Manila galleon

The Manila galleon was a Spanish transpacific trading system linking Manila and Acapulco from 1565 to 1815. Its ships carried Asian goods to the Americas and American silver to Asia.

Acapulco–Manila route: The transpacific sea route connecting Acapulco in New Spain with Manila in the Philippines. This was the system’s maritime corridor, shaped by prevailing winds and long ocean crossings.
Mexican silver: Silver mined in New Spain, especially at major deposits such as Zacatecas and Guanajuato. Silver was the principal American export exchanged for Asian goods in Manila.
Andrés de Urdaneta: A Basque Augustinian friar and navigator who identified the Pacific return route from the Philippines to New Spain in 1565. His return voyage established the navigational link that enabled regular transpacific traffic.
Chinese diaspora in Mexico: Communities of people of Chinese origin established in Mexico through migration and transpacific exchange during the colonial era. Some Asian migrants reached New Spain aboard galleons, leaving a human legacy beyond cargo exchange.
Portuguese India Armadas: Portuguese fleets that sailed annually between Lisbon and the Indian Ocean through the Cape of Good Hope route. They preceded the galleons as a European oceanic trade system but connected different imperial ports.
Tornaviaje: The eastward return voyage across the Pacific from the Philippines to New Spain. Andrés de Urdaneta’s 1565 route made the galleon system viable in both directions.
Chinese silk: Silk textiles produced in China, prized in international trade for their quality and variety. Silks were among the valuable Asian imports carried across the Pacific.
Miguel López de Legazpi: A Spanish conquistador who led the expedition that established Spanish rule in the Philippines in the 1560s. His expedition secured the colonial foothold from which the Manila trade developed.
Acapulco trade fair: The annual market in Acapulco where galleon cargoes were unloaded, taxed, and sold to merchants. The fair concentrated the arrival of Asian goods and connected them to American distribution networks.
Dutch East India Company: A chartered Dutch trading company founded in 1602 to conduct commerce and exercise colonial power in Asia. Its corporate, multi-route operations differed from Spain’s crown-regulated Manila–Acapulco connection.

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