Understanding of history evolved to transcend national narratives towards a transnational perspective. By taking into account realities and networks that go beyond national political systems and frameworks we not only learn about international and transnational networks, but also shed light on national developments that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Fabricio’s example of trade relations in the Southern Atlantic illustrates this point perfectly. A study of imperial relationships between the Spanish metropole and its colonies in South America omits the commercial exchanges which continuously took place. However, when the focus was shifted in the direction of the Portuguese empire, the ways in which colonial merchants kept trade alive were revealed and it became clear that the connection of peninsular Spain with its Viceroyalties in the Americas wasn’t lost, but rather found new channels to operate. It was through the agency of mobile individual actors that this shift was possible. Using established trade networks merchants were able to subvert war-time disruptions and limits of “national” imperial structures.

The use of personal networks, be they of a family, trading, religious or other nature, to foster such transcontinental relations is something I thought to be very insightful. I felt inspired by the ways by which individuals can transcend the boundaries of polities. I feel like this sort of relationship would have a strong impact on the migrant communities of the Southern Cone and the diasporas they form. It would be interesting to look into the connections these actors and communities maintain with their homeland and how these alternative transnational networks open up new possibilities beyond the traditional national narrative, the ways in which the networks they have in their “adopted” home interact with family and friendship networks in their place of origin and they become focal points of trans-group relationships, how they play an intermediate role between states and continents and themselves can be considered transnational actors.