Geopolítica y comercio colonial: El frustrado eje por el cabo de hornos entre España y China

Resumen. – This essay’s main aim is to analyze the Spanish endeavors to encourage the institutionalization of the Spanish-Chinese axis through Cape Horn and the reasons that conspired against its achievement during much of the colonial period. This paper is organized in three sections. In the first one we deal with the plans that were found in Spain between the end of the 16th and mid 18th centuries, seeking to establish Cape Horn and South Americana ports as a staging post in commercial communications between Spain and the Philippines. The second one deals with the role non-Spanish Europeans played in this regard. Finally, we put forward what we believe to be the major reason to why the southern transcontinental cape cross as an institutional axis failed to be translated into a viable alternative by the Spanish monarchy until the last decades of the century XVIIII.