Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Gold, Landscape, and Economy in Cristobal de Acuña’s Nuevo Descubrimiento del Gran Rio de las Amazonas (1641)

Dinca, Daniel
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1440386056

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Spanish and Portuguese.
This dissertation analyzes how nature is represented and the functions it serves in the discourse of Nuevo descubrimiento del Gran rio de las Amazonas (1641) written by Cristobal de Acuña, one of the first detailed published accounts about the “discovery” of the Amazon region by Europeans. I argue that in Cristobal de Acuña’s narrative, Nuevo descubrimiento del Gran rio de las Amazonas (1641), the narrating subject tries to persuade the Spanish Crown to acknowledge the great economic potential that the natural resources from the Amazon region have to offer, how they would add to the wealth of the Spanish Empire and implicitly begin the Spanish efforts to colonize and evangelize the Amazon region. I claim that Acuña is “ahead of his time” and thinks like an innovative entrepreneurial capitalist proposing a new economic model for generating sustainable wealth: extraction and manufacture of the natural resources found in the Amazon region under a “state-guided” capitalistic system. Acuña does not just describe the unique, exotic landscapes he encounters in his voyage down the Amazon River, but rather these landscape descriptions serve the purpose of emphasizing the economic value of nature in the region. The elements of the Amazonian landscape seem to already possess connotations of richness and wealth ready for European appropriation and consumption. For example, in Acuña’s text the abundant trees are seen as timber that can be used to make boats at very low cost while the sugar mills harvesting sugar cane on the Amazon River banks can generate a good return for their investment. For the analysis of Acuña’s text I use two main theoretical concepts: landscape, from the field of Cultural Geography and capitalism from the disciple of Economics. Landscape, as formulated by Robertson, is viewed as a “cultural product”; landscape is not nature but nature transformed by humanity. This theoretical approach sees every landscape whether on the ground or imagined, as representation. For Robertson landscapes are products of human values, meanings and symbols, usually products of the dominant culture in society. In order to understand Acuña’s early modern capitalistic mentality I employ the economic framework for early capitalism detailed by Frieden in the study “The Modern Capitalist World Economy: A Historical Overview.” I claim that at a time when mercantilism was the main economic system in the Western World in the 17th century, Acuña was proposing a new economic model, a “state-guided” form of capitalism. I also briefly discuss the economic systems in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries focusing on the role of gold and silver in the monetary system at the time, as well as the power struggles between Spain, England and the Netherlands in appropriating segments of the Amazonian landscape. In addition to analyzing Acuña’s text I also examine an earlier narrative about the discovery and exploration of Amazonia, Fray Gaspar de Carvajal’s relacion (1542) in order to contrast early representations of the Amazonian landscape to those provided by Acuña almost a century later.
Ulises Juan Zevallos-Aguilar (Advisor)
230 p.
Latin American History; Latin American Studies

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Dinca, D. (2015). Gold, Landscape, and Economy in Cristobal de Acuña’s Nuevo Descubrimiento del Gran Rio de las Amazonas (1641) [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1440386056

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Dinca, Daniel. Gold, Landscape, and Economy in Cristobal de Acuña’s Nuevo Descubrimiento del Gran Rio de las Amazonas (1641). 2015. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1440386056.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Dinca, Daniel. "Gold, Landscape, and Economy in Cristobal de Acuña’s Nuevo Descubrimiento del Gran Rio de las Amazonas (1641)." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1440386056

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1440386056
408
© 2015, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.