asia, 1600 – 1750, was published by Cambridge University Press this year.

About three weeks ago, Chase spoke with Dr. Veevers over skype about his new book on the history of the early modern English East India Company in Asia, discussing subjects including the relationships between the Company and Asian ‘elites’, Company servants and the formation of ethnically mixed families, and the importance of studying the British Empire today.

If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments about this episode, or would like to pitch us an idea for a new episode, feel free to email us at [email protected], or send us a message on our website’s contact form, facebook, twitter, or instagram. If you would like to consult further resources on global history, feel free to visit our ‘Further Resources‘ page.

IMAGE 1: An English cartographer’s vision of Asia in the seventeenth century. John Speed (1542-1629), ‘Asia’ [1626], in John Speed, The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine … As also A Prospect of the most famous Parts of the World (London: Printed for Thomas Bassett and Richard Chiswell, 1676). Engraver or Printer: R. White. Dimensions: Object Height: 41 cm; Object Width: 53 cm. Scale: 1 : 23,500,000. List Number: 12058.171. Pub List Number: 12058.000. Image Number: 12058171.jp2. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. © 2000 by Cartography Associates. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

IMAGE 2: Early diplomatic encounters. ‘Jahangir investing a courtier with a robe of honour watched by Sir Thomas Roe, English ambassador to the court of Jahangir at Agra from 1615-18, and others’, ca. 1616. Description: “On paper. Colophon on verso gives calligrapher’s name, As’af ‘Ibadallah al-Rahim and date 23 Ramadan 985/4 December 1577.” Object Type: Painting. School/Style: Mughal Style. Production Place: Asia: South Asia: India. Dimensions: Image Height: 23.10 cm; Image Width: 14.50 cm; Sheet Height: 27.80 cm; Sheet Width: 16.10 cm. Donated by: Art Fund (as NACF). Acquisition Date: 1933. Department: Middle East. Registration and Museum Number: 1933,0610,0.1. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

IMAGE 3: Indo-Portuguese communities were important groups with which East India Company servants engaged. Unknown Artist, ‘Figure group, [carved] ivory, ‘The Mount of the Good Shepherd’, Indo-Portuguese (Goa), ca. 1650′. Description: “This object was created in the Portuguese colony of Goa in about 1650. … ‘The Mount of Christ as the Good Shepherd’ is a common subject in Indo-Portuguese ivories, and seems to be unique to Goa. The figure of God the Father, carved in relief above the Christ Child, represents the Holy Spirit. Although the precise parallels and/or sources in Indian [art] are uncertain, this distinctive composition recurs again and again in Goan ivories, and the combination of the Christ Child in the guise of the shepherd with saints, a fountain, vegetation and animals suggest the richness of the natural world, in conjunction with Christian imagery. His seated pose, asleep, recalls images of the Buddha in Indian art. Ivory carving had a long tradition on the Indian subcontinent, and elaborate works of art were made, particularly as diplomatic gifts, often presented to Western rulers. Most of the ivory would have been exported from Mozambique in East Africa….Goa (on the West Coast of India) was a Portuguese colony at this time, and the style of carving combines Indian with European traditions. This subject is particular to Goan Indo-Portuguese ivories.” Dimensions: Height: Height: 24.6 cm. Museum number: A.38-1921. Gallery location: South Asia, Room 41, case 14. Sculpture Collection, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

IMAGE 4: An example of an Asian ruler granting trading privileges to the East India Company. ‘Shuinjō’, 1613. Description: “Manuscript document, ink calligraphy on paper. Japanese, 17th century, dated 1613. Shuinjo. The original vermillion-seal document of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, granting trade privileges in Japan to the English East India Company in 1613. Extent: 1 leaf”. ID: 70d882bc-a8d6-4741-adbb-8621ed0a73d6. Shelfmark: Bodleian Library MS. Jap. b.2. Collections: Japanese Manuscripts, Masterpieces of the Non-Western Book, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. Photograph: © Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford

IMAGE 5: Ceramics, Cultural Encounter, and the Dutch East India Company in Japan. ‘Plate with Monogram of the Dutch East India Company’, ca. 1660. Description: “This porcelain dish is emblazoned with the monogram VOC, which stands for the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, the Dutch East India Company. During most of the Edo period (1615–1868), the Dutch were the only Europeans allowed to trade with Japan. They were confined to the small man-made island of Deshima, off the coast of Nagasaki, from which point they acquired Japanese porcelain. Although the Dutch brought many wares back to Europe, the dishes inscribed VOC were intended only for officers of the company. This dish has a white background decorated ornately in underglaze blue, with a paneled border around the rim. This is typical of the type of export ware known as kraak, which originated in China and was imitated by potters in Japan at the request of the Dutch.” Medium: Underglaze blue (Arita ware). Dimensions: Height: 2 3/8 in. (6 cm); Diameter 12 3/8 in. (31.4 cm); Diameter of foot (6 3/8 in. (16.2 cm). Credit Line: Dr. and Mrs. Roger G. Gerry Collection, Bequest of Dr. and Mrs. Roger G. Gerry, 2000. Accession Number: 2002.447.40. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public Domain.

IMAGE 6 AND 7: A Dutch East India Company servant in South Asia, depicted in a South Asian art form. ‘Two miniatures. “The Darbar of Cornelis van den Bogaerde” and “The procession of Cornelis van den Bogaerde”, India, Deccan, Golconda; c. 1687. 20.2 × 26.2 cm and 16.8 × 22.8 cm’. Description: “The Dutch had had trading posts on India’s southeastern Coromandel Coast from the 16th century, but in the 17th were given competition from other European countries, including France, Britain, and Denmark. The main figure in European dress has been identified as Cornelis van den Bogaerde. Bogaerde was in charge of the Dutch trading post in Hyderabad in the Islamic state of Golconda, and it was a local painter who made the two miniatures. On one of the miniatures, Cornelis van den Bogaerde is depicted in a darbar similar to the princely audiences that are known from Mughal art, though they most often have a larger number of figures. Bogaerde is more elegant in this miniature than in the procession scene. He is dressed in the newest European fashion as it emerged from the court of Louis XIV at Versailles. Nonetheless, the scene is rendered in the relaxed style that is characteristic of court art in Golconda. Bogaerde reclines comfortably while his Indonesian servant, in suitable European garb, stands behind him with a gigantic fan of peacock feathers and a branch from a fruit tree – an allusion to the origins of his surname (Dutch for an orchard). He is conversing with three merchants, two of whom with marks on their foreheads are Hindus. The man in the middle seems to be leading the discussions and is also the largest (the most important). The rendition is colorful, and the portraits of the characters are vividly yet precisely conceived. On the other miniature we see Bogaerde with his Indian entourage, whose different garments, headgear, beards, and skin color show that they are Muslims, Hindus, and the famed Rajput warriors. Some carry his weapons, others his fan, pipe, etc. Two of the Dutch East India Company’s banners head the procession.” Inv. no. 43/2008 & 42/2008. Photograph: Pernille Klemp. © The David Collection

IMAGE 8: Creating relationships with local South Asian rulers was an important strategy for East India Company servants. ‘Miniature. “A Mounted Prince Hunting with a Falcon”, India, Deccan, Golconda [?]; 1680-1700, Leaf: 29.9 × 19.8 cm’. Description: “Although it was painted in the period just around the time when Golconda – the last of the independent Deccan states – was forced to surrender to the Great Mughal Aurangzeb in 1687, this miniature still features the splendor and intense colors that characterized earlier painting from this region. … The splendidly rendered prince reflects the formal portraiture of Mughal Delhi that at this point had also made its mark in the Deccan, but the radiant colors of the textiles against the stallion’s refined, light-blue tone reveals the painter’s southern origins. … In the distance, behind a diminutive city, the army is marching with horses, elephants, and camels, fluttering banners, ensigns, kettledrums, and trumpets. … the men are also accompanied by two angels, one holding a sword, the other a trumpet. There is no information at present about the identity of the artist and the elegant prince, but the painting’s fascinating richness of detail and high quality are indisputable.” Inv. no. 13/2015. © The David Collection

IMAGE 9 AND 10: Glassware, Cultural Encounter, and the Dutch East India Company in South Asia. Two views of a ‘Bottle with European and Indian Figures’, 18th century. Description: “Square bottles of this type derive from Dutch and German molded vessels, which would have been imported after the Dutch East India Company established a trade factory in Gujarat in 1618. In the mid-18th century, a [successful] glass factory was opened in Bhuj by Ram Singh Malam, a Gujarati craftsman who returned to India after spending time in the Netherlands. This bottle was probably produced for the Indian market and included scenes of elaborately dressed Indian and European figures in landscape.” Geography: Attributed to India, Kota, Rajasthan. Medium: Glass, colorless with green tinge; mold blown, painted. Dimensions: Height: 10 5/8 in. (27.0 cm); Width: 4 3/16 in. (10.6 cm). Credit Line: Fletcher Fund, 1971. Accession Number: 1971.234. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public Domain.

