Imperial Entanglements: Transoceanic Basque Networks in British and Spanish Colonialism and their Legacy

在利物浦博物馆的“全球城市”展厅里，在一条巨大的中国龙、上海天际线的灯光环绕和感谢巴克莱财富（Barclays Wealth）赞助的显著标志的下方，有一个名为“拉里纳加斯——利物浦巴斯克商人”的陈列柜。为了配合画廊的中国主题，箱子里装满了20世纪早期的中国文物——一件衣服、一双鞋、一把扇子、一个盒子——随附的文字解释说，“带着与中国贸易带来的巨大财富”，拉里纳加家族“来到利物浦赚钱”。参观画廊的人可能会简单地提到“巴斯克”这个形容词，但没有进一步的解释，因为这个家庭的故事被纳入了更广泛的英中历史叙述中。在画廊的另一边，也是一个类似的故事。一幅1898年的安塞尔玛·德·拉里纳加（Anselma de Larrinaga）汽船的画作被放在一个大画板上，没有被人注意到。画板将西班牙在南美的殖民主义与英国的存在给该地区带来的经济进步进行了对比。西班牙殖民主义“给土著人民和他们的文化带来了灾难”。目前尚不清楚这幅画是代表西班牙的破坏还是英国的投资。Larrinaga家族在利物浦博物馆的模糊存在——被标记为“巴斯克”，但融入了三个帝国历史之间的相互作用——概括了巴斯克帝国间主题的模糊性，这是这个项目的重点。拉里纳加家族和同时代的祖鲁埃塔家族一样，既是骄傲的巴斯克人，又是资产阶级的英国居民、爱国的西班牙侨民，同时也是连接利物浦、伦敦、毕尔巴鄂、哈瓦那和马尼拉的商业和海上网络的无情剥削者。在整个19世纪，这两个家族在连接英国、巴斯克地区和西班牙在古巴和菲律宾的主要殖民地的三角形空间中建立了密集的跨洋经济和文化联系网络。这两个家族都参与了帝国的合法业务，以及与之相对应的肮脏业务，即贩卖非洲奴隶和后来的中国苦力。这两个家庭都留下了重要的文化、物质遗产，并在自愿或不自愿陪同他们跨洋移民的雇员、同事和奴隶的后代身上留下了人类遗产。该项目重建了这两个巴斯克商业家族的历史、网络和遗产。机构、地方、区域和非正式档案的详细档案工作将产生两本学术专著、至少六篇期刊文章和一套工作文件。这些将让我们了解Larrinagas， Zuluetas和他们的伙伴如何跨越帝国，殖民地，海洋和语言的界限来运作跨洋网络，即使他们蔑视帝国主权，也做着帝国的工作。我们在所有五个案例研究城市的公众参与活动将捕捉这些网络在地方、社区、个人和家庭层面的共鸣，收集、记录和解释居住在这些网络中的人们的故事，他们生活、工作和被记住的地方，以及我们今天仍然可以找到的痕迹。该项目的网络平台，包括工作文件、地理标记数据库和社区数字档案，将允许研究人员和利益相关者通过一系列媒体，包括文本、地图、图像和播客，深入和广泛地了解Zuluetas和Larrinaga的活动和遗产。

In the Museum of Liverpool's 'Global City' gallery, beneath a large Chinese dragon, an illuminated surround of the Shanghai skyline, and a prominent sign thanking Barclays Wealth for their sponsorship, there is a display case entitled 'The Larrinagas - Basque Traders in Liverpool.' In line with the Chinese theme of the gallery, the case is full of early 20th-century Chinese artefacts - a dress, shoes, a fan, a box - and the accompanying text explains that 'with great fortunes to be made from trading with China,' the Larrinaga family 'came to Liverpool to make money'. A visitor to the gallery might briefly remark the adjective 'Basque', but there is no further explanation, as the family's story is absorbed into the wider narrative of Anglo-Chinese history. Across the gallery, it is a similar story. An 1898 painting of the family's Anselma de Larrinaga steamship sits unremarked atop a large panel that contrasts Spanish colonialism in South America, which 'brought disaster for indigenous people and their cultures' with the economic progress brought to the region by the British presence. It is unclear whether the painting is there to represent Spanish destruction or British investment.The ambiguous presence of the Larrinaga family in the Museum of Liverpool - marked as 'Basque' but absorbed into the interplay between three overarching imperial histories - encapsulates the ambiguity of the Basque interimperial subject that is the focus of this project. The Larrinaga family, like their wealthier (and dirtier) contemporaries the Zuluetas, were simultaneously proud Basques, bourgeois British residents, patriotic Spanish expats and ruthless exploiters of the commercial and maritime networks connecting Liverpool, London, Bilbao, Havana and Manila. Throughout the 19th century, both families built dense networks of transoceanic economic and cultural connections in the triangular space linking the UK, the Basque Country, and Spain's principal remaining colonies in Cuba and the Philippines. Both families were involved in the legitimate business of empire and in its dirty counterpart, the trade in African slaves and, later, Chinese coolies. And both families left a significant cultural, material and - in the descendants of the employees, associates and slaves who, willingly or otherwise, accompanied their transoceanic migrations - human legacy. This project reconstructs the histories, networks and legacies of these two Basque commercial families. Detailed archival work in institutional, local, regional and informal archives will give rise to two scholarly monographs, at least six journal articles and a portfolio of working papers. These will allow us to understand how the Larrinagas, Zuluetas and their associates crossed imperial, colonial, maritime and linguistic boundaries to operate transoceanic networks that did the work of empire even as they defied imperial sovereignty. Our public engagement activity across all five case study cities will capture the resonances of these networks at the local, community, individual and family level, gathering, recording, and interpreting the stories of the people who inhabited these networks, the places they lived, worked and are remembered, and the traces we can still find of them today. The project web platform, including working papers, a geotagged database and community digital archive, will allow researchers and stakeholders to gain deep and broad insights into the Zuluetas' and Larrinaga's activity and legacy through a range of media, including text, maps, images and podcasts.