Acknowlegements Dedication Introduction An Intellectual Dispute Gives Birth to a New World Literary Genre Chapter 1 Enemies of the Enlightened State: Francisco Clavijero on Exiled Jesuits, Sovereign Power and the Contested Futures of Spanish America Introduction Recovering the Spanish American Jesuit Diaspora in Late Settecento Italy Reform Catholicism and the Enlightened State A Baroque Critique of Empire in an Age of Reason Counter Reformation Tradition Against Enlightened Renovation Trans-regional Dimensions of the Jesuit Expulsion from the Hispanic World Anticipating Independence Conclusion Chapter 2 Creole Patriotism at a Crossroads: Mapping New Spain in Landívar's Rusticatio Mexicana Introduction Mapping New Spain Poetry and Exile New World Sublime A Poetics of Restoration Creole Patriotism at a Crossroads Allegories of Racial Harmony Patriotism and Enlightenment Toward a Poetics of Independence Conclusion Chapter 3 Sacralizing Mexico in an Age of Reason: Nostalgia and Divine Providence in Francisco Clavijero's Storia Antic del Messico and Breve Ragguaglio Introduction The Politics of Translation: Between Spanish and Italian Reading Publics Against Climate Theory Natural Wonders and Iconic Landscapes Recasting New Spain's Agriculture in a Global Frame A Poetics of Nostalgia Inventing Antiquity and Foreshadowing Conquest From Vico to Boturini: New World History and Divine Providence Expelling the Devil from the New World Rethinking the Conquest of Mexico in an Age of Reason Conclusion Chapter 4 Antiquity in an Age of Revolution: Pedro Márquez and the Transatlantic Cultures of Classical Revivial and Universal Rights Introduction Pedro José Márquez, José Nicolás de Azara and the Cultures of Classical Revival in Late Settecento Rome Antiquarian Studies and the Shifting Parameters of Race and Universality From Naples to Mexico City: Classical Revival in the Global Hispanic World Decentering Europe in the Republic of Letters Translation as Cultural Vindication Recasting the Mexica as Masters of their Own Destiny Comparing Mesoamerican and Mediterranean Expressions of Sacred Violence Cosmopolitan from Below Toward a New Language of Universal Rights Conclusion Conclusion A Poetics of Continental Independence Introduction Bolivar on Spanish American Unity Iturbide's Mexican Empire as an Alternative Pathway of Modernity Conclusion Bibliography.