IMAGE 11-13: Textiles, Cultural Encounter, and the Dutch East India Company in South Asia. ‘Petticoat panel’, third quarter of the 18th century. Description: “The primary goal of the Dutch East India Trade Company and its English equivalent (established in 1597 and 1600, respectively) was the acquisition of pepper and spices in Malaysia, but the Indian painted and dyed cottons used for subsequent foreign barter also generated excitement at home. Introduced perhaps by accident during the seventeenth century, the fabrics fascinated European [consumers], who had no local equivalent that could compete for brightness, variety, and fastness of color at relatively low cost. The designs were achieved by repeatedly painting with mordants and resist dyeing the cloth for each color and shade. Experts at customizing exports, Indian chintz makers had manufactured specific designs for their earlier trading partners in the Near East, Africa, and Asia. Similarly, designs were developed to meet the needs of individual European markets and to appeal to regional tastes. This type of pattern, with lively and anecdotal figural compositions—from a [semi-military] parade to couples visiting and dining—was intended for the Dutch market. It found particular favor in the northern Netherlands province of Friesland and especially in the town of Hindelopen, where it would most likely have been everyday wear for a wealthy farmer’s wife.” Culture: Indian, Coromandel Coast, for Dutch market. Medium: Cotton, painted resist and mordant, dyed. Dimensions: 33 5/8 x 67 1/2 in. (85.4 x 171.5 cm). Credit Line: Purchase, Friends of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Gifts, 1992. Accession Number: 1992.82. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public Domain.

IMAGE 14-26: A South Asian visual depiction of East India Company alliances with South Asian states and rulers. ‘Hanging [Cloth] depicting a European conflict in South India’, before 1763. Description: “This multilayered tableau of a battle is the most spectacular, complex, and complete surviving example of a rare chintz history painting. The hanging may celebrate the successful 1760–61 English siege of Pondicherry, on the southeast coast of India, headquarters of the French East India Company. The English forces (under a stylized Union Jack) are shown fighting alongside allied local soldiers. Indian regiments appear to be distinguished by dress—Muslims with long gowns and bushy beards, the Hindus in skirt cloths—indicative of the complex web of regional alliances forged by the European trading companies. Two ships (upper register, center) flying a simplified version of the triple fleur-de-lis and crown, the insignia of the French East India Company flag from 1756, represent the defeated French.” Culture: Indian, Coromandel Coast, for British market. Medium: Cotton, plain weave (drawn and painted, mordant and resist dyed). Dimensions: Overall: 116 3/4 × 103 in. (296.5 × 261.6 cm). Credit Line: Purchase, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund and Louis V. Bell Fund; Larry and Ann Burns and Brett and Sara Burns Gifts, in honor of Austin B. Chinn; and Austin B. Chinn and Joseph Conforti and Douglas Jakubowski Gifts, 2014. Accession Number: 2014.88. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public Domain.

IMAGE 27: An East India Company servant in the second half of the eighteenth century. ‘Painting, portrait of East India Company official, by Dip Chand, opaque watercolour on paper, Murshidabad or Patna, ca. 1760-1764’. Description: “An East India Company official is shown in uniform, seated on an embroidered floor spread, leaning against a bolster and smoking a huqqa, with three attendants in waiting. Probably a portrait of Dr. William Fullerton of Rosemount, a Scottish surgeon. … This painting probably depicts William Fullerton of Rosemount, who joined the East India Company’s service in 1744 and was second surgeon in Calcutta in 1751. He was present at the siege of Calcutta in 1756 and became mayor of Calcutta in 1757. In 1763 Fullerton became a surgeon to the Patna Agency. He was the only Englishman to survive the massacre of the English during the war with Mir Kasim of Murshidabad. Numerous East India Company officials adopted aspects of Indian court life during their careers in India, and, as an excellent linguist, Fullerton was very much at home in Bengal, keeping one or more Indian bibis (mistresses). Fullerton was a collector of paintings and it is likely that the Murshidabad artist Dip Chand painted a number of pictures for him when visiting Patna. This portrait shoes Fullerton receiving a visitor, attended by servants with fly-whisks (chauri). He is depicted seated on a rich carpet, leaning against a bolster and smoking a huqqa. Nearby are two rosewater sprinklers, a sword, and a box for betel nut. These accoutrements are generally assumed to signify Indian royalty, thereby conflating Fullerton’s portrait with that of an Indian prince. … Dr. Fullerton was a patron of the local Murshidabad painters. Paintings by Dip Chand and other painters in his school differed from other Murshidabad court work of the period in the choice of subject matter: it was unusual to depict a European in paintings like this.” Marks and Inscription: “‘dastkare dip chand musawwir’ The work of Dip Chand the painter[.] 1) Signature; Persian; Persian; on lower mount; gold paint”. Dimensions: Height: 26.2 cm, Width: 22.6 cm. Museum number: IM.33-1912. Gallery location: In Storage. South & South East Asia Collection, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

IMAGE 28: An example of a Company Painting. Unknown South Asian Artist, ‘Painting; gouache, A military officer of the East India Company, Murshidabad, ca. 1765 – ca. 1770’. Description: “The pictures made by Indian artists for the British in India are called Company paintings. This one shows a military officer of the East India Company. The Indian artist has used the native technique and the style of the late Mughal Murshidabad school of painting. However, the style is moving in the direction of Company painting. The tree in particular shows the influence of European watercolours. The river is probably the Bhagirathi in West Bengal….A military officer of the East India Company is standing with his dog and a boy attendant under a tree on the bank of a river. The attendant holds a sword across his arm….The painting is in the style of Murshidabad school. The composition shows the growing assimilation of European techniques by Murshidabad artists, particularly [in the] depiction of the tree.” Materials and Techniques: Opaque watercolour on paper. Dimensions: “Height: 333 mm maximum, Width: 264 mm maximum, Height: 277 mm image within innermost painted borders maximum, Width: 215 mm image within innermost painted borders maximum”. Museum number: IS.16-1955. Gallery location: In Storage. South & South East Asia Collection, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

IMAGE 29: John Wells after Elisha Trapaud, ‘Aquatint showing an East India Company vessel entering Tapanuli Bay’, 1788. Description: “Late 18th century view of the British settlement of Tapanuli on the small island of Punchon Cacheel (also called Tapanuli Island), at the entrance of Tapanuli Bay (also known as Sibolga Bay), Sumatra. Tapanuli (spelled Tappanooly then) was the northernmost of the string of settlements comprising British Bencoolen. Elisha Trapaud, soldier, surveyor, draughtsman and amateur actor who joined East India Company 1776 and who took part in an expedition to survey Sumatra between 1783 and 1785, published in 1788 a book of 20 uncoloured aquatints, [to] which this one belongs. Inscription: ‘S. W. View of the Island of Tappanooly on the S. W. Coast of Sumatra.'” The British Library, downloaded via Wikimedia Commons.

IMAGE 30: ‘Fort William in the Kingdom of Bengal belonging to the East India Company of England’, 1754. Artist and engraver: Van Ryne, Jan (1712-60). Description: “Coloured engraving of Fort William in Calcutta by Jan Van Ryne (1712-60) published by Robert Sayer in London in 1754. Calcutta was founded on the mud flats of [the] Hooghly River, a tributary of the Ganges, by the English merchant Job Charnock in 1690. After 1696, Fort William was constructed under the supervision of John Goldsborough. It was situated near the bank of the river. As we can see from this view, the building had two storeys and projecting wings. In 1757, an attack on the fort by the forces of Siraj-ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, led the British to build a new fort in the Maidan. The old fort was repaired and used as a customs house from 1766.” The British Library, Online Gallery, Online Exhibitions, Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections. © The British Library Board

IMAGE 31: ‘A View of Calcutta from Fort William’, 1807, plate 46-a. Engraver: Duburgh. Description: “Aquatint with a view of Calcutta from Fort William, from a set of prints published by Edward Orme in 1807 and part of King George III’s Topographical Collection. The East India Company established a fortified trading station in 1690 along the Hooghly River on the east coast of India. This spot, formerly the site of small villages, then expanded into the city of Calcutta, which by 1773 became the effective capital of British India. The town was originally clustered close to the fort for defence. However in 1757, it was decided to rebuild it in Gobindpore, south of the trading settlement. New arrivals sailing to Calcutta passed the octagonal fort before reaching the city. They were often impressed by the approach. John Prinsep wrote in 1771, ‘The Stream seemed to widen as we proceeded and straight before use we beheld a stately forest of masts, vessels, an immense city and the bustle of commercial business’.” Medium: Aquatint. The British Library, Online Gallery, Online Exhibitions, King George III Topographical Collections. © The British Library Board. Downloaded via Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

IMAGE 32: A Changing Political Landscape. Edinburgh Geographical Institute, ‘Map of India under the British East India Company, comparing 1765 and 1805’ (1907), in J.G. Bartholomew, Imperial Gazetteer of India (New edition, published under the authority of His Majesty’s Secretary of State for India in Council. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907-1909). Downloaded via Wikimedia Commons.

IMAGE 33: An Expanding Territorial Empire. Edinburgh Geographical Institute, ‘Map of India under the British East India Company, comparing 1837 with 1857’ (1907), in J.G. Bartholomew, Imperial Gazetteer of India (New edition, published under the authority of His Majesty’s Secretary of State for India in Council. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907-1909). Downloaded via Wikimedia Commons.

IMAGE 34: The British Empire in the early twentieth century. Edinburgh Geographical Institute, ‘Map of the British Indian Empire from Imperial Gazetteer of India’ (1909), in J.G. Bartholomew, Imperial Gazetteer of India (New edition, published under the authority of His Majesty’s Secretary of State for India in Council. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907-1909). Downloaded via Wikimedia Commons.

