Art and War in the Pacific World

In Art and War in the Pacific World, J. M. Mancini argues that historians of the Pacific need to expand their understanding of military conquest, acquisition of art, and the transit of ideas across the region. Focusing on the Philippine Islands, and particularly the city of Manila, Mancini states her goal is to recognize the profound and constitutive function played by war in the shaping of Pacific world “arts, artifacts, and architecture,” and to present the Pacific world itself as one integrated by Spanish imperial expansion but remade by Anglo-American belligerence. (p. 239) To accomplish this, she asks readers to reconsider the significance of two imperial conquests of the Spanish Philippines: the brief British take-over of Manila in the 1760s and the Philippine-American War (1899–1902). In focusing on these two invasions, Mancini expertly highlights the entwined nature of art and war through examining how the spoils of war are valued and circulate into private hands, how artwork from the Philippines made its way to California missions, and the impact that warfare can have on city planning and architecture. This last aspect is one of the more fascinating discussions in the book. Mancini demonstrates that British acquisition of Spanish maps of Manila and the Philippines during their occupation led Spanish authorities to reconfigure the layout of Manila's Intramuros and its connection to the rest of the city after they regained control. Moving to the U.S. invasion, she shows that Americans were establishing colonial claims even during the earliest parts of the conflict through the strategic use of existing buildings and enacting changes to the layout of Manila

Ancient history · Archaeology · Colonialism · CONQUEST · Economic history · Political science · Spanish Civil War · The arts · World War II · Architecture · Asian American and Pacific Histories · History · Law · Philippine History and Culture · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies