Pedro de Alfaro and the Struggle for Power in the Globalized Pacific, 1565-1644

Ashleigh Dean Ikemoto

doi:10.5771/9781793618603

Summary

Pedro de Alfaro and the Struggle for Power in the Globalized Pacific, 1565–1644 tells the compelling story of Pedro de Alfaro, a Spanish Franciscan whose clandestine 1579 mission to Ming China collapsed amid accusations of illegal entry and espionage, culminating in his death at sea in 1580 after being expelled from both mainland China and the Portuguese enclave at Macau. This mission, generally regarded as a failure by historians, actually marked a turning point in the development of early modern trans-imperial relations between Spain and China. Alfaro's report on the true size of China and the state of its military infrastructure, the first to come from a Spaniard with more than a few weeks' experience in the Ming Empire, reversed several years of unofficial Spanish plans for a conquest of China. This turn away from an armed invasion occurred precisely at the same time the Ming revised their tax code, drastically increasing the demand for Spanish silver, setting the stage for a relatively stable balance of power across the Pacific Ocean. For the next two centuries, this balance of power remained uneasily in place, allowing the development of a stable Pacific World, the final link in the development of early modern globalization.