A Historical Archaeology of Early Spanish Colonial Urbanism in Central America, livre ebook

In this milestone work, William Fowler uses archaeology, history, and social theory to show that the establishment of cities was essential to Spanish colonialism. Fowler draws upon decades of archaeological research on the landscape, built environment, and architecture of Ciudad Vieja, a sixteenth-century site located in present-day El Salvador and the best-preserved Spanish colonial city in Latin America.

Fowler compares Ciudad Vieja to other urban sites in the region and to the tradition of urbanism in early modern Spain to determine how the Spanish grid-plan layout was modified and implemented in the Americas. Using extensive archival material, Fowler describes how this layout reflected and perpetuated power structures that benefited the Spanish although the city’s Indigenous population was greater in number. Fowler analyzes recorded interactions between colonists, Indigenous peoples, and enslaved Africans to demonstrate the ways the cityscape affected the relationships among individuals and cultural groups.

Offering an unparalleled view into a critical moment in Latin American history, this book offers new ways of looking at urbanism and colonialism as intertwined forces in the emergence of the early modern world.

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xv

Part I. Modern-World Historical Archaeology and Early

Spanish Colonial Urbanism

1. Ciudad Vieja in the Context of Modern-World Historical

Archaeology 3

2. Ciudad Vieja and Early Spanish Colonial Urbanism 32

Part II. The Archaeology of Ciudad Vieja, El Salvador

3. Environmental Structures, Resources, and Economy of the Villa of San

Salvador 61

4. The Ciudad Vieja Archaeological Project: Mapping, Site Survey, and

Geophysical Remote Sensing 74

5. The Urban Landscape of Ciudad Vieja: Excavations and

Architecture 84

Part III. A Structural History of Early Spanish

Colonial Urbanism

6. The Longue Duree of Historical Urbanism in Spain 133

7. Structural History of Early Colonial Urbanism in Central America 149

8. Conclusions: The Urban Colonization of Spanish America 208

Notes 231

References Cited 245

Index 323