Associate Professor of History Mackenzie Cooley recently presented “The Nature of Spanish Empire” at the University of Michigan. The talk was part of the U-M Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies Lecture Series, with support from Kenneth and Frances Aftel Eisenberg.
Cooley discussed how, in seeking dominion over vast early modern landscapes, Spain faced a crisis of knowledge. She said that “to transform diverse natures into imperial wealth, the court launched the relaciones geográficas, questionnaires designed to impose informational order.”
By learning the imperial vernacular and embedding their own agendas within responses, local informants destabilized Spanish categories, she said. Her lecture explored how attempts to govern nature sparked dialectics of authority and resistance.
Posted September 29, 2025
