FROM “GERMAN INDIA” TO THE SPANISH INDIES AND BACK: JESUIT MIGRATIONS ABROAD AND THEIR EFFECTS AT HOME
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Abstract
This essay explores the religiously motivated migration of Central European Jesuits to the Spanish Indies against the backdrop of early modern Germany's lack of colonial possession. These migrants played a crucial role in shaping German knowledge about foreign lands during this early stage of globalization. A first section focuses on the motivation, background, and spatial movements of the migrants themselves, stressing the strong allure of the masculine figure of the overseas martyr. The second part of the essay traces the impact of these Jesuit migrations on Germans “back home”, paying particular attention to printed missionary reports that familiarized readers with the colonial world and contributed to a broader, trans-confessional discourse about a distinct German identity in an increasingly connected world.