Social Science History Seminar Series

Abstract: Between 1492 and 1540, over 21,000 Spaniards moved to the Americas. We study the patterns of the first transatlantic migration (1492–1540) using a novel individual-level dataset from archival and secondary sources. The records identify each migrant's origin locality, destination region, migration year, and occupation. We link each migrant to a new municipality dataset that measures population, taxes, social structure, geography, and travel costs to Seville. We document sharp shifts in destinations as the imperial frontier moved from the Caribbean to Tierra Firme , Mexico, and Peru, and we show that aggregate migration rose in surges rather than smoothly. Emigration concentrated in Castile and around Seville, the sole legal port of embarkation, and it concentrated in urban places. Networks shaped both the scale and the direction of migration. Sending regions "locked in" very early. Places that sent migrants in the 1490s and early 1500s kept sending far more migrants later. Migrants also followed origin-specific pathways: they disproportionately chose the same destinations, often sailed on the same ships, and relied on the same notaries to contract passage.We interpret this early lock-in as the interaction of contingency in the first expeditions, durable social ties within Spain, and a strong institutional bottleneck that routed migration through Seville.