The Global History Podcast is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://theglobalhistorypodcast.com/

Click on the images below to open the gallery and view them full-size.

Welcome to the eleventh episode of the Global History Podcast, which is also the next installment in our series on ‘Global Histories of Health, Medicine, and Disease in the Early Modern World’.

Today, we’d like to welcome Clare Griffin, Assistant Professor in the History, Philosophy and Religious Studies Department at Nazarbayev University in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.* In her own words, Professor Griffin ‘is a historian of science with interests in practical knowledge, commodity exchange, and translation in the early modern global world’, focusing on Russia and its global connections. Her editorial work includes co-editing the special issue, ‘The Natural Turn in Early Modern Russian History’, ВИВЛIОθИКА: E-Journal of Eighteenth-Century Russian Studies 6 (2018) and Perpetual Motion? Transition and Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe & Russia (London: School of Slavonic and East European Studies, UCL, 2011).

She is the author of several articles on medicine in early modern Russia and global history more broadly, including ‘Disentangling Commodity Histories: Pauame and Sassafras in the Early Modern Global World‘, Journal of Global History 15/1 (2020), 1-18, ‘Every Court an Island? Palace Medicine, International Exchanges, and Popular Practices in Early Modern Russia‘, Medizinhistorisches Journal 53/3-4 (2018), 309-330, and ‘Russia and the Medical Drug Trade in the Seventeenth Century’, Social History of Medicine 31/1 (2018), 2–23. Her current monograph project, titled Dangerous Drugs: The Globalisation of Early Modern Russian Medicine, will examine early modern Russia’s connections to the global drug trade. You can view a full list of her academic publications here.

About a week and a half ago, Chase spoke with Professor Griffin over skype about ‘official’ Russian court medicine, the challenges of reconstructing ‘unofficial’ medical practices in the broader population, and the participation of the early modern Russian Empire in global trade networks of medical commodities, which brought products like sassafras and rhubarb to Moscow from as far away as the New World and East Asia.

If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments about this episode, or would like to pitch us an idea for a new episode, feel free to email us at [email protected], or send us a message on our website’s contact form, facebook, twitter, or instagram. If you would like to consult further resources on global history, feel free to visit our ‘Further Resources‘ page.

*CORRECTION: In the audio, Dr. Griffin’s position is stated as ‘Assistant Professor in the School of Sciences and Humanities, History, Philosophy and Religious Studies’. This has been corrected in the text above.

• Facebook

IMAGE 1: Russia in the Sixteenth Century. ‘Russiae, Moscoviae Et Tartariae Descriptio. Auctore Antonio Ienkensono Anglo, edita Londini Anno 1562 & dedicata illustriss. D. Henrico Sijdneo Walliei presidi. Cum privilegio’, in Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598), Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Antwerp: Gielis Coppens van Diest, 1570), page 46. Engraver: Frans Hogenberg. Dimensions: Object Height: 36 cm; Object Width: 45 cm. Scale: 1 : 12,000,000. List Number: 10000.101. Pub List Number: 10000.000. Image Number: 10000101.jp2. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. © 2000 by Cartography Associates. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

IMAGE 2: View of Moscauw [Moscow] (1575), in Franz Hogenberg and Georg Braun, Civitates Orbis Terrarum, van der Krogt’s XVIII edition (Cologne: Peter von Brachel, 1640), Vol. II, page 47. Description: “The Civitates Orbis Terrarum was the first atlas of world cities and one of the most important books published in the late 16th century. Although led by Braun and Hogenberg, the books were created by a large team of writers, engravers, and artists.” Dimensions: Object Height: 35 cm; Object Width: 50 cm. List Number: 12126.219. Pub List Number: 12126.000. Image Number: 12126219.jp2. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. © 2000 by Cartography Associates. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

IMAGE 3: ‘Moscovia [Moscow] Vrbs Metropolis Totius Rusiæ Albæ’ (1618), in Franz Hogenberg and Georg Braun, Civitates Orbis Terrarum, van der Krogt’s XVIII edition (Cologne: Peter von Brachel, 1640), Vol. VI, page 54. Dimensions: Object Height: 35 cm; Object Width: 45 cm. List Number: 12126.743. Pub List Number: 12126.000. Image Number: 12126743.jp2. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. © 2000 by Cartography Associates. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

IMAGE 4: ‘Kremlin. Castle in Moscow’, in Adam Olearius, Opisanie puteshestviia v Moskoviiu i cherez Moskoviiu v Persiiu i obratno [Description of the Journey to Muscovy and through Muscovy to Persia and vice versa] (Saint Petersburg, 1906), translated by A. M. Loviagin. According to Nancy S. Kollmann, this 1906 translation used ‘an edition close to that of 1656’. See Nancy S. Kollmann, ‘Tracking the Travels of Adam Olearius‘, in Maria di Salvo, Daniel H. Kaiser, and Valerie A. Kivelson (eds), Word and Image in Russian History: Essays in Honor of Gary Marker (Boston, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2015), pp. 133-146, note 7. BUK VO Regional Universal Scientific Library, Russia.

IMAGE 5: Adam Olearius, ‘The Church at the White Wall in the Kremlin’, in Adam Olearius, Opisanie puteshestviia v Moskoviiu (1906 [mid-seventeenth century]). BUK VO Regional Universal Scientific Library, Russia.

IMAGE 6: Adam Olearius, ‘The Grand Duke leaves for a pilgrimage’, with a view of Trinity Church (St. Basil’s Cathedral), in Adam Olearius, Opisanie puteshestviia v Moskoviiu (1906 [mid-seventeenth century]). BUK VO Regional Universal Scientific Library, Russia, downloaded from Wikimedia Commons.

IMAGE 7: Adam Olearius, ‘Muscovite Procession’, in Adam Olearius, Opisanie puteshestviia v Moskoviiu (1906 [mid-seventeenth century]). BUK VO Regional Universal Scientific Library, Russia.

IMAGE 8: Adam Olearius, ‘Church procession’, in Adam Olearius, Opisanie puteshestviia v Moskoviiu (1906 [mid-seventeenth century]). BUK VO Regional Universal Scientific Library, Russia.

IMAGE 9: Adam Olearius, ‘Christening’, in Adam Olearius, Opisanie puteshestviia v Moskoviiu (1906 [mid-seventeenth century]). BUK VO Regional Universal Scientific Library, Russia.

IMAGE 10: Adam Olearius, ‘Wedding’, in Adam Olearius, Opisanie puteshestviia v Moskoviiu (1906 [mid-seventeenth century]). BUK VO Regional Universal Scientific Library, Russia.

IMAGE 11: Adam Olearius, ‘The funeral’, in Adam Olearius, Opisanie puteshestviia v Moskoviiu (1906 [mid-seventeenth century]). BUK VO Regional Universal Scientific Library, Russia.

IMAGE 12: Adam Olearius, ‘Russian women mourn their dead (commemoration of the dead)’, in Adam Olearius, Opisanie puteshestviia v Moskoviiu (1906 [mid-seventeenth century]). BUK VO Regional Universal Scientific Library, Russia.

IMAGE 13: A Western-European Physician at the Russian Court. After Unknown Artist, Portrait of Mark Ridley (1560-1624), physician and mathematician; he became personal physical to the Russian Tsar in the 1590s. Line engraving, circa 1613 (1594). 5 3/8 in. x 3 3/4 in. (136 mm x 94 mm) paper size. NPG D40451. © National Portrait Gallery, London.

IMAGE 14: Magic and Folklore in Russia. Unknown creator, ‘Baba Yaga riding a pig and fighting the infernal Crocodile. Russian lubok (a possible satire of Peter the Great and his wife)’, early 17th century. Image source: Baldina Ol’ga Dmitrievna. Russkie narodnye kartinki (Moskva, Molodaya Gvardiya, 1972), downloaded from Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

IMAGE 15: Russia in the Seventeenth Century. ‘Tabvla Rvssiae’ (1665), in Joan Blaeu (1596-1673), Atlas Maior Sive Cosmographia Blaviana, Qua Solvm, Salvm, Coelvm, Accvratissime Describvntvr (Amsterdam: Joan Blaeu, 1665). Description: “Blaeu’s 11 volume Atlas Maior is considered by many to be the greatest atlas ever published, both in its own time and even today. It excels in comprehensiveness, engraving, color, and overall production….This copy is from the National Library of Scotland and we are grateful to them for providing scanned images of the atlas as part of a joint project under the guidance of Christopher Fleet, Senior Map Curator at the NLS.” Dimensions: Object Height: 43 cm; Object Width: 55 cm. List Number: 10017.089. Pub LIst Number: 10017.000. Image Number: 104187395.1.jp2. National Library of Scotland / David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. © 2000 by Cartography Associates. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

IMAGE 16: Moscow in the Seventeenth Century. ‘Tabulam Vrbis Moskvae’ (1665), in Joan Blaeu (1596-1673), Atlas Maior Sive Cosmographia Blaviana, Qua Solvm, Salvm, Coelvm, Accvratissime Describvntvr (Amsterdam: Joan Blaeu, 1665). Dimensions: Object Height: 37 cm; Object Width: 48 cm. List Number: 10017.091. Pub List Number: 10017.000. Image Number: 104187401.1.jp2. National Library of Scotland / David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. © 2000 by Cartography Associates. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

IMAGE 17: Group of boyars [Russian nobles], detail from ‘Tabvla Rvssiae’ (1665), in Joan Blaeu (1596-1673), Atlas Maior (1665).

