Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra and Adrian Masters, "The Radical Spanish Empire: How Paperwork Politics Remade the New World" (Harvard UP, 2026)

Mar 13, 2026

A deep dive into how petitions, synods, and everyday paperwork became tools of political change in the Spanish New World. Stories of litigation, forum shopping, and lawfare show commoners shaping royal decrees. Discussion of translators, women as litigants, vernacular skepticism, and visual codices highlights surprising centers of power and archival politics.

01:44:11

forum

Ask episode

web_stories

AI Snips

view_agenda

Chapters

menu_book

Books

auto_awesome

Transcript

info_circle

Episode notes

insights

INSIGHT

Lawfare Was Litigation Aimed At Uprooting Power

'Lawfare' describes aggressive litigation aimed at uprooting rivals, not merely getting narrow justice.
Parties used petitions, audits, and lawsuits to destroy rivals' power—friars vs conquistadors—transforming social order.

insights

INSIGHT

Forum Shopping Worked Internally But Not Across Empires

Petitioners practiced forum shopping within the Spanish imperial legal network but crossing imperial boundaries risked delegitimization.
The crown functioned as a passive mediator whose acknowledgement conferred authority, not coercive power.

insights

INSIGHT

Intermediaries Made Paperwork Politics Possible

A large intermediary workforce (translators, procurators, scribes) enabled paperwork politics across languages.
Mis-translations could trigger uproar, and audits produced tens of thousands of pages requiring armies of scribes and agents.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

How the Book Project Began

01:18 • 2min

chevron_right

Surprise: Petitions Shape Royal Decrees

03:40 • 2min

chevron_right

Paperwork as Bottom-Up Politics

05:26 • 2min

chevron_right

Targeting Liberal Historiography

07:12 • 3min

chevron_right

Radicalism Compared to English Revolutions

10:10 • 5min

chevron_right

Skepticism, Manuscripts, and Public Sphere

15:10 • 2min

chevron_right

Anti-Tyranny as Organizing Trope

17:11 • 3min

chevron_right

Rapid Knowledge Production Explained

20:32 • 3min

chevron_right

Vernacular Skepticism and Guaman Poma

Challenging the Cambridge School

25:47 • 3min

chevron_right

Lawfare: Litigation as Political Weapon

28:26 • 14min

chevron_right

Forum Shopping and Empire Boundaries

Costs, Grants, and Who Were Conquistadors

48:53 • 5min

chevron_right

Intermediaries, Translators, and Scribes

54:16 • 3min

chevron_right

Women as Witnesses and Petitioners

Guaman Poma and Women's Power

01:06:43 • 8min

chevron_right

Legacies: Ladino America and Forgotten Archives

01:14:13 • 6min

chevron_right

Global Impacts: Silver, Probabilism, Information State

Orality, Writing, and the Power of Archives

01:26:48 • 2min

chevron_right

Visual Politics and Codices

01:29:14 • 5min

chevron_right

Forgery, Aesthetics, and Ongoing Activism

01:33:51 • 5min

chevron_right

Future Research Directions

The Return of Martin Guerre

Natalie Zemon Davis's book explores the historical case of Martin Guerre, focusing on the social and cultural context of 16th-century France. It delves into the story of Arnaud du Tilh, who impersonated Martin Guerre, and the legal and personal implications that followed. The book also speculates on the role of Bertrande de Rols, Martin's wife, in the deception.

The Radical Spanish Empire

How Paperwork Politics Remade the New World

Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra

Adrian Masters

Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra and Adrian Masters examine how petitions, lawsuits, and other paperwork empowered commoners, indigenous actors, friars, and conquistadors to contest authority in the Spanish Americas. The book shows that many royal decrees and colonial institutions emerged in response to bottom-up lawfare rather than exclusively from top-down directives. It traces how this paperwork culture generated massive practical knowledge (cartography, mining, administration) and a vernacular skepticism that destabilized elite claims to authority. The authors argue this radical paperwork politics helped create the administrative and archival structures of the Spanish Empire and left a long legacy in Latin America. By reframing the origins of the political and public sphere in the Atlantic, the book challenges longstanding liberal and decolonial historiographical narratives.

