Great Designs and Global Colonialism

Sir Balthazar Gerbier (1592–1663), El Dorado, and the Transnational Politics of Knowledge

Abstract

This essay resituates “great designs” within the history of projecting by exploring how the schemes of Sir Balthazar Gerbier (1692–1633) interacted with what became known historiographically as the French Grand Dessein, the Dutch Groot Desseyn, and the English Western Design. Analyzed from the perspective of the history of knowledge, great designs are revealed to be risk-taking, uncertain, and constructed from fragments of disparate knowledges. Period views of great design can illuminate how public policy related to private individuals, what the temporality of planning was, and how success and failure were viewed. This reconsideration can inform how we construct narratives concerning European history, politics, and global colonialism and understand processes of change.