About Us

OBJECTIVES

• To study Britain’s financing of “Foreign Aid” to European allies in the war against Napoleon by means of Spanish American silver and gold.

• To unveil how Britain's method of obtaining the bullion and coin unwittingly destabilized key aspects of the old imperial system and fostered Spanish American conflicts.

• To investigate the unplanned consequences of interventions by great powers in external conflicts.

METHODOLOGY

• The project proposes a systemic - "global" - view on historical world events by using strategic case-studies.

• The life stories of a few people can make clear complicated war finance. Agents of Irish descent living in the Hispanic world acted as intermediaries for the silver and gold to reach Britain.

• British “interference” in the Hispanic world unveils the mechanisms and unwanted consequences of a series of interventionist practices in the past as well as in the present.

The outputs of this great project range from scientific and educational assets like a high school seminar, short documentaries, a syllabus, an exhibition, several public events, scientific conferences and open access publications.

Events and talks

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Allied contributors

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Countries involved

timeline

How it happened

2011
Deborah Besseghini
PhD in Modern History and MSCA Researcher

OUR PROJECT LEADER'S DREAM
After training at the Research Center for Foreign Policy and Public Opinion Studies in Milan, Deborah began a research project on European empires as protection systems for long-distance exchanges. The aim was to demonstrate the vagueness of the idea of “empire”, the complexity and variety of its forms, and the spaces for negotiation that the concept conceals rather than declares. This initial inquiry laid the groundwork for a broader reflection on “empire” and “imperialism” as mobile concepts that structure and transform international relations.

Academia │ Google Scholar │ ResearchGate
A PHD dream
2016
Deborah Besseghini's doctoral research in Trieste on Robert Ponsonby Staples, an “imperial agent” of Britain, uncovered transatlantic negotiations shaping the Napoleonic Wars, Latin American independence, and the global reconfiguration of trade. Her doctoral and postdoctoral research highlighted paradoxical connections between the financing of British campaigns against Napoleon, arms sales and independence campaigns in Spanish America, and the Asian trade, including opium. The analysis revealed complex and contradictory dynamics, leading to a project on the unplanned effects of interference
2025
"UNWANTED” — The project
This project aspires to foster awareness of the past and present mechanisms and management of the unplanned impact of strategic intrusion. Our leader and her team investigate the consequences of great power interventions. Deborah shows how intrusion in the Hispanic world allowed Britain to speculate on Spanish American coin and bullion to finance aid against Napoleon, and by following Irish trans-imperial agents she examines how global trade, financial flows, and the arms trade reshaped Britain’s economic role. The project shows how revolution in Spanish America provided means to liberate Spain, with the collapse of imperial systems as an unintended effect.

collective research on the unplanned effects of imperialism

The SIDE Network

The Project’s network SIDE (Studies on the Imperial Dimension of Expansion) investigate the unintended effects of geopolitical projection across different regions (Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas) in the last three centuries. The network's online seminars address topics useful to understand the challenges the European Union is facing, both in relation to hegemonic conflicts and to the side effects of different forms of intervention, including aid to belligerents.

Associate Professor of Modern History at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. His research explores the political and social history of Mediterranean Europe in a global perspective, with a focus on European antifascism, anarchism, the Spanish Civil War and transnational war volunteering.

Enrico Acciai

Università di Roma, Italy

Associate Professor of History at Cornell University who studies the role of circulation (of goods, people, news, and ideas) in the configuration of geographic spaces, collective identities, political projects. He explores these themes from a Latin American and Caribbean perspective, especially from Colombia.

Ernesto Bassi Arevalo

Cornell University, United States

University Assistant at the Department of History of the University of Vienna. Currently working on a monograph dedicated to French military interventionism and informal imperialism in Southern Europe and Latin America (1830s-1840s). His next project focuses on liberal transnational networks in the mid-nineteenth century.

Lorenzo Bonomelli

University of Vienna, Austria

Ambizione Fellow at the University of Zurich. Previously fellow at the University of Pennsylvania (2018-2019), and fellow at the University of Oxford/IHR (2020-2021), he investigates state-making and colonial enterprises through the perspectives of marginal and subaltern peoples navigating international financial institutions.

Damian Clavel

University of Zurich, Switzerland

Full Professor in the Department of Economic History at UNAM. His recent academic publications focuse on interconnected themes in the economy of northwestern Mexico during the 19th century, including private investment, small and medium-sized mines, and monetary intermediaries.

Mario Contreras Valdez

UNAM, Mexico

Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral researcher at UNED (Madrid). His current research focuses on Hispanic-French relations during Philip V's reign. He traces the interplay between military action, financial mobilization, and diplomatic negotiation in a period of balance-of-power reconfiguration. He serves as secretary of the Red Imperial research network.

Aitor Díaz Paredes

UNED, Spain

Luis Alfredo holds a Ph.D. in Historical Studies (Public History) from the University of Florence. His research explores the relationships among revolution, identity, and heritage, with a particular focus on the independence processes in Colombia and Greece.

Luis Alfredo De la Peña Jiménez

N/A

She taught economics and business management for 25 years at Keene State College in New Hampshire. After a sabbatical at the Instituto Jose Luis Mora in Mexico City, she is completing her book on the influence of New Spain's China trade on California's economic development, 1680-1845. She is treasurer of the Society for Early Transpacific Studies (SETS).

