HIS 106 Chapter 18

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HIS 106Chapter 18

• Conquest and Exploitation

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Age of Discovery

• 15th Century peoples ideas about the earth
  began to change because of
• Technological changes
• Compass
• Other navigational aids

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• Demands on Commerce
• People wanted goods from the East and from the
  West
• Spices for flavoring, for perfumes, and for
  preservatives
• Drugs from the East were needed for health
  treatments

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• Problems
• Those in the East did not want and could not use
  many of the goods westerners were offering them
  like iron pots and woolen cloth
• Europeans then had to pay for eastern goods with
  gold or silver, knowing that they would
  eventually run out
• This shortage became Europes incentive for its
  explorations new sources of gold and silver were
  needed

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Portuguese Explorers

• Were the first to start exploring the African
  coast from which they took slaves and other goods
• Bartholomew Dias rounded the tip of Africa in
  1487 and proceeded up the east coast
• Vasco da Gama went around the Cape of Good Hope
  and crossed into the Indian Ocean

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• One group of Portuguese explorers got blown off
  course and reached the South American coast and
  claimed Brazil for Portugal
• By beginning of 16th century, the Portuguese held
  a vast empire
• East and west coasts of Africa
• West coast of India
• Ceylon and Indonesia

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The Spanish

• Queen Isabella sponsored voyages to the west like
  the voyages of Columbus
• To keep the competition in check, the pope
  brokered a treaty between Spain and Portugal
• The Treaty of Tordesillas that basically divided
  the world into 2 parts the west was for the
  Spanish and the east was for the Portuguese

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• The imaginary line that divided the world was
  placed west of the Cape Verde Islands
• Portugal could keep Brazil
• Spains voyages to the west proved to be
  profitable
• Spain wanted any lands taken to help it become as
  self-sufficient as possible

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• This was the idea of Mercantilism maximize
  imports and exports to protect its economy and
  the nation
• Vasco Nunez de Balboa - crossed the land of
  Panama and was the 1st European to see the
  Pacific Ocean
• Ferdinand Magellan a Portuguese sailor employed
  by Spain

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• Crossed the Atlantic
• Rounded the tip of South America through the
  straits named for him and entered the Pacific
• Dealt with mutinies and lost many of his crew
• Reached the Marianas in the Philippines where he
  died during a local uprising
• His navigator, Sebastian Elcano completed the
  3-year journey

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Spanish Goals

• In the New World the Spanish Crown wished to
• Convert the natives
• Grow rich
• Extend sovereignty over new lands
• GOD GOLD - GLORY

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• 1519 - Hernan Cortes
• Sailed across the Gulf of Mexico and landed at
  Vera Cruz where he established a fort
• Took 400 men and marched 250 miles through
  jungles to the Aztecs
• Aztec Empire was a loosely tied group of tribes
  that had been conquered by Moctezuma and the
  Aztecs

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• Was given an audience with Moctezuma where he saw
  gold and silver
• When Cortes left, he set out to conquer them
• It took about a year
• He was successful for 3 reasons
• Tribes who had been conquered by Aztecs helped him

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• He had superior weapons like iron arms and the
  horse
• An ancient Aztec myth said a god was displeased
  with Moctezuma and was coming back to get him
• Cortes subdued an area larger than Spain itself

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• When Cortes landed, it has been estimated that
  there were 25 million inhabitants
• Thirty years later, there were only about 2
  million
• Why?
• Diseases smallpox, typhoid, measles
• Overwork
• Famine

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• Francisco Pizarro
• Conquered the Peruvian empire of the Incas
• Enlarged the land Spain controlled
• Gave Spain more silver mines to exploit
• Gold and silver poured into Spain from these
  newly conquered lands

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• Spain could send its surplus population to the
  New World
• 16th Century Spain sent 200,000 to the New
  World
• One in every ten were women
• Spain set up haciendas (plantations) worked by
  black African slaves after so many Native
  Americans had died

