A global postal service: Empire, reform and conflict in the Spanish Atlantic in the 18th century

Abstract

In the 18th century there was a general interest in the overseas European empires to institutionalize the postal system. The Spanish Monarchy, under the paradigm of the Bourbon Reforms, promoted a project to reform the Spanish-American mail in the second half of the 18th century with the aim of making overseas communications more organized and regular. However, these plans for renewal came up against limits and power struggles between different agents interested in the circulation of information. This is reflected in the postal administration of Cartagena de Indias, which was a fundamental nucleus for the Crown where the interests of the different local and global powers converged, and where the difficulty of dominating the Spanish empire can be seen. This article analyses the contradictions and discrepancies of the postal reform project, examining it in a polycentric key through the communications node of the city of Cartagena de Indias.