Marie Christine Duggan

Keene State College, USA

Specialist in Early Modern History, with a particular focus on the frontiers of the Iberian Empires. Currently Professor at the Pablo de Olavide University in Seville, he has held academic positions as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Warwick, Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Researcher, and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow.

José M. Escribano-Páez

UPO, Spain

Ramón y Cajal Research Fellow at the UNED (Spain) and a Research Associate at the Center for American Studies, UAI, Chile. Former Marie Curie Fellow at CSIC, his latest book examines the impact of Spanish American independence on the political cultures of Spain and Britain. He leads Fondecyt Project Nº1240232.

Rodrigo Escribano Roca

UNED, Spain

Professor in the Master’s Program in Economics and the Specialization in Economic History at UNAM, his research focuses on the political and economic history of New Spain during its transition to independent Mexico. He offers explanations of history, international relations, and anthropology on his YouTube channel.

Ricardo Fernández Castillo

UNAM, Mexico

Full professor at the University of Geneva, and PI of the project “Central Banks as Agents of Economic Development”, his research focuses on the causes and consequences of the financial crises from a long-term perspective, on the structure of capital markets, on sovereign debt problems, and on the history of central banks and international monetary cooperation.

Juan Flores Zendejas

University of Geneva, Switzerland

Professor and researcher in México at CIESAS, her lines of research revolve around the history of trade during the transition period from the colonial system to the Mexican nation-state. Among her books: “Historia de un comerciante en una época de transición: 1797-1821. Tomás Murphy”.

Gabriela Sofía González Mireles

CIESAS, Yucatán, Mexico

Postdoctoral fellow at the UNAM in Mexico, his research focuses on the jurisdictional dimension of the Royal Treasury of New Spain during the 16th and 17th centuries. He has investigated further themes such as: tax evasion related to silver produced in Nueva Vizcaya; the collection of royal tribute in the 17th century; and the management of the royal revenues’ leasing.

Rodrigo Gordoa de la Huerta

UNAM, Mexico

Full professor of Economic History, he is the head of the Division de Posgrado of the Faculty of Economics at UNAM. Regular member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences since 2002, he has been president of the Mexican Association of Economic History (2005-2007).

Antonio Ibarra Romero

UNAM, Mexico

Professor of History at the University of Turin, he held teaching and research positions in many universities in the US, the Middle East and Europe. He is a specialist of Global History and the History of the Middle East and North Africa and the author of well known books.

Lorenzo Kamel

University of Turin, Italy

Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru since 1995, she is a member of the Peruvian Society of Economic History and coordinator of the Bicentennial Research Group at the Riva Agüero Institute. Her research interests include commercial networks, the connections between Pacific ports; internal trade (18th and mid-19th); and the financing of the wars of independence.

Cristina Ana Mazzeo

PUCP, Peru

Professor of North American history at the University of Turin. His research focuses on the role of the United States in 20th century international history, with particular reference to Europe and Latin America, and on the history of American liberalism.

Marco Mariano

University of Turin, Italy

Ramón y Cajal fellow at Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain, his main lines of research explore early modern Iberian overseas expansion, cross-cultural diplomacy, and early modern religious missions in Africa and South Asia.

João Vicente Melo

UPO, Spain

He teaches at the Nacional University of Tucumán. Between 2011 and 2016, he worked at the National Museum of Independence in Tucumán, as a Head of Research. Using an Atlantic frame, he investigates especially political and military networks concerning the American revolutions.

Facundo Nanni

University of Tucumán, Argentina

Associate Professor at UPO (Seville), his research focuses on the dynamics and consequences of imperial governance in the early modern Atlantic world, particularly on migration, frontier societies, violence, and genocide. Founder and principal investigator of the HUM-1000 research group, he has led several competitive research projects.

Igor Pérez Tostado

Project Supervisor / UPO, Spain

Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, he is a specialist in the Spanish trade in Asia in the 18th-19th centuries, particularly in the Spanish involvement in the opium economy. He has been a visiting researcher at the University of Chicago, the Academia Sinica, Taiwan, and at the John Carter Brown Library, Providence.

Ander Permanyer Ugartemendia

UPF, Spain

Research Professor in the History Division at CIDE (UNAM, Mexico), since 2021, she has been co-coordinator of the Interinstitutional Seminar on Economic History. Her research focuses on credit networks, banking and currency from the 18th to the 20th century.

Iliana Quintanar Zárete

UNAM, Mexico

Associate Professor of Economic History at the University Pablo de Olavide of Seville (Spain). His research revolves around the preindustrial societies and the political economy to improve the understanding of institutions and social changes in the Early Modern period (1500-1800), particularly Spain.

Fernando Ramos-Palencia

UPO, Spain

Researcher at the Institute of Historical Research of the UNAM, she coordinates the seminar “Women on the Margins: Gender, Sexuality, and Power in Ibero-America, 16th-19th Centuries.” She has authored several books and academic articles that address the social dynamics of frontiers, female transgressions, and sexual dissidence in modern-colonial societies.

Diana Roselly Pérez

UNAM, Mexico

Professor at Universidad Carlos III, Madrid, his research focuses on Spanish and European economic history, with particular emphasis on long-term economic growth, inequality, social mobility, agrarian markets, and human capital.

Carlos Santiago-Caballero

Carlos III University, Spain

Research professor at the Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora, she investigated the 18th century from various perspectives, including maritime trade, political practices, emotions, naval expeditions, and enviromental history. Currently, her research focuses on Maritime History.

Matilde Souto Mantecón

Mora Institute, Mexico