New Books in History Santiago Muñoz-Arbeláez, "The New Kingdom of Granada: The Making and Unmaking of Spain's Atlantic Empire" (Duke UP, 2025)
Mar 21, 2026
Santiago Muñoz-Arbeláez, a historian of colonial Latin America and assistant professor at UT Austin, explores how the New Kingdom of Granada formed and faltered in the Northern Andes. He discusses contested conquest, Indigenous political and economic roles, archival recoveries like textiles and petitions, regional geographies, anti‑colonial coalitions, and the lasting legacies shaping modern Colombia.
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Formative Teachers Sparked A Historian's Focus
- Santiago's path to history began with a Bogotá high-school teacher and reading polemical conquest texts, leading him to study at Universidad de los Andes.
- Early mentors like Marta Herrera shaped his focus on Indigenous territorial continuities and colonial interaction.
New Kingdom Is Not Modern Colombia
- Muñoz-Arbeláez clarifies that 'New Kingdom of Granada' is a 16th-century Spanish concept distinct from modern Colombia or the 18th-century Viceroyalty.
- The Nuevo Reino served as an early seed for later political formations culminating in the Republic of Colombia.
Combine Archives With Museum Collections
- Use diverse repositories beyond national archives to capture material culture and regional voices.
- Muñoz-Arbeláez combined Archivo General de la Nación and Indias with regional archives and museum collections like the British Museum and Gold Museum.
