It is a deeply rooted tradition to study Iberian nobilities on both sides of the ocean as separate realities. Either the so-called «Indian» nobility is analyzed, or some (very few, apart from those exercised as positions in the Monarchy) of the activities of Castilian titles in America have been considered (i.e., Maruri, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2017, Felices, 2012). There is isolated data in these perspectives that allow us to think about a different dimension and dynamics, which lead to one of the main questions addressed in this project: can we speak of a transatlantic nobility within the framework of the Hispanic Monarchy? From here, we propose the possibility of investigating the spatial continuity – legal, social, human, etc. – of the noble fabric on both sides of the Atlantic, taking as a reference the collective that succeeded in their process of social ascent and questioning how they were able to take advantage of – or overcome the difficulties implied by – this transatlantic component.
This research, which deepens and expands the path of studies led by Bartolomé Yun Casalilla on the Castilian and Iberian aristocracies, and the circulation and role of elites in the shaping of the first global empire (Yun, 2002, 2009 or 2019, as well as Yun and Janssens, 2005), attempts to fill in some gaps in the historiography and proposes to lean towards new areas of research. This perspective is a part of an intertwined history, which not only helps take some distance from a now criticized view that emphasized the immobility of the peninsular aristocracies (see Yun, 1999 and Soria, 2000 and 2007, in particular), but also helps to better understand the conjunction between change and continuity, as well as the process of social ascent that occurred among the empire’s elites.
This perspective needs a general study, based on a solid and sophisticated relational database dealing with as many individuals and families as possible, and an examination of specific sagas that allow us to see how the relationships between members of these groups and the way in which each one projected themselves across the ocean influenced the rise of family lineages. This «scaling game» will create questions about the general from the particular and vice versa, and will reveal complementary and contradictory dimensions that have been unexplored or underemphasized until now (Revel, ed. 1996 and 2005).
FELICES DE LA FUENTE, María del Mar. 2012. La nueva nobleza titulada de España y América en el siglo XVIII (1701-1746). Entre el mérito y la venalidad. Almería, Universidad de Almería.
MARURI VILLANUEVA, Ramón. 2003. “De la vieja Montaña a la Nueva España: los caminos hacia la nobleza titulada (siglo XVIII)”, F. J. Aranda Pérez (coord.). Burgueses o ciudadanos en la España moderna. Cuenca, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha. pp. 257-302.
———. 2007. “Nacidos para triunfar: promoción de indianos de la España cantábrica a la nobleza titulada (siglos XVII – XIX)”, en L. Sazatornil Ruiz (coord.). Arte y mecenazgo indiano: del Cantábrico al Caribe. Gijón, Trea. pp. 141-172.
———. 2009. “Poder con poder se paga: títulos nobiliarios en Indias (1681-1821)”, Revista de Indias. Vol. LXIX, Núm. 246. pp.207-240.
———. 2017. “La nobleza titulada en los virreinatos indianos (siglos XVIII-XIX)”, en G. A. Franco Rubio, N. González Heras y E. de Lorenzo Álvarez (coords.). España y el continente americano en el siglo XVIII. Actas del VI Congreso Internacional de la Sociedad Española de Estudios del Siglo XVIII. Gijón, Trea – Sociedad Española de Estudios del Siglo XVIII. pp. 335-351
REVEL, Jacques. 1996. Jeux d´echeles. La micro-analyse à l´expérience. Paris, Gallimard-Le Suil.
———. 2005. Un momento historiográfico. Trece ensayos de historia social. Buenos Aires, Manantial.
SORIA MESA, Enrique. 2000. El cambio inmóvil. Transformaciones y permanencias en una elite de poder (Córdoba, siglos XVI-XIX). Córdoba, Ayuntamiento de Córdoba.
———. 2007. La nobleza en la España moderna: cambio y continuidad. Madrid, Marcial Pons.
YUN CASALILLA, Bartolomé y JANSSENS, Paul (eds.). 2005. European Aristocracies and Colonial Elites. Patrimonial Management Strategies and Economic Development, 15th- 18th Centuries, London, Ashgate.
YUN CASALILLA, Bartolomé. 1999. “Del centro a la periferia: la economía española bajo Carlos II”. Studia Historica: Historia Moderna, Núm. 20. pp. 45-75.
———. 2002. La gestión del poder: Corona y economías aristocráticas en Castilla (siglos XVI-XVIII). Madrid, Akal.
———. 2009. Las redes del imperio: élites sociales en la articulación de la Monarquía hispánica, 1492-1714. Madrid, Marcial Pons.
———. 2019. Iberian World Empires and the Globalization of Europe, 1415-1668. Singapore, Palgrave-McMillan.
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