Steamships across the Pacific

During the nineteenth century, the transpacific world underwent profound transformation, due to the transition from sail to steam navigation that was accompanied by a concomitant reconfiguration of power. This book explores the ways in which diverse Mexican, British, Chinese, and Japanese interests participated, particularly during Porfirio Díaz’s presidency at the peak of Mexico’s participation in the steam network: from its 1860s outset through a time of many revolutionary changes ending with the World War, the Mexican Revolution, the opening of the Panama Canal, and the introduction of a new maritime technology based on vessels run by oil. These transoceanic exchanges, generated within these new geographies of power, contributed not only to the formation of a transpacific region but also to refashioning the Mexican national imaginary. 

With transnationalism, global and migration studies as its main framework, this study draws upon a dazzling array of primary sources to center Mexico’s transpacific relations and the influence they wielded over the region at the height of the steamship period.

Ruth Mandujano López is instructor of modern languages at Douglas College.

“Ruth Mandujano López writes a beautiful story of diplomacy between Mexico and East Asia and of the laborers and entrepreneurs who crossed the Pacific to build transnational lives and businesses. It is a fitting sequel to the long Manila Galleon trade that first plied the Pacific trading Spanish American silver for Chinese silk and other luxury products of Asia.”

—Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Brown University

“By using the steamship as an ‘in-between place,’ this book fills a critical gap in our knowledge of nineteenth-century transpacific connections between Asia and Latin America and of Asian migrant mobility. Well-written and accessible, it is an important work for scholars working on Latin American history and the history of the Pacific World.”

—Fredy González, University of Illinois Chicago