15th International Conference of the Association of Latin American and Caribbean Historians (ADHILAC)
The history of mobility in the Atlantic and the Pacific: People, goods, ships, ideas, and routes between the continents and islands
The Association of Latin American and Caribbean Historians (ADHILAC) celebrates its 15th International Meeting for the first time in the British city of Gibraltar in Southern Spain. Founded in 1160 by the Almohad caliph Abd al-Mumin, at the confluence of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, just about 15 km from the North African coast and south of Spain. Although it was first conquered in 1309 by Alonso de Guzmán for Castile-León, Muslim commanders managed to reconquer it until it finally fell into Castilian Christian hands in 1462. In 1474, Isabella of Castile elevated the so-called Campo de Gibraltar to the rank of marquisate under the dominion of the Dukes of Medina Sidonia. It remained under Medina Sidonia control until Queen Isabella abolished the marquisate title in 1501, reincorporating the territory into the royal domains of the Crown of Castile.
Gonzalo Piña Ludueña, whose history is closely linked to that of Venezuela in the second half of the 16th century, was originally from Gibraltar. From the Andean city of Mérida, he founded numerous settlements in northwestern Venezuela, including San Antonio de Gibraltar on the shores of Lake Maracaibo, and was appointed governor of that Venezuelan province.
During the War of Spanish Succession, Gibraltar fell into the hands of the House of Austria with British and Dutch assistance. In the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), Great Britain obtained Gibraltar and since then has used its small colony as a springboard to Africa and America. Despite multiple Spanish attempts to reconquer it, the city located on the iconic rock remained under British sovereignty.
In the second half of the 19th century and early 20th century, tens of thousands of European emigrants sailed from Gibraltar to Latin America, mainly to Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. During World War I, the Spanish Civil War, and World War II, Gibraltar became a place of exile for refugees trying to reach the so-called New World.
After Spain ended its blockade policy against Gibraltar in 1985, the city by the Rock regained its status as an international meeting place. In this context, in 2025, the International Centre for Atlantic History (ICAH) was founded, which organises ADHILAC’s 15th International Meeting.
Programm
General thematic areas
A) General Topics
1. The Atlantic world from ancient to medieval times.
2. Indigenous mobility before and after the European conquest of America.
3. Evolution of shipbuilding and its raw materials, nautical instruments, weaponry, port facilities, meteorology, and cartography.
4. The first European migratory wave to the Indies between 1492 and 1600.
5. The slave trade and the rise of forced Atlantic mobility.
6. Territorial mobility in the Indies during the colonial era.
7. The Pacific dimension of mobility toward Asia and the Americas.
8. Ideological concepts and external theories of thought and their impact on Latin America and the Caribbean.
9. Exchange of animals, foods, viruses, and bacteria between the Atlantic and Pacific.
10. Commodities of the Americas: exports and imports, both legal and illegal.
11. Routes to and from the Americas: maritime, river, and land.
12. The European migratory wave to America in the 19th and 20th centuries.
13. Means of transport and their infrastructures since the 19th century.
14. Forms and means of interoceanic and inter-American communication.
B) SPECIFIC TOPICS
1. Women in the “circulation and mobility” across the Atlantic and Pacific.
2. Female businesswomen, workers, and intellectuals: individual and collective trajectories.
3. Jews between Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean (16th–18th centuries).
4. Transoceanic migrations and exiles during wars and dictatorships in the 20th century.
5. Mobility of patriots and royalists during the wars of independence between 1808 and 1826.
6. International congresses and meetings in the Americas and their impact on Atlantic and Pacific mobility.
7. Mercenaries and volunteers in the service of national liberations (19th and 20th centuries).
8. The interrelation of ideas and political movements and their mutual influence from the French Revolution to the present (socialism, fascism, etc.).
9. Cuban internationalist mobility during the Cold War and thereafter.
10. Underwater or submerged heritage as testimony to mobility.
11. From pilgrimage to mass tourism.
12. Missions and religious orders: mobilities and impacts toward the Americas.
C) Special Topics: Local History of Gibraltar in its Atlantic Connections
13. Entrepreneurs and commercial networks of the Campo de Gibraltar.
14. British Gibraltar as a migration platform to and from the Atlantic.
15. Memories and histories of the evacuation during World War II.
D) Proposal for Thematic Panels
We welcome proposals for closed panels composed of 3 or 4 speakers. These should be submitted indicating the panel title, the coordinator, the speakers, as well as the title of each presentation and its corresponding abstract of between 200 and 250 words.