Spain became the first European power to use the peoples, resources, and lands of the Americas and Caribbean as the basis for its Atlantic Empire.

How did this empire function and what wealth was Spain able to extract from these peoples and lands?

Molly Warsh, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh and author of American Baroque: Pearls and the Nature of Empire, 1492-1700, helps us investigate answers to these questions by showing us how Spain attempted to increase its wealth and govern its empire through its American and Caribbean pearl operations.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/241

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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 015: Joyce Chaplin, Round About the Earth
• Episode 082: Alejandra Dubcovsky, Information & Communication in the Early American South
• Episode 139: Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery: Indian Enslavement in the Americas
• Episode 167: Eberhard Faber, The Early History of New Orleans
• Episode 178: Karoline Cook, Muslims & Moriscos in Colonial Spanish America
• Episode 224: Kevin Dawson, Aquatic Culture in Early America

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