Costumbre sin disputa

Santiago Muñoz

Andean Cosmopolitans

José Carlos de la Puente Luna

How to Write the History of the New World

Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra

In How to Write the History of the New World, Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra examines historiographical traditions about the Americas and proposes new approaches to understanding colonial history. He interrogates Eurocentric narratives and highlights the epistemic challenges of reconstructing New World histories. The book emphasizes archival practices, intellectual currents, and the transatlantic circulation of knowledge that shaped accounts of discovery and colonization. Cañizares-Esguerra's work is widely cited in Atlantic and colonial studies and informs the authors' approach in The Radical Spanish Empire.

Mercenaries of Knowledge

Fabien Manchet

Nueva Crónica

Felipe Huaman Poma de Ayala

The Nueva Crónica by Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala is a prodigious illustrated manuscript written around 1615 that documents Andean history, customs, and a forceful critique of Spanish colonial abuses. Combining text and drawings, the work was addressed to the Spanish king as a petition seeking redress for indigenous suffering and maladministration. Scholars view it as both a literary and political document that blends indigenous and European forms to argue for justice and reform. In the podcast, the authors treat Guaman Poma's work as evidence of vernacular skepticism and political agency among commoners in the Andes, challenging narratives that confine intellectual activity to European elites.

Mi verdadera historia

Isabel Preysler

The King

The Life of Charles III

Christopher Anderson

The King: The Life of Charles III provides a vivid and unsparing yet sympathetic portrait of Charles, covering his military training, marriages, and his role in the British monarchy. It offers a balanced look into the life of the new monarch, shedding light on his complexities and controversies.

#303

• Mentioned in 87 episodes

On liberty

John Stuart Mill

Published in 1859, 'On Liberty' is a seminal work by John Stuart Mill that argues for the protection of individual freedoms from the tyranny of the majority and government interference. Mill uses utilitarian philosophy to justify the value of liberty, emphasizing the importance of freedom of thought, discussion, and action. He introduces the 'harm principle,' which states that individuals should only be restrained from acting when their conduct may harm others. The essay is structured into five chapters, each addressing different aspects of liberty, including the liberty of thought and discussion, individual liberty, the limits of authority, and practical applications of his theories. Mill argues that protecting individual liberties is essential for societal progress and the avoidance of social stagnation.

#119

• Mentioned in 157 episodes

The Iliad

Homer

The Iliad is an epic poem attributed to Homer, set during the Trojan War. It begins in the ninth year of the war, where a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles sets off a chain of events. The poem explores themes of heroism, honor, and fate as it describes the battles and interactions between Greek warriors like Achilles, Diomedes, and Odysseus, and Trojan warriors like Hector and Paris. The story is interspersed with divine interventions from Greek gods and goddesses, influencing the outcome of the war. The poem culminates with Achilles' reconciliation with Agamemnon and his subsequent rage against the Trojans, leading to the death of Hector and the eventual funeral rites for Patroclus and Hector.

#14671

• Mentioned in 4 episodes

The world turned upside down

Christopher Hill

The Radical Spanish Empire: How Paperwork Politics Remade the New World by Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra and Adrian Masters (Harvard UP, 2026) is a groundbreaking history of political struggle in the Spanish New World, where commoners and elites alike challenged the social order through the remarkable power of paperwork.

As Spanish conquistadors swept through the New World, the Crown envisioned that a rigidly hierarchical aristocratic order would flourish in their wake. At first, this vision seemed to be within reach: the great conquistadors ruled as noblemen over millions. Yet contrary to all expectations, the Spanish empire in the New World quickly became a hotbed of radical efforts to overturn the emerging order. With the conquistadors in retreat, new enclaves controlled by powerful friars and native lords arose. But they too collapsed, again to the surprise of many.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Home Top podcasts Popular guests Top books