The depiction of America as part of Asia is often linked to Renaissance humanists in Europe, but it was the Spanish-speaking world that most fervently mapped the New World with a focus on transpacific connections. This perspective suggested that North America was an extension of East Asia and that the South Sea (now the Pacific Ocean) was much narrower than it truly is. Columbus's ambition to reach the East by sailing west persisted as America took shape in European thought, fueling ongoing efforts to expand westward from New Spain. This culminated in the establishment of a Spanish colony in the Philippines during the 1560s and ongoing speculation about further conquests in Asia. The area between Mexico and Malacca was often referred to as las Indias, a flexible concept that sustained Spain's transpacific aspirations, even as the realities of the Pacific's geography became clearer over the century. These theories maintained a connection between the New World and Asia, underpinning Spain's ultimately unsuccessful dreams of a transpacific empire. The author outlines a largely overlooked geopolitical imagination that has gained visibility through the lens of the twenty-first century, known as the Pacific Century.