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• Black Legend the argument that Spanish
  treatment of Native Americans was uniquely
  inhumane
• Some clergy like Bartolome de Las Casas were
  especially concerned

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Spanish Plan for Governing New World

• Crown of Castile
• Council of Indies
• Viceroys (chief executives) Viceroyalties
• Audiencias (lower judicial council)
• Local Officials

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• Encomiendas - early on Spanish government gave
  formal grants for labor
• Gave a colonist the labor of a specific number of
  Indians for a set period of time

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• Repartimiento
• Replaced encomienda
• Required adult male Native Americans to devote a
  set number of days a year to Spanish overlords
• They were worked so hard that many died

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Northern European Expansion

• Late 16th century the lead in exploration and
  conquest went to the British, the French, and the
  Dutch
• British and Dutch were rivals in shipbuilding
  industry
• Competition led to lighter and faster ships
• British used their new ships to defeat the
  Spanish Armada in 1588

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• In North America, the British, French, and Dutch
  set their sights on land north of Spanish claims
  with one exception the West Indies where they
  seized Islands claimed by Spain
• The French reached Canada in 1534 and voyages
  there increased in the 1600s

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• French explorers pressed down the St. Lawrence
  River Valley in Canada in the 17th century
• Explorers were then followed by fur traders and
  missionaries
• More effort was put into trade than settlement
• The largest French settlement was Quebec founded
  in 1608

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• French settlers married Native Americans
• French had no drive to claim more land
• This reduced conflict between Native Americans
  and the French
• It was primarily through the fur trade that
  French functioned as part of the early
  trans-Atlantic economy

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• Dutch and Swedes founded settlements in New York,
  but all were taken over by the English in the
  17th century
• Dutch also had settlements in Brazil, Indonesia,
  and the southern tip of Africa

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English Colonies

• The eastern seaboard of present-day United States
  became populated by a series of English colonies
  beginning with Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 and
  ending with Georgia in 1733

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Reasons for Settlement

• Religion
• The pursuit of religious freedom by Puritans and
  Pilgrims in what became Massachusetts
• Roger Williams in Rhode Island
• William Penn in Pennsylvania
• Lord Baltimore, a Catholic, in Maryland
• All but Maryland were Protestant

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• Enrichment
• Agriculture was the largest economic activity in
  the English-speaking colonies
• From New England to Mid-Atlantic, farms were
  small and tilled by free white labor
• From Virginia southward, it was the plantation
  economy dependent on slaves

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• Chief products of plantations in early 18th
  century tobacco, indigo, rice, and sugar
• Slavery was dominant in the South, but all
  colonies had some slaves
• Port cities Boston, Newport, New York,
  Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Charleston
• The commercial economies of these cities were all
  linked to the trans-Atlantic slave trade

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• Europeans dominated international trade at this
  time
• Asian and Muslim traders remained active but felt
  the pressure of the Europeans
• Europeans wanted to import raw materials so they
  could them to manufacture other products for sale
  at home and abroad

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• To protect their industries they would tax other
  imported goods
• The areas that supplied raw materials were not
  encouraged to get into manufacturing
• They were placed in a dependent status
• Sub-Saharan Africa got into world trade by
  supplying slaves in exchange for manufactured
  goods

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Background on Slavery

• Has been around for as long as we can trace
  history
• Linked to warfare and the taking of captives
• Nearly every pre-modern society around the globe
  has depended on slavery to some extent
• Slaves taken from areas around the Mediterranean,
  Africa, eastern Europe, and central Asia

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• All slavery involved the forceful exploitation
  and degradation of some humans for the profit of
  others, the denial of basic freedoms, and the
  break-up of families
• As a result, Africa suffered immense devastation
  when it was the chief supplier of slaves to the
  world

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Slavery and Slaving in Africa

• Initially, African slaves were sent to the
  Islamic lands of the Mediterranean and to S.W.
  and southern Asia
• This was known as the Oriental slave trade
• Two of the major sources of slaves for the
  oriental trade were the Horn of Africa and the
  Sudan