IMAGE 18: Inset view of the port of Archangel [‘Archangelsckagoroda’], detail from ‘Tabvla Rvssiae’ (1665), in Joan Blaeu (1596-1673), Atlas Maior (1665).

IMAGE 19: A tobacco plant, with a smoker of tobacco on the side, in Matthias de L’Obel and Pierre Pena, Stirpium adversaria nova, perfacilis vestigatio luculentaque accessio ad priscorum, praesertim Dioscoridis, et recentiorum materiam medicam. Quibus propediem accedet altera pars (London: T. Purfoot, 1570[71]). Wellcome Library, Record no. 28169657. Photo Number: M0011077. Wellcome Collection, downloaded from Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

IMAGE 20: Introducing sassafras to a Spanish-reading audience. Title Page, Nicolás Monardes, Primera y segunda y tercera partes de la historia medicinal de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias Occidentales que siruen en medicina (Seville: Alonso Escriuano, 1574). Signatura: R/9108, U/5426. Biblioteca Digital Hispánica, Biblioteca Nacional de España.

IMAGE 21: Translating sassafras for a Latin-reading audience. Title Page, Nicolás Monardes, De simplicibvs medicamentis ex occidentali India delatis quorum in medicina vsvs est (Antwerp: Ex officina Christophori Plantini, 1574), translated by Carolus Clusius. Missouri Botanical Garden, Peter H. Raven Library, downloaded from Biodiversity Heritage Library. Public Domain.

IMAGE 22: Translating sassafras for an Italian-reading audience. Title Page, Delle cose che vengono portate dall’Indie Occidentali pertinenti all’uso della medicina (Venice: Presso di Giordano Ziletti, 1575). Missouri Botanical Garden, Peter H. Raven Library, downloaded from Biodiversity Heritage Library. Public Domain.

IMAGE 23: Translating sassafras for an English-reading audience. Title Page, Nicolás Monardes, Ioyful nevves ovt of the newe founde worlde, wherein is declared the rare and singuler vertues of diuerse and sundrie Hearbes, Trees, Oyles, Plantes, and Stones (London: Poules Churche-yearde, by Willyam Norton, 1577), translated by Jhon Frampton. Beinecke Digital Collections, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University.

IMAGE 24: Making sassafras visible. ‘The Sassafras’, in Nicolás Monardes, Ioyful nevves ovt of the newe founde worlde, wherein is declared the rare and singuler vertues of diuerse and sundrie Hearbes, Trees, Oyles, Plantes, and Stones (London: Poules Churche-yearde, by Willyam Norton, 1577), translated by Jhon Frampton, folio 45v. Description: “Monardes was the first to write of sassafras and advocate its use. During the sixteenth century, sassafras was one of the foremost of New World exports and was used in the treatment of syphilis, as well as to cure fevers, including those from malaria. Scientific name: Sassafras officinale.” Technique: Woodcut. Image Height: 11.1 cm. Image Width: 6.7 cm. Page Height: 17.5 cm. Page Width: 13 cm. Materials medium: ink. Materials support: paper. Accession number: 01798. Record number: 01798-1. JCB call number: B577 M735j. Provenance/Donor: Acquired in 1854. ©John Carter Brown Library, Box 1894, Brown University, Providence, R.I. 02912.

IMAGE 25: The beginning of Monardes’ textual description of Sassafras, in Nicolás Monardes, Ioyful nevves ovt of the newe founde worlde (London, 1577), translated by Jhon Frampton, folio 46r. ©John Carter Brown Library, Box 1894, Brown University, Providence, R.I. 02912.

IMAGE 26: Translating sassafras for a French-reading audience. Title page, Nicolás Monardes, Histoire des simples medicamens apportés de l’Ameriqve, in Histoire des drogues, espiceries, et de certains medicamens simples, qui naissent és Indes & en l’Amérique, divisé en deux parties. La première comprise en quatre livres: les deux premiers de M. Garcie du Jardin, le troisiesme de M Christophle de la Coste, & le quatriesme de l’Histoire du Baulme adjoustée de nouveau en ceste seconde edition: où il est prouvé, que nous avons le vray Baulme d’Arabie, contre l’opinion des anciens & modernes. La seconde composée de deux livres de maistre Nicolas Monard, traictant de ce qui nous est apporté de l’Amérique Le tout fidellement translaté en François, par Antoine Colin, maître apothicaire juré de la ville de Lyon, par luy augmenté de beaucoup d’annotations, de diverses drogues estrangeres, & illustrée de plusieurs figures, non encore veuës (Lyon: Jean Pillehotte rue Mercière, 1619), 2nd edition [first edition, 1602]. BU Lyon 1, Université Lyon 1, France.

IMAGE 27: Spanish Florida, an important source of sassafras. ‘Map of the Peninsula of Florida’ (1639?). Attributed to Joan Vinckeboons. Description: “Depths shown by soundings. Shows the Peninsula of Florida and adjacent islands from Rio de las Flores and includes coastline, coastal features, and pictorial representation of palm trees along the Atlantic Coast near St. Augustine with most of geographic names in Spanish. Pen-and-ink and watercolor. Attributed to Joan Vinckeboons by comparison with his other Dutch maps in Henry Harrisse collection.” Medium: 1 ms. map : col., paper backing ; 50 x 71 cm. Call Number/Physical Location: G3291.S12 coll .H3. Library of Congress Control Number: 2003629547. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, Washington, D.C.

IMAGE 28: Entangled empires. ‘North America divided into its pricipall parts, viz. Arctick lands, New North Wales, N. South Wales, N. Brittain, Canada, N. France, N. Scotland, N. England, N. York, N. Jarsey, Mary-Land, Virginia, Carolina, Florida, Mexico, the islands of New Found Land, California, the Antilles, in which are distinguished the severall countries as they are possessed by the English, Spanish, and French, &c.’ (London: Sold by William Berry at the sign of the globe between Charing Cross and White-Hall, 1680). Description: “Relief shown pictorially. At upper right: Described by Sanson, corrected and amended by William Berry. Prime meridian: Ferro. Includes ill. Sectioned and mounted on cloth backing.” Medium: 1 map : hand col. ; 53 x 86 cm. Call Number/Physical Location: G3300 1680 .B4. Library of Congress Control Number: 2002621143. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, Washington, D.C.

IMAGE 29: The Tsar, surrounded by nobles. ‘Le Czar faisant des chevaliers le ses ordres’, engraved view from ‘Carte des ordres de chevalerie de Sa Majeste Czarienne, ses titres, l’etat de sa noblesse, profil de son palais et la vue de Moscow’, Tome 4, No. 34 [to accompany] Atlas Historique, Ou Nouvelle Introduction A l’Histoire, aÌ la Chronologie & aÌ la Geìographie Ancienne & Moderne : Repreìsenteìe dans de Nouvelles Cartes, OuÌ l’on remarque l’Etablissement des Etats & Empires du Monde, leur dureìe, leur chute, & leurs differens Gouvernemens … Par Mr. C.***. Avec des Dissertations sur l’Histoire de chaque Etat. Par Mr. Gueudeville. Amsterdam, chez l’Honore & Chatelain. Tome 1-7 (Amsterdam: chez les Freres Chatelain Libraires, 1714). Description: “First edition of this Historical atlas of the world, with new introduction to history and chronology and updated maps, in 7 volumes, dated 1714-1720. By Henri Abraham Chatelain and descriptive text for volumes I-VI, by Nicolas Gueudeville. … Volumes are bound in brown leather covers with gold-embossed on spine and title “Atlas Historique Tom …” stamped in gold. … The maps were accompanied by information pertaining to cosmography, geography, history, chronology, genealogy, topography, heraldry, and costumes of the world. … An ambitious and beautifully-presented work, the Atlas Historique was intended for the general public, fascinated in the early eighteenth century by the recently conquered colonies and the new discoveries. Distant countries, such as the Americas, Africa, the Middle East, Mongolia, China, Japan, Indonesia, etc., take an important place in this work. … Other sections deal with the history of the [E]uropean countries, and covers a wide range of subjects including genealogy, history, cosmography, topography, heraldry and chronology, costume of the world, all illustrated with numerous engraved maps, plates of local inhabitants and heraldic charts of the lineages of the ruling families of the time. … (From Paulus Swaen catalog)”. Dimensions: Object Height: 45 cm; Object Width: 53 cm. List Number: 13272.412. Pub List Number: 13272.000. Image Number: 13272412.jp2. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. © 2000 by Cartography Associates. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

IMAGE 30: The Tsar’s palace in the eighteenth century. ‘Palais du Czar de Moscovie’, engraved view from ‘Carte des ordres de chevalerie de Sa Majeste Czarienne, ses titres, l’etat de sa noblesse, profil de son palais et la vue de Moscow’ (1714). David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. © 2000 by Cartography Associates. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

IMAGE 31: Moscow in the eighteenth century. ‘Vue de la ville de Moscow’, engraved view from ‘Carte des ordres de chevalerie de Sa Majeste Czarienne, ses titres, l’etat de sa noblesse, profil de son palais et la vue de Moscow’ (1714). David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. © 2000 by Cartography Associates. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

