A Naval Encounter between Dutch and Spanish Warships

Spanish galleons were large ships specifically built to carry a huge amount of cargo across the vast distances of the Spanish maritime empire. The Manila Galleon Trade is a common topic in world history courses and represents the first truly global trade in world history. The manila galleons, specifically, could reach over 160ft in length. Interestingly, due to a number of environmental, economic, and practical reasons, the majority of the manila galleons were constructed and maintained in the Philippines using local labor, knowledge, and materials. See Andrew Peterson, Making the First Global Trade Route: the Southeast Asian Foundations of the Acapulco-Manila Trade, 1519-1650. PhD diss. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2014)

This source is a part of the Using Ships as Guides for Transnational Adventures through World History teaching module.