The Manila Galleons and a Round-the-World Link

In 1571 the Spanish founded Manila in the Philippines, and for the first time regular shipping connected all of the world's most heavily populated continents. Spanish galleons sailed between Acapulco in Mexico and Manila from 1565 until 1815, carrying American silver west and bringing Chinese silk, porcelain and spices east. Historians Dennis Flynn and Arturo Giráldez argued that 1571 marks the birth of truly global trade, because Asia, the Americas and Europe were now permanently linked.

The cultural results were striking: Chinese, Filipino and Japanese communities grew in Manila, Asian goods filled markets in Mexico City, and Mexican potters at Puebla adapted Chinese blue-and-white porcelain designs. Asian migrants, some free and some enslaved, also reached New Spain. The galleon trade shows that globalization was not a one-way flow from Europe but a web with many centres.