IMAGE 32: A Changing City. ‘Plan Imperatorskago Stolichnago goroda Moskvy [Moscow]’ (1739), in Russischer Atlas [Atlas Russicus]: Welcher in einer General-Charte und neunzehen Special-Charten das gesamte Russische Reich und dessen angraentzende Laender, nach den Regeln der Erd-Beschreibung und den ne Academie der Wissenschafften (St. Petersburg: Kayserl. Academie der Wissenschafften, 1745), page 22. Authors: Joseph Nicolas de L’Isle, Akademiia nauk SSSR; Academie der Wissenschafften; Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg. Description: “A detail color plan of Moscow, showing the streets and individual buildings, and rivers…[Part of the ] first atlas of Russia, published by the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, expanding on the cartographic work done previously by Ivan K. Kirilov….Bound in reddish brown contemporary Russian binding in full calf with simple tooling. Atlas was printed in September 1745 in St. Petersburg in Russian, Latin, French and German, with engravers listed as Ellinger, Unversagt, Zubov and Rostovtsev.” Dimensions: Object Height: 43 cm; Object Width: 53 cm. Scale: 1 : 22,260. List Number: 5825.029. Pub List Number: 5825.000. Image number: 5825029. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. © 2000 by Cartography Associates. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

IMAGE 33: Russian Imperial Expansion made visible. ‘Imperii Russici Tabula Generalis’, 1734. Creator: Ivan Kirilov (1689-1737). Description: “Map of Russian Empire. Russian title is in upper left and Latin title is in upper right. Shows provinces, major cities, towns, rivers and lakes. Relief shown pictorially. Includes decorative cartouches decorated with landscape and allegorical figures. Kirilov’s map was the first map published in Russia to show the entire country.” Dimensions: Object Height: 57 cm; Object Width: 91 cm. Scale: 1: 12,000,000. Pub List Number: 13253.000. Image Number: 13253000.jp2. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. © 2000 by Cartography Associates. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

IMAGE 34: Rhubarb: a valuable Asian medical commodity. Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), ‘Rheubarbarum Verum’, in Kircher, China monumentis : qua sacris quà profanis, nec non variis naturae & artis spectaculis, aliarumque rerum memorabilium argumentis illustrata (Amsterdam: Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge and Elisée Weyerstraet, 1667). Fondo Antiguo de la Biblioteca de la Universidad de Sevilla, Spain, downloaded from Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0).

IMAGE 35: The Great Northern Expedition. Sven Larsson Waxell, ‘Bering’s first encounter with Aleuts at Shumagin Island. Drawing by Sven Waxell, the mate of Bering’s ship St. Peter’, circa 1741.

IMAGE 36: Exploring the New World from the West. ‘Carte des Decouv.tes de l’Am.al de Fonte selon la Carte Angloise donnée par l’Ecrivain du Vaisseu la Californie dans son Voyage à la Bay d’Hudson Avec les Terres vuës et reconnues pars les Russes…’ (c. 1752) in Phillipe Bauche, Considerations Geographiques Et Physiques Sur Les Nouvelles Decouvertes Au Nord de La Grande Mer Appellee Vulgairement La Mer Du Sud; avec des cartes, qui y sont relatives … (Paris: Academie Royale des Sciences, 1753). Description: “Color map of the North Pacific and contiguous parts of the Northwest Coast of America and Northeast Coast of Asia. Includes exploration by the Russians up to 1750, and by de Fonte. Shows Bay of the West and the channel for a water course via the Archipel de St. Lazare ou Strait of Anian toward Hudson’s Bay. Above neat line at right: IIe. Carte du Mem. lu a l’Acad. le 9 Aout 1752. Page 13. Includes historical tracks of various voyages”. Dimensions: Object Height: 22 cm; Object Width: 31 cm. Scale: 1 : 30,096,000. List Number: 11780.004. Pub List Number: 11780.000. Image Number: 11780004.jp2. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. © 2000 by Cartography Associates. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

IMAGE 37: Russian Expansion into Alaska. ‘Nuove Scoperte de’ Russi al nord del Mare del Sud si nell’ Asia’ (1776), in Atlante novissimo, illustrato ed accresciuto sulle osservazioni, e scoperte fatte dai piu celebri e piu recenti geografi (Venice: Antonio Zatta, 1779-1784, 4 tomes), Tome III, page 42. Description: “Engraved hand-colored in outline, double-page map of the northwest coast of North America and northeast Asia including the North Pacific Ocean to the Bering Strait and the Kamchatka Peninsula. Alaska shown by a group of islands off the coast of Russia, identified as Isole Alessiane. There is a notation of the Chinese colony of Fou-Sang in the vicinity of Vancouver Island. Map shows political divisions, cities, towns, coastal towns, mountains and rivers…Bound in half leather marbled covered boards with “Atlante novissi. Venez, 1788 P.A. Zat.” stamped in gold on spine.” Dimensions: Object Height: 31 cm; Object Width: 39 cm. Scale: 1 : 25,000,000. List Number: 11598.240. Pub List Number: 11598.000. Image Number: 11598240.jp2. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. © 2000 by Cartography Associates. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

IMAGE 38: Encountering New World peoples. ‘An Aleutian’, in William Alexander (1767-1816), Picturesque Representations of the Dress and Manners of the Russians, Illustrated in Sixty-Four Coloured Engravings, with Descriptions’(London: Goodwin, [1814?]), plate 49. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 39: Magic in Siberia. ‘A Bratzkian Schaman, or Female Magician’, in W. Alexander, Picturesque Representations, plate 55. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 40: Magic and Healing. Description of ‘A Bratzkian Schaman, or Female Magician’, in W. Alexander, Picturesque Representations, following plate 55. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 41: What are the challenges of re-constructing non-‘elite’ ways of knowing? ‘A Russian Peasant’, in W. Alexander, Picturesque Representations, plate 64. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

IMAGE 42: River transportation. Adam Olearius, ‘Strug on the Volga’, in Adam Olearius, Opisanie puteshestviia v Moskoviiu (1906 [mid-seventeenth century]). BUK VO Regional Universal Scientific Library, Russia.

IMAGE 43: Overland transportation . ‘Russia: people carrying goods on sledges over the snow’ (London: Alexander Hogg, 1785). Lettering: “Various carriages & sledges used for the conveyance of goods, merchandise, &c. during the winter in Russia. [ ] Engraved for Millar’s New Complete Universal System of Geography; an elegant performance including all the modern discoveries and universally acknowledged to be the best geographical work ever published. Smith sculp [engraving by Smith].” Physical Description: 1 print : engraving ; image 16.4 x 25.8 cm. Reference: Wellcome Library no. 37027i. Wellcome Collection. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

IMAGE 44: Continuing traditions of healing. ‘A lame man being doused in water from a holy spring to procure a miraculous cure’ (1903). Description: “Possibly a scene in Sarepta, which is apparently the name of the German colony at Krasnoarmeisk (Krasnoarmeysk) on the west bank of the Volga near Volgograd (Tsaritsyn, Stalingrad), which has natural mineral waters”. Lettering: “A “miraculous” healing in the Saint Source in Sarapa.” Physical Description: 1 drawing : pen and ink. Reference: Wellcome Library no. 22761i. Wellcome Collection. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

The Global History Podcast is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://theglobalhistorypodcast.com/

Click on the images below to open the gallery and view them full-size.

Welcome to the tenth episode of the Global History Podcast. Today, we’d like to welcome David M. Carballo, Assistant Provost for General Education and Associate Professor of Archaeology, Anthropology, and Latin American Studies at Boston University. In his own words, Professor Carballo “is a specialist in Mesoamerican archaeology, focusing particularly on the prehispanic civilizations of central Mexico. Currently ongoing projects at the ancient city of Teotihuacan include the Proyecto Arqueológico Tlajinga, Teotihuacan (PATT), and the Proyecto Plaza de las Columnas”. His academic interests include “households, ritual, political evolution, urbanism, cooperation and conflict, craft production and exchange, GIS, archaeometry, and lithic analysis”. 

He is the author of Obsidian and the Teotihuacan State: Weaponry and Ritual Production at the Moon Pyramid (2011), Cooperation and Collective Action: Archaeological Perspectives (2013), and Urbanization and Religion in Ancient Central Mexico (2016), and the co-editor of Obsidian Reflections: Symbolic Dimensions of Obsidian in Mesoamerica (2014). His most recent book is Collision of Worlds: A Deep History of the Fall of Aztec Mexico and the Forging of New Spain (2020), which will be published by Oxford University Press this July.

About a week ago, Chase spoke with Professor Carballo over skype about this new book, which foregrounds an approach to history over the long term. This is a perspective which takes into account centuries and even millennia of archaeological and historical developments across such areas as warfare and weaponry, plant and animal domestication, and trade and exchange, inviting us to view the Conquest of Mexico and the forging of New Spain on a broader temporal canvas. Listen on to find out more.

If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments about this episode, or would like to pitch us an idea for a new episode, feel free to email us at [email protected], or send us a message on our website’s contact form, facebook, twitter, or instagram. If you would like to consult further resources on global history, feel free to visit our ‘Further Resources‘ page.

• Facebook

IMAGE 1: Book Cover, David M. Carballo, Collision of Worlds: A Deep History of the Fall of Aztec Mexico and the Forging of New Spain (Oxford University Press, 2020). Thank you to Jenny Rossberg for providing the image of this cover, and for Stefan Vranka for permitting its use here (both of Oxford University Press).