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• Occidental slave trade was conducted by
  Europeans
• Can be traced to the 13th century when Europeans
  first established sugar plantations on Cyprus
• In Cyprus and later in Brazil and the Caribbean
  islands, slaves proved vital for the labor
  intensive sugar plantations

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• This industry and slaves spread to Crete, Sicily,
  and in the 15th century to the Portuguese islands
  of Madeira and Sao Tome sponsored by Prince
  Henry the Navigator
• The Portuguese, in particular, developed the
  plantation system of slave labor

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• Voyages to the west coast of Africa began in the
  15th century by the Portuguese and later, other
  European nations joined in
• The initial voyages opened the west coast of
  Africa as far south as Angola
• This was prime slaving area
• By 1650, Occidental slave trade was as big as the
  Oriental slave trade

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• In the 18th and 19th centuries, European slave
  trade surpassed all others
• This slave trade especially disrupted life in
  western and central Africa
• More males taken
• Increased warfare
• Male-female balance destroyed
• Population decline

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• As European nations and nationa in the Americas
  began to outlaw slavery in the 19th century, the
  demand for slaves slowed and the prices dropped
• The result was that the Oriental and internal
  trade in slaves increased
• Slave exports from East Africa and the Sudan
  increased after 1780

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• Trade in African slaves began a real decline only
  at the end of 19th century because of the
  dominance of European colonies in Africa and
  other internal changes
• The formal end to slavery occurred over a long
  period beginning in 1874 in the Gold Coast and
  ending only in 1928 in Sierra Leone

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African Side of the Trans-Atlantic Trade

• Africans were active participants in the slave
  trade
• Except for the Portuguese in central Africa,
  Europeans got their slaves from African middlemen
  at coastal forts or at anchorages along the coast
• Between 1640 and 1750, these forts dominated the
  Gold Coast
• Why?

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• Europeans didnt want to get African diseases
• A new European arrival had less than a 50 chance
  of surviving a year on the tropical African coast
• It was African middlemen who either captured or
  acquired slaves and marched them to the coast

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• In return for the slaves, they would receive gold
  dust, firearms, beads, or alcohol
• Later, they received money
• If slavers couldnt find enough slaves in one
  area, theyd move on to another

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Extent of Slave Trade

• Varied from one time period to another
• 3 of the total European trade occurred before
  1600
• About 14 occurred from 1600 to 1700
• Period of greatest activity was 1701-1810 with
  60 of the trade
• 1811-1870 20 took place

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• Despite moves by European nations to abolish
  slaving in the early 1800s, the Portuguese still
  transported more than a million slaves to Brazil
  from 1811 to 1870
• More slaves landed in the Americas in these final
  years than during the entire 17th century

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• Overall number of slaves exported during the
  Occidental trade from 1451 to 1870 is still
  debated
• It is thought by some to be 11 -13 million
• Another 5 million or more were lost to the
  Oriental trade
• About 15 million were enslaved within Africa in
  an internal trade

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Impact

• Huge
• It took away many of the strongest young men in
  many areas
• In the Oriental trade mostly young women were
  taken
• Slaves accounted for ½ of African trade

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Middle Passage

• Capture of slaves from warfare or village raids
• Slaves chained and taken to slave pens 1/3 might
  die along the way
• Loaded into cargo ships, p. 403
• Piled onto shelves in cargo hold
• Overcrowding, new foods, sickness, vomiting, a
  bucket to relieve oneself in, smells, female
  exploitation

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• Slaves were torn from homes, chained, branded,
  and confined
• Africans did retain their languages, their
  beliefs, their memories of home
• Most slaves were to work in mines or on
  plantations in the Americas, but other tasks were
  performed
• African-born slaves salt water slaves
• American-born slaves Creole slaves

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• Creole and mulatto slaves were given more
  opportunities to acquire job skills or to work as
  house slaves
• Others worked in the fields
• Life was harsh
• Days were long
• Families could be separated by sale
• Most tried to live in family units

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• Many tried to run away but were mostly found and
  punished