Debating Empires, Inventing Empires: British Territorial Claims Against the Spaniards in America, 1670-1714

This essay analyzes the Spanish-British political debate over the right to fell logwood and for the dominion of the Yucatan. It contextualizes archival material as well as printed treatises written by Britons who were engaged in the debate and who gave origin to the ideology of the British Empire before the Union (1707). These writers were members of the Council of Trade and Plantations and of the Royal Society, and they had not only domestic interests but also direct private interests either in the West or the East Indies. John Locke is the main figure in this debate and his concept of property is revised within this new context. Locke and other fellows of the Royal Society and King's councilors argued in favor of British possession of American lands claimed by Spain. Using natural law and political and theological arguments to claim that Spain was unable to improve nature, they described the Spanish as a declining and backward empire and created a successful imperial ideology to bring domestic homogeneity and stability in turbulent times.