Beyond Iberian Bizcayan shipbuilding

A transnational network in transition, 1550-1650

Eguíluz Miranda, Beñat

During the period 1550-1650, the Spanish monarchy faced some of the military challenges that put at stake its European hegemony. Having learned from the maritime wars against its enemies, the Spanish changed their main paradigm of maritime warfare. As a result, the main maritime shipping force in the Spanish kingdom, the Basque merchant shipbuilding tradition, was no longer a suitable navy to defend the Imperial interests. Justified as a solution to a crisis, the intervention of the Spanish king’s agents attempted to gain control over Basque woodlands for timber, and ships to defend their interests. This led to a long shipbuilding transition, to suit a more militarized type of ship design, during the period of study in this book. Despite this, Basques found alternatives to their traditional maritime merchant endeavours in the Atlantic, reaching their shipbuilding peak by the 17th century.
This book challenges traditional Spanish historiography, and instead shows an alternative story through the cultural view of Basque shipbuilders. Despite traditional historiography claims a shipbuilding crisis for Spain, new perspectives evidence that it is a period of intense shipbuilding for Spain. This up-to-date synthesis complementing historical and archaeological data, is a multidisciplinary approach. Through a transnational cultural narrative, a paradoxical Basque shipbuilding tradition emerges: the Iberian Bizcayan shipbuilding tradition, a distinct shipbuilding community in the Iberian Peninsula. It was heterogeneous in its characteristics, but interconnected to contemporary shipbuilding traditions, such as the Portuguese brothers. Basque shipbuilding was a unique shipbuilding tradition in its making, not separated, belonging to a wider Euro-Atlantic network of culture and technology.