IMAGE 2: Mesoamerican Monumental Architecture. ‘Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan’, Mexico. 100-250 CE. Description: “This great pyramid, one of the largest pre-Hispanic structures in the Americas, looms over the grid-plan city of Teotihuacan. This city dominated central Mexico from the first to the ninth centuries, when the city was burned and slowly abandoned. But the city was never forgotten. Although a ruin, it was well known to the Aztecs, who built their capital city of Tenochtitlan only about 40 kilometers away. It was they who gave the name Teotihuacan to the site, “City of the Gods,” believing that their present world had been created by self-sacrificing deities in the ancient city. Like the earlier urban behemoth, Tenochtitlan also had a grid plan, and Aztec city planners may have been inspired by Teotihuacan.” Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy, Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820, Vistas Gallery.

IMAGE 3: ‘View of Teotihuacan looking south from the Moon Pyramid to the Sun Pyramid and Street of the Dead’, in Collision of Worlds, Plate 2a. Photograph: David M. Carballo. The reproduction of this image in Collision of Worlds is authorized by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico. Thank you to Prof. Carballo for providing this image.

IMAGE 4: A Roman Inheritance. ‘Acueducto romano de Segovia’ (Roman Aqueduct of Segovia), c. 50 BC. Photograph: Jesusccastillo. ‘This is a photo of a monument indexed in the Spanish heritage register of Bienes de Interés Cultural under the reference RI-51-0000043.’ Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Spain (CC BY-SA 3.0 ES).

IMAGE 5: Islamic Influences in Spain. ‘Seville and Guadalquivir river with Islamic tower (the Tower of Gold) in foreground and minaret in background, both with later Christian additions’, in Collision of Worlds, Plate 3b. Photograph: David M. Carballo. Thank you to Prof. Carballo for providing this image.

IMAGE 6: An influential symbol of the ‘reconquista’. ‘Santiago Matamoros. Lateral de la [I]glesia de Santiago, Valladolid. c. 1500.’ Photograph: Luis Fernández García. Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0).

IMAGE 7: A Spanish Dominican friar’s depiction of the founding of Tenochtitlan. Diego Durán, Codex Durán (The History of the Indies of New Spain), c. 1581. Downloaded from Latin American Studies.

IMAGE 8: An indigenous Mesoamerican artist’s depiction of the founding of Tenochtitlan. ‘Codex Mendoza, Foundation of Tenochtitlan’, 1535-1550 CE. Current location: Bodleian Library, Oxford, United Kingdom. Description: “This painted manuscript page depicts the foundation of the Aztec capital city, Tenochtitlan. The painting is the first, and one of the most elaborate, images in the Codex Mendoza. The Codex was created by indigenous painters in the mid-16th century, probably at the behest of the first Viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza. It recalls and documents imperial tribute lists, royal history, and practices of daily life among the pre-Hispanic Aztec.” Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy, Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820, Vistas Gallery.

IMAGE 9: Map of Tenochtitlán from the first Latin edition of the Second Letter of Hernán Cortés to Emperor Charles V, 1524. Description: “Between July 1519 and September 1526, Hernán Cortés (1485‒1547), the soldier and adventurer who in 1519‒21 conquered for Spain what is now central and southern Mexico, sent five extended letters to Emperor Charles V in which he described his exploits and placed himself and his actions in a favorable light. This book contains the first Latin edition of Cortés’s second letter. In it, Cortés gives an account of his first meeting with the Aztec emperor, Montezuma II (whom he calls Moctezuma), and describes the vast extent and richness of his empire. Dated October 30, 1520, the letter was translated from Spanish into Latin by Petrus Savorgnanus and printed in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1524. This printing also contains the first published plan of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán (present-day Mexico City, labeled Temixtitan on the map), which Cortés and his army attacked and destroyed in May 1521. Cortés had made an earlier attempt to capture the city but retreated in July 1520, defeated by the Aztecs, and the plan depicts the city in that year. Tenochtitlán was founded in the 14th century on an island in the salt lake of Texcoco. Upon occupying the city, the Spanish pulled down its central parts and replaced the Aztec temples with buildings constructed in the Spanish style, but they left the street layout virtually intact. The plan is oriented with west at the top. The square at the center is a ritual area and shows a stepped pyramid temple with the sun showing between the two towers, marked as Templum ubi Sacrificant (Temple of Sacrifice). Also shown are Moctezuma’s palace (south of center, identified as Domus Don Muteczuma [House of Don Moctezuma]) and two racks of severed heads. Wide causeways connect the island city to the shores of the lake. Alongside the street plan of the city in the fold-out woodcut is a map of the Caribbean basin. This copy, from the Edward E. Ayer Manuscript Collection in the Newberry Library, Chicago, contains a hand-colored version of the city plan and map. The Cortés letters lauded Charles V as a latter-day Caesar, whose territories were vastly expanded by his empire in the New World. In the letters Cortés clearly hoped to consolidate his own authority by underlining his services to the emperor.” The Newberry Library, Chicago. Image downloaded from the World Digital Library.

IMAGE 10: ‘Codex Ixtlilxochitl, Aztec Noble’, 1580-1584 CE. Current location: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, France. Description: “This figure of an Aztec noble, from a colonial manuscript painted in New Spain, emphasizes his elaborate regalia. His cape represents one sign of high status. Other accoutrements evoking his social position include his jewelry, gold anklets and feathered hair ornaments. Set against a blank ground, the noble appears today as part portrait, part specimen.” Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy, Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820, Vistas Gallery. Photo Credit: © Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 2003.

IMAGE 11: Medellín, Badajoz, Spain, birthplace of the conquistador Hernán Cortés. Photograph: David M. Carballo. Thank you to Prof. Carballo for providing this image.

IMAGE 12: A retrospective portent of conquest? ‘Moctezuma views an ominous comet’. Diego Durán, Codex Durán (The History of the Indies of New Spain), c. 1581. Downloaded from Latin American Studies.

IMAGE 13: Title Page, showing the arrival of Hernán Cortés and his ships, men, and horses in Mexico. ‘General History of the Things of New Spain by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún: The Florentine Codex. Book XII: The Conquest of Mexico’, 1577. Description: “Historia general de las cosas de nueva España (General history of the things of New Spain) is an encyclopedic work about the people and culture of central Mexico compiled by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590), a Franciscan missionary who arrived in Mexico in 1529, eight years after completion of the Spanish conquest by Hernan Cortés. Commonly referred to as the Florentine Codex, the manuscript consists of 12 books devoted to different topics. Book XII recounts the Spanish conquest of Mexico, which took place between 1519, when Cortés landed on the coast with just over 100 men and a few horses, and 1521, when Tenochtitlan was taken and the Aztecs subjugated. The story is told from the perspective of indigenous elders who were living in Tenochtitlan at the time of the conquest and witnessed firsthand the events described. Sahagún gathered these accounts around 1553–55, when he was working at the College of Santa Cruz in Tlatelolco. The Nahuatl narrative begins with an evocation of the “signs and omens” that were said to have appeared before the arrival of the Spanish and concludes with the surrender of Tenochtitlan after an 80-day siege. By drawing upon primary accounts, Sahagún was able to capture the astonishment felt by the Aztecs and the trauma that followed their defeat at the hands of the Spanish. Among the key factors that determined the Spanish victory were the ruthlessness of the Spanish soldiers and of Cortés in particular, the use of horses and firearms, which the Mesoamericans had never seen, and Cortés’s intuition that the peoples of the Aztec Empire were prepared to join forces with him to shake off Aztec rule. Book XII contains numerous illustrations depicting scenes from the conquest, including the arrival of Cortés, an image of the Templo Mayor (Great Pyramid) in Tenochtitlan, battles between the indigenous people and the Spanish, and destruction of Aztec temples by the Spanish.” Physical Description: “Bound as part of volume 3. Ink on paper. 310 x 212 millimeters”. Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence. Downloaded from the World Digital Library.

IMAGE 14: Objects and Encounter. ‘Cortes receives gifts from Moctezuma’s emissaries.’ Diego Durán, Codex Durán (The History of the Indies of New Spain), c. 1581. Downloaded from Latin American Studies.

IMAGE 15: The importance of translation: Hernán Cortés marches with his army, porters, and his translator Malintzin (also known as La Malinche). He and Malintzin can be seen on the bottom-right of the image. Histoire mexicaine, dit “Codex Azcatítlan”, 1501-1600 CE. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, France, Département des Manuscrits. Mexicain 59-64. Format: European paper, 25 folios. Public Domain.

IMAGE 16: Translation and Encounter. ‘The meeting of Cortés and Moctezuma II, with Malinche acting as interpreter’, original: ca. 1550 CE, lithographic copy by Alfred Chavero (Homenaje á Cristóbal Colón: Antigüedades mexicanas), 1892. Description: ‘Tenochtitlan, Entrance of Hernan Cortes. Cortez and La Malinche meet Moctezuma II. November 8, 1519. The image is from the “Lienzo de Tlaxcala”, created by the Tlaxcalans to remind the Spanish of their loyalty to Castile and the importance of Tlaxcala during the Conquest. The text mixes European and native styles and includes anachronisms, such as the European-style chairs included in this image.’ Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley, downloaded from Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

IMAGE 17: ‘Lienzo de Tlaxcala, Cortés greets Xicotencatl’, 1545-1555 CE. Current Location: Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas, Austin. Description: “This scene depicts two famous alliances in the history of the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs. The first is between Xicotencatl, the head of the indigenous state of Tlaxcala, and Hernán Cortés, the leader of the Spanish conquistadors. The second alliance is that between Córtes and his translator, doña Marina, who appears in the center of the image.” Photo Credit: Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas, Austin. Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy, Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820, Vistas Gallery.

