By MADERA_32 |

There are three ports in Spain that were there during XVI period:

Puerto San Sebastian:

http://oi60.tinypic.com/142fsp2.jpg

Puerto Santander:

http://oi57.tinypic.com/2ym9bm1.jpg

Puerto Sevilla:

http://oi58.tinypic.com/s3zkte.jpg

Included are the three pictures. Most of the spanish explorers that arrived to Zacatecas were from the Basque region from "Gipuzkoa" such as Francisco Ibarra, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gipuzkoa

The ports of San Sebastian and Santander are located in the northern side of Spain near the Basque region. So I wonder if that is where they embarked rather than Sevilla which is at the very south side of Spain.

I assume when you state Sevilla it actually is Cádiz. I say that because Sevilla does not border the atlantic or Mediterranean. Cádiz was the most powerful port city in Spanish history.

Daniel

Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 15, 2014, at 7:43 PM, zacatecano020@hotmail.com wrote:
>
> There are three ports in Spain that were there during XVI period:
>
> Puerto San Sebastian:
>
> http://oi60.tinypic.com/142fsp2.jpg
>
> Puerto Santander:
>
> http://oi57.tinypic.com/2ym9bm1.jpg
>
> Puerto Sevilla:
>
> http://oi58.tinypic.com/s3zkte.jpg
>
> Included are the three pictures. Most of the spanish explorers that arrived to Zacatecas were from the Basque region from "Gipuzkoa" such as Francisco Ibarra, etc.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gipuzkoa
>
> The ports of San Sebastian and Santander are located in the northern side of Spain near the Basque region. So I wonder if that is where they embarked rather than Sevilla which is at the very south side of Spain.
>

Daniel,

Cádiz indeed became a very powerful port, but only after the decline of Sevilla after the 1650s, when the tonnage of the ships became too large for the Guadalquivir River which was silting up and becoming less navigable. Even though Sevilla does not sit directly on the Atlantic ocean, its connection through the Guadalquivir River, made it a very attractive river port, much like Hamburg on the River Elbe is in Germany today. That is one of the reasons why the Archivo General de Indias is in Seville, since all fleets to the Americas had to be licensed through the Consulado de Sevilla. This monopoly later changed, especially during the Bourbon reforms of the late 1700s. But to Madera's question in the 1500s and early 1600s, Sevilla was the undisputed master.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080514074225/http://www.apsevilla.com/nodo…

Sergio Salés

Genealogy Research