The Construction of the “New World” Concept in Spanish Chronicles, 16th – 18th Centuries

Abstract

There are concepts that are used in the academic field without any delay. The “New World” conception is part of that arsenal of words that occupy a common place in historiography to refer to what, in a conventional way, has been called “colonial history”. In the following paper a genealogy of the concept will be made through the review of the Spanish chronicles in a wide period ranging from the sixteenth century to the Illustration. Through the tools of hermeneutics, the nature of each text will be analyzed and the way in which the words “New World” were conceived in specific writing contexts.