IMAGE 18: ‘Main scene of the 1773 copy of the Lienzo de Tlaxcala.’ Description: A copy [of the sixteenth-century lienzo] was painted in 1773, in an updated eighteenth-century style. Shading was used extensively in this copy to give bodies and draped clothing an appareance of three-dimensionality…In 1787 municipal official Nicolás Faustino Mazihcatzin y Calmecahua wrote an image-by-image description of the cloth, and said that it had been created during the reign of Viceroy don Luis de Velasco (1550-1564). Mazihcatzin also claimed that three copies once existed: one created to be sent across the Atlantic to the Emperor, one created to be sent to the Viceroy in Mexico City, and one to be kept in Tlaxcala. The 1773 copy still survives, housed in storage at the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City. The fate of the original cotton cloth (or cloths, if three were painted) is unclear. One was still in Tlaxcala until the 1860s. Then, during the French occupation of Mexico (1862 – 1867), the sixteenth-century Lienzo was taken from Tlaxcala to Mexico City so that a copy could be made by the French Scientific Commission, when the Emperor Maximilian was executed…[a]nd the French driven out, Tlaxcalan authorities tried to recover their stolen document. But it could not be found, and remains lost.’ Information and image from ‘Introduction to the Lienzo de Tlaxcala: History and Publications’, Mesolore.

IMAGE 19: ‘Tlaxcalan warriors together with their [S]paniard allies. Lienzo de Tlaxcala. XVI Century’, lithographic copy by Alfred Chavero (Homenaje á Cristóbal Colón: Antigüedades mexicanas), 1892. Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons, which likely sourced its image from ‘Introduction to the Lienzo de Tlaxcala’, Mesolore: ‘Mesolore’s recreation of the Lienzo is made from digital scans of lithographs based on tracings taken from a cloth original.’

IMAGE 20: ‘Description of the City and Province of Tlaxcala, Pizarro offers Peru and Cortés offers Mexico [to the Spanish monarchs]’, 1581-1584 CE. Author: Diego Muñoz Camargo. Artist(s): Unknown. Current Location: Glasgow University Library, United Kingdom. Description: “This drawing comes from the history entitled, Description of the City and Province of Tlaxcala, written by Diego Muñoz Camargo (ca. 1529-99), a mestizo historian from New Spain. It shows an imagined scene where the Hernán Cortés, who conquered the Aztecs, and Francisco Pizarro, who fought the Inka, present their conquests, personified as a man and woman, to the Spanish kings, whose images appeared on the following pages. The Spaniards are historical individuals, but the native couple personifies the riches of the Americas, both material and spiritual: the native man presents a chest of coins, the woman prays before a crucifix. With arms wrapped around their charges, Cortés and Pizarro present this emblematic couple as their own offerings to the monarch.” Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy, Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820, Vistas Gallery. Photo Credit: Glasgow University Library.

IMAGE 21: Title page, Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España (The True History of the Conquest of New Spain) (Madrid, 1632) ‘brought forth’ [edited from the manuscript] by Alonso Remón. Universidad de Sevilla, downloaded from Wikimedia Commons.

IMAGE 22: ‘Description of the City and Province of Tlaxcala, Burning of “idols”‘, 1581-1584 CE. Author: Diego Muñoz Camargo. Artist(s): Unknown. Current Location: Glasgow University Library, United Kingdom. Description: ‘This drawing comes from the history entitled, Description of the City and Province of Tlaxcala, written by Diego Muñoz Camargo (ca. 1529-99), a mestizo historian from New Spain. This page depicts the destruction of Aztec deity images and religious paraphernalia at the hands of Catholic friars in the 16th century, shortly after the Spanish conquest.’ Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy, Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820, Vistas Gallery. Photo Credit: Glasgow University Library.

IMAGE 23: Map of Cholula, Tlaxcala Mexico, 1581. Relaciones Geográficas of Mexico and Guatemala, 1577-1585, Joaquín García Icazbalceta Manuscript Collection, Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas at Austin. Description: “This map from Cholula in the present-day state of Puebla, Mexico, is from the Relaciones Geográficas collection in the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. Dating from between 1578 and 1586, the Relaciones Geográficas are responses to a questionnaire initiated by the Spanish crown in 1577, requesting information about Spanish-held territories in the Americas. The questionnaires covered such topics as demographics, political administration, languages spoken, physical terrain, and vegetation. The crown received 191 responses to these questionnaires. Of the 167 responses known to exist, 43 are in the Benson Latin American Collection. The others are held at the Archivo General de Indias, Seville, and the Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid. The relaciones contain important historical, cultural, and geographical information about New Spain during the 16th century. Many of the questionnaires are accompanied by maps and pictures. These both convey information about such topics as the colonial economy and the spread of European religion in New Spain and are artifacts for the study of the history of Latin American art and manuscript painting. This map dates from 1581 and has glosses in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, and in Spanish.” Dimensions: 31 x 44 cm. Image downloaded from the World Digital Library.

IMAGE 24: View of the Church of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, built on top of the Great Pyramid in Cholula, Mexico. Description from Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy, ‘Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, Cholula’, Vistas Gallery, Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820 (2015): “About 70 miles from Mexico City, the Catholic church of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios crowns the huge mass of Cholula’s great pre-Hispanic pyramid complex, a sprawling set of plazas and pyramids built around the 10th century. By the 13th century, well before the arrival of the Spaniards, it seems to have fallen into disuse. 16th century Spanish observers said it looked like an overgrown hill….At the top of the pyramid, the church is dedicated to Our Lady of Mercy, the Virgin Mary as protector of the living and intercessor on behalf of souls. This church, finished in 1864, replaced an earlier one built in the 17th century. The great pyramid had a mud brick and rubble core and was once was covered by an exterior face of finished stonework. Its base has been partially reconstructed in modern times. The scale and formal design gives a sense of the sacred site’s built environment in its heyday….The great pyramid was the work of indigenous builders, working over centuries. Early mounds may have dated to the 1st century, the time that the metropolis of Teotihuacan was being built. The early earthworks still lie at the heart of the present pyramid, which was continuously enlarged over the centuries. After the conquest, the pyramid became the base for Catholic shrines. Some simple construction, perhaps merely a platform with a cross, seems to have been erected at the top of the pyramid by Cholula’s Franciscans in the 16th century. A larger chapel followed, finished in 1666. This chapel is recorded in 19th century engravings of the pyramid, but was replaced with the present church in 1864….Pre-Columbian architects aimed to create massive solid platforms upon which perched small sacred shrines. Their approach was quite different from that introduced by friars, which emphasized the creation of large interior spaces. The dismantling of the pyramid, begun in ancient times, continued under the Spaniards. Any extant cut facing stones were likely removed to build Cholula’s many 16th-century churches. The exposed mud brick eroded, and a map of Cholula from 1580 shows the pyramid’s base to be cut through by newly laid city streets….Cholula was a largely indigenous city through the colonial period, and once an important pre-Hispanic religious center, dedicated to the cult of the deity Quetzalcoatl. The pyramid below the church, which some believe may have been one of the largest of all pre-Hispanic constructions, was rebuilt several several times by pre-Columbian people and served as a pilgrimage site. Today, Cholula is famous for its large number of colonial-period churches—with each neighborhood having its own….For modern viewers, the sight of a church on a pyramid makes visible the imposition of Christianity on native religion. In the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly in indigenous towns, friars consciously tried to erase visible reminders of pre-Hispanic religion (and pre-Hispanic structures also were a convenient source for building materials). Unlike the great Templo Mayor in Mexico City, which was razed to street level, the great pyramid at Cholula was simply left as an overgrown ruin, eventually melding with the surrounding landscape.” Photograph: David M. Carballo. Thank you to Prof. Carballo for providing this image.

IMAGE 25: Church of San Gabriel, Cholula, Mexico, 1555-1570. Description from Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy, ‘San Gabriel, Cholula’, Vistas Gallery, Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820 (2015): “This sixteenth century “fortress church” was designed by Franciscan friars as part of their efforts to evangelize the Nahuas in Central Mexico. It was meant to replace the nearby pre-Hispanic pyramid as a center of religious and ritual life….Like most mendicant churches built in native communities, Cholula is a simple, single-nave church. The battlements at the roof were not literally for defense, although they may have been included to emphasize the metaphoric “military conquest” of New Spain. Above the main door, a pattern of carved flowers frames the deep-set round window. Its style reveals it to have been carved by a native artisan. To the left, the enormous Capilla Real (“Royal Chapel”) is the only one of its kind in New Spain. Its roof is supported by a forest of columns and its architecture most closely resembles the Great Mosque in Córdoba, Spain….San Gabriel was built by the Franciscans, who were charged with the evangelization of this densely populated region of central Mexico. Although some friars had training in architecture and engineering, they also relied on the skills of native builders to create the large, vaulted structures….The church is built of stone, brick and masonry. It was plastered and painted both inside and out. The interior vaulting systems used throughout to support the roof were European technology that the mendicant friars introduced to native builders. Since pre-Hispanic sacred architecture emphasized mass (great pyramids) rather than volume (interior space), such churches were as novel among 16th century Amerindians as the Christianity they sought to inspire….Between 1530 and 1580, mendicant friars commissioned hundreds of churches and dozens of larger monastic complexes like this one in New Spain. During its heyday, Cholula’s monastery buzzed with activity, as more than thirty friars taught native children from elite families within, and catechized adults in the outside courtyard. This same church complex appears at the center of the Relación Geográfica map from Cholula (also in Vistas), showing that other than the change in color, the building’s outward appearance has changed little over four hundred years….The Catholic church was deeply embedded into the fabric of urban life in Spanish America. Franciscans pointedly chose Choulua as a center for evangelization, since it was once a center for worship of the pre-Hispanic deity Quetzalcoatl, whose pyramid was mined for material to build the monastic complex. The hybrid styles of architecture in Cholula probably reflect the Franciscan understanding of their mission. For instance, the unusual side chapel looks like an Islamic mosque. In 16th century Spain, all mosques had been destroyed or converted into churches during the war of the Reconquista, as reminder of Christianity’s triumph over Islam. The Franciscans thought of their work in Cholula as another such religious conquest. Likewise, the battlements at the top of the building—which are decorative, not functional—added to the building’s metaphor of a conquering Christianity.” Photograph taken by Alexandro G. Alonso S. on June 27, 2013. Image downloaded from Wikimedia Commons.

IMAGE 26: ‘Plaza of the Three Cultures at Tlatelolco: site of Cuauhtemoc’s surrender, the church of Santiago erected above the pre- Hispanic precinct, and Imperial College of Santa Cruz…where Sahagún worked with Mexica scribes’, in Collision of Worlds, Plate 5b. Photograph: David M. Carballo. The reproduction of this image in Collision of Worlds is authorized by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico. Thank you to Prof. Carballo for providing this image.

IMAGE 27: Mudéjar ceiling, Church of San Francisco, Tlaxcala, Mexico. Photograph: David M. Carballo. Thank you to Prof. Carballo for providing this image.

IMAGE 28: ‘El primer milagro (“the first miracle”) depicting the Virgin of Guadalupe healing a Nahua actor after an accident in a September 26, 1531, mock battle between Toltec-Mexica and Chichimecs as part of the procession up the causeway between Mexico City and Tepeyac. Attributed to the workshop of José Júarez (1653)’, in Collision of Worlds, Plate 8. Thank you to Prof. Carballo for providing this image. Museo de la Basilica de Guadalupe.

IMAGE 29: An example of the transformation of Santiago in the New World, from Peru. Unknown Artist, ‘Santiago Mataindios’, 1700-1799. Material: oil on cloth. Painting school: Cuzqueña. Current location: Colección Celso Pastor, Lima, Peru. Image Source: Ilona Katzew, Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Yale University Press, 2011). Spanish version: Miradas comparadas en los virreinatos de América (México: INAH, 2012), downloaded via ARCA®: Arte Colonial Americano. For an example from Mexico, see Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy, ‘Santiago Matamoros’, Vistas Gallery, Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820 (2015).

IMAGE 30: A changing Western Hemisphere. ‘Civitates orbis terrarum, Maps of Mexico City and Cuzco’, 1576. Creators: Georg Braun (editor; 1542-1622); Franz Hogenberg (mapmaker; 1535-1590). Current Location: Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, Spain. Description: “This pair of maps of indigenous cities—one the capital of the Aztec empire, the other of the Inka—graced a luxury city atlas published in Europe. Both maps show the imperial cities as imagined by European viewers, not as they actually looked in the late 16th century. The printed page was the primary vehicle for information about the Americas to circulate in Europe, but because the Spanish crown protected information about its possessions, such publications were often fanciful or out of date.” Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy, Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820, Vistas Gallery. Photo Credit: Department of Special Collections, The Joseph Regenstein Library, University of Chicago.

IMAGE 31 Language of Empire. First Page from Antonio de Nebrija, Gramática de la lengua castellana (Grammar of the Castilian Language) (Salamanca, Juan de Porras, 1492). Description: “Presented here is the first grammar of the Castilian language. This is also the first grammar of any vernacular language to be printed in Europe. The book was published in 1492, at a time when Castilian was still not considered a “language of culture.” The author, Antonio de Nebrija (circa 1444−1522), had previously written an Introductiones latinae (Introduction to Latin). He concluded that students would be better able to study Latin if there were established rules for their native language of Castilian and if they were taught these rules. The work is divided into five books: “Orthography,” “Prosody,” “Etymology,” “Syntax,” and “Introductions to the Castilian language for those of a foreign tongue who want to learn.” The text is printed in Gothic type with black ink. The first page is printed in red and black. The blank spaces throughout were reserved for enlarged initials, which were never added.” Biblioteca Nacional de España. Downloaded from the World Digital Library.

IMAGE 32: Mexico, Between Pacific and Atlantic Worlds. ‘Jar’, Place of origin: made in Puebla, around 1700. Materials and Techniques: Tin-glazed earthenware. Credit Line: Bequeathed by A. P. Maudslay. Museum number: C.33-1931. Gallery location: Ceramics, Room 145, case 48. Dimensions: Height: 47.6 cm, Diameter: 34.9 cm. Physical Description: “Large earthenware storage jar with tin-glazed decoration in blue and white in Chinese style. A drilled hole in the lower part of the side, probably added to fit a tap.” Summary: “Spanish potters introduced the potters-wheel and tin-glazing technology to Mexico in the early 16th century. Mexico City and Puebla became the centres for ceramic production. Initially Mexican tin-glazed ceramics were strongly influenced by Spanish maiolica pottery. In 1565 Spain established a new trade from China to compete with Portuguese merchants. Cargoes of Chinese porcelain were shipped across the Pacific Ocean to Mexico, where they were carried overland via Puebla before being shipped on to Spain. These Chinese exports strongly influenced local potters, who combined Chinese blue-and-white decorative schemes with uniquely Mexican features, such as the distinctive quetzal bird motif.” Ceramics Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom.

IMAGE 33: Remembering the Conquest on a Japanese-inspired folding screen. ‘Biombo, Conquest of Tenochtitlan’, 1675-1700, unknown creator. Current Location: Museo Franz Mayer, Mexico City, Mexico. Description: “This folded screen presents a then-and-now view of Mexico City. On this side, the city is in the throes of the fiery wars of conquest in 1520-21. On the other is the peaceful 17th-century city, with the Viceregal palace at its center….The painter depicted the same space of Mexico City on both sides of the biombo. On this side, the notable events of the conquest unfold. The conquest narrative begins at the upper right, as Hernán Cortés is welcomed into Tenochtitlan by the emperor Moteuczoma. Behind his palanquin is an even grander one, presumably to seat Cortés. Along the central axis is the main plaza where fierce fighting took place for control of the city. Beneath is a scene showing the assassination of Moteuczoma. The painter makes clear that it was angry Aztecs, not Spaniards, who were responsible. At one point during the war, the Spanish were routed from the city. The dark lower right corner obscures their flight, the low point of Spanish fortunes in the war….While its original setting is not known, the biombo most likely adorned a large room in a wealthy urban home in Mexico City. When unfolded to reveal its two distinct views of the city, the biombo may well have become a conversation piece—stimulating talk of the city and its past….The biombo offers one picture of how elites in New Spain understood the wars of Conquest, and their interpretation of these events. Instead of a foreign usurper, Hernán Cortés is shown as a welcomed savior. And Aztecs, not Spaniards, are shown as responsible for the assassination of Moteuczoma, an act which brought autonomous indigenous rule to an end.” Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy, Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820, Vistas Gallery. Photo Credit: Museo Franz Mayer.

IMAGE 34: A Changing Mexican Capital. ‘Biombo, Scene of Mexico City’, 1675-1700, unknown creator. Current Location: Museo Franz Mayer, Mexico City, Mexico. Description: “This folded screen presents a then-and-now view of Mexico City. This oblique view from the east of the city depicts 17th century Mexico City as a peaceful place, with the Viceregal palace at its center. This standing screen was created in Mexico, although the format—of painted panels that could fold or extend into space—was introduced into New Spain from Japan….This view of 17th century Mexico City gives little evidence that the Spanish colonial city stood directly atop Aztec Tenochtitlan. The great Templo Mayor once stood slightly to the west of the site of the Cathedral, the large building directly to the right of the central axis of the biombo. Adjacent to the Cathedral, one can see the façade of the Viceregal place, which, ironically, would be burned by mobs in 1692, angered over the escalating price of maize. The palace, home to the Viceroy, stood on the same site as the palace of Moteuczoma, the last Aztec emperor. The rectangular blocks of the carefully planned city were filled with buildings to the street line. Central courtyards allowed light and air to enter interior rooms. The painter has compressed the view of the city to include the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, seen in the upper left corner. Built adjacent to a former shrine to an Aztec earth goddess, the basilica held a miraculous cloak with the Virgin’s image, revered by indigenous people and Creoles alike. A hallmark of successful government was the ability to supply fresh water to city residents. Dominating the right foreground is the curving line of the aqueduct from the springs at Chapultepec”. Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy, Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820, Vistas Gallery. Photo Credit: Museo Franz Mayer.

The Global History Podcast is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://theglobalhistorypodcast.com/