Vast empires, whether in Asia or the Americas, faced similar challenges  when it came to scale and diversity. To control sweeping expanses of  varied geography, human and natural alike, early modern administrators  aimed to collect and organize knowledge. While localities within imperial boundaries might revel in their specific customs, natural histories, resources,  and geographies, central administrators envisioned a means to transcend  those specificities.

Failing to discover a new route to the East Indies in 1492, Christopher Columbus set off an unprecedented age of colonization and exploration in the Americas. In the succeeding decades, conquistadors allied with indigenous dissidents to topple mighty empires in North and South America. The Spanish intended to only replace the highest strata of governors as they relied on systematic extraction that privileged pre-existing political structures. However, plague and invasive species hastened a cataclysmic cultural change. Europeans filled the Americas with their own flora, fauna, and people, reproducing European values beyond their original intentions. In just a century, swaths of the New World became a New Spain relaciones Geográficas can yield new insights into the extent of loss under this new colonial administration.

As conquistadors transformed into natural historians, their writings provided a snapshot of a Mesoamerican landscape now lost and transformed. Their stories tell of squirming axolotls – amphibians now critically threatened. Curious administrators noted how they walked the line between fish and serpent, and tasted delicious with salt. Roving jaguars prowled jungled now felled. Interweaving modern ecological research and the relaciones’ insights provide information about changing plant and animal habitats.