Doctoral Dissertation Research: Creating a Spatial History Methodology to Assess Past and Current Settlement and Governance

本论文研究项目考察了征服的大部分未被探索的空间性，在随后的几十年里，新兴空间秩序的冲突，以及这些冲突如何以不同于征服与土著群体的方式表现出来。为此，研究人员将开发一种空间历史方法，该方法将GIS（地理信息系统）软件结合起来，用于跨空间和时间的历史数据的可视化和分析。通过这种方式，空间历史可以作为一种虚拟历史的形式：一种重建或重新想象一个不同的世界的方式，它为不同的居民提供了所有的可能性。虽然GIS的空间功能早已为人所知，但时间维度的应用却一直较慢，特别是在文化研究中。使用历史地理信息系统来回答空间问题（例如，殖民权力达到了多远？）可以反过来回答更深层次的问题，即征服意味着什么以及它以何种方式失败或成功。因此，更多的人将能够真正“看到”当地/土著知识是帮助解决地方和区域问题的一种可能手段，以一种为21世纪的挑战提供信息的方式，扩大从各种过去获得的经验教训。为了回答这些问题，研究人员将采用一种混合的定量-定性GIS方法，该方法将适应殖民时代历史来源中通常不太精确的定性信息，包括对世界的相互矛盾的理解。例如，利用地理信息系统重建历史资料中隐藏的空间叙事，将创建一系列地图，显示土著人民从城市和港口等帝国中心获得的权力和自治程度。最近的历史研究，主要是从文化的角度，挑战了欧洲对美洲土著社会的征服是迅速、绝对、普遍和完整的神话。然而，征服既是一种文化现象，也是一种空间现象。与教科书中仍然更常用的地图不同，这些地图通常将美洲整齐地划分为西班牙、法国、英国和葡萄牙的区域，而有争议的殖民地领土的不同表现形式将是坑坑洼洼的，并用渐变的阴影表示重叠或部分控制，表明完全殖民范围之外的地区。秘鲁安第斯山脉的环境多样性，以及欧洲入侵（始于1532年）和哥伦布大交换带来的巨大变化，使16世纪的安第斯山脉成为一个丰富而引人注目的案例，可以用来理解一个同样变革和动荡的时期：21世纪，全球资本主义、快速城市化和气候变化造成的问题日益严重。空间分析的结果将通过在秘鲁、北美和西班牙举行的一系列讲座和论文与学术界分享，并通过创建在线地理历史数据库与公众分享。

This dissertation research project examines the largely unexplored spatiality of conquest, the conflicts over the emerging spatial order during the decades that followed, and how these conflicts have been or could be represented differently from conquering versus indigenous groups. To do so, the researchers will develop a spatial history methodology that incorporates GIS (Geographic Information Systems) software for the visualization and analysis of historical data across space as well as time. In this way, spatial history can serve as a form of virtual history: a way to reconstruct or re-imagine a different world with all the possibility it held for its diverse inhabitants. Though GIS has long been known for spatial capabilities, the temporal dimension has been slower to follow suite, particularly in cultural studies. Using Historical GIS to answer the spatial questions (e.g., how far did colonial power reach?) can in turn lend answers to deeper questions about just what conquest meant and in what ways it failed or succeeded. As a result, more people will be able to actually "see" local/indigenous knowledge as a possible means to assist in solving local and regional problems, expanding the lessons learned in a variety of pasts in a way that informs twenty-first century challenges. To answer these questions, the researchers will employ a hybrid quantitative-qualitative GIS methodology that will accommodate the typically less precise, qualitative information found in colonial-era historical sources, including conflicting understandings of the world. For example, using GIS to reconstruct the hidden spatial narratives of historical sources, a series of maps will be created showing the degree of power and autonomy indigenous people wielded away from imperial centers such as cities and ports. Recent historical research, largely coming from a cultural perspective, has challenged the myth that the European conquest of indigenous societies in the Americas was quick, absolute, universal, and complete. However, conquest was as much a spatial phenomenon as a cultural one. Unlike the maps that still tend to be more commonly used in textbooks that typically show the Americas neatly divided among Spanish, French, British, and Portuguese spaces, a different representation of contested colonial territories would be pockmarked with holes and shaded with gradients showing overlapping or partial control, indicating regions outside full colonial purview. The Peruvian Andes' environmental diversity along with the dramatic changes brought by the European invasion (beginning in 1532) as well as the Columbian Exchange makes the sixteenth-century Andes a rich and compelling case study for understanding an equally transformative and volatile period: the twenty-first century with the growing problems caused by global capitalism, rapid urbanization, and climate shifts. The results from this spatial analysis will be shared with the academic community through a series of talks and papers in Peru, North America, and Spain and with the general public through the creation of an online geo-historical database.