Journey to the Pacific: the geographical and historical foundations of the ‘Spanish lake’

Abstract

Despite the Christopher Columbus’ inability in understanding that he had bumped  into an unexpected barrier, the fact of the existence of a ‘South Sea’ —which was named by Francisco Magallanes as the Pacific Ocean— resulted clear to the Europeans not before about 30 years after the takeover of the Atlantic Ocean. However, the knowledge of Pacific remained very partial on the mid-eighteenth century. The main objective of this text is to reflect about this time lag between the early discovery and its later exploration. It’ll insist here on the various obstacles that slowed  the navigation to the Pacific, favouring the settlement of what, at the time, Pierre Chaunu dubbed the ‘Spanish lake’.