Exploration and Encounter

Introduction By 1500, the Atlantic Ocean was

no longer seen as the border between landmasses.

Europeans, in search of spices and gold, began their voyages, which would lead to a range of encounters between unknown societies.

Introduction In 1502, Amerigo Vespucci

(1454-1512), Italian explorer, gave his name to the “Americas,” stated:

“We found the region inhabited by a race of people who were entirely naked, both men and women…They have no laws, and no religious belief, but live according to the dictates of nature alone.

Introduction “They know nothing of the

immortality of the soul; they have no private property, but everything in common; they have no boundaries of kingdom or province; they obey no king or lord, for it is entirely unnecessary, as they have no law, and each one is his own master.”

PortugueseEuropeans believed there was a

“Sea of Darkness” existing beyond the Canary Islands.

1414, Portuguese captured North African city of Ceuta, part of large trade network in Muslim Africa.

Motives for exploration to Africa were mixed: expanding power through trade; acquiring gold from Africa and spices from India; and lead religious crusade to extend Christianity to Muslim Africa.

Portuguese

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In early 16th century, Portuguese fought the Arabs for domination of trade in Indian Ocean.

Portugal became centre through which goods flowed from east to west.

Coastal trade stations were established in North Africa for gold, slaves, and ivory.

Portuguese

Large expeditions followed. Portugal took trade away from

Arab merchants and Venice. Brought commercial boom for

Portugal - prices of spices and precious goods fell and investments in ships and voyages greatly increased.

Portuguese

SpainLargest and most important European

empire in Americas. Stretched from southern tip of South

America to southwest United States. Voyage of Christopher Columbus in

1492, sponsored by the king and queen of Spain was the beginning of several centuries of exploration and conquest of the Americas.

Columbus recorded the first encounter (October 12, 1492) in his diary:

“All of them go around as naked as their mothers bore them…They are well formed, with handsome bodies and good faces…They do not carry arms or are they acquainted with them…They have no iron…They should be good and intelligent servants, for I see that they saw very quickly everything that is said to them; and I believe that they would become Christians very easily, for it seemed to me that they had no religion. Our Lord pleasing, at the time of my departure I will take six of them from here to Your Highnesses in order that they may learn to speak.”

Spain

1496, Columbus conquered Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), which had gold.

The people living there were enslaved and a system was established that ensured labour service from the population which would benefit Spain economically.

Forced labour and the spread of disease brought by Europeans killed many of the island’s people.

Slaves from the Bahamas and Africa were brought to continue mining.

Spain

Columbus wrote a letter in February 1493 to Ferdinand and Isabella describing what he had found.

“Hispaniola is a wonder…In Hispaniola there are many spices and large mines of gold and other metals…[Christendom will receive a] great triumph…by the conversion of so many peoples to our holy faith and for the temporal benefits which will follow.”

Spain

Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503) issued a papal bull - an official order - that divided the newly discovered lands between Spain and Portugal.

He believed it was important to prevent controversy and “that in our times especially the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread…and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself.”

Spain

Treaty of Tordesillas

New Spain (Mexico) and Peru were most populous and wealthiest regions of Americas – under the Aztec and Inca empires.

People were badly abused under Spanish rule.

New Spain

Aztec Empire

Inca Empire

Hernan Cortes (1485-1547) noted: “The manner of living among the

people is very similar to that in Spain, and considering that this is a barbarous nation shut off from a knowledge of the true God or communication with enlightened nations, one may marvel at the orderliness and good government which is everywhere maintained.”

New Spain

Cortes arrived in Mexico in 1519 with 600 men, crossbows and guns, and horses.

Took 3 years to conquer the entire empire!

Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan was destroyed and new Spanish city, Mexico City was built on its ruins.

New Spain

Between 1531 and 1536, Inca civilization was destroyed, and silver mines were exploited.

It is estimated that at least 20 million indigenous people died, most from disease, some from violence, others from slavery during the time of conquest!

New Spain

Spaniards insisted on imposing their own system of justice and own religion (Catholic).

Established royal courts of justice were established in Mexico around 1527.

New Spain

Monarch acted as final arbiter in disputes among subjects – this meant that indigenous people could take Spaniards to court.

Inclusiveness helped keep colonies loyal to Spain