Summary

Women’s migration in early modern Spain and its empire was framed by the quotidian nature of women’s mobility, cycles of displacement and colonization, and the use of women as agents of empire. Typically, peninsular women chose to leave home in search of work or spouses, often hoping to escape rural poverty; for others, however, the abandonment of their homes was forced on them. The expulsions of Muslims and Jews compelled women and their families to leave the peninsula, while African women were captured, enslaved, and brought involuntarily first to the peninsula and then to the Americas. Despite the coercive nature of their migration, they created vibrant diasporic societies on both sides of the Atlantic. After the initial contacts in the Americas, women of all races and classes, both alone and with family members, made the transatlantic voyage. In their new homes, they fulfilled imperial expectations by establishing and perpetuating Spanish culture and bearing Spanish children. Their successes came at the expense of displaced Indigenous women, who increasingly migrated to cities and mining regions in search of work and stability. By the 18th century, the Bourbon monarchy strategically employed women and their families in colonization projects to secure Spanish territory against other empires and establish Spanish society on the far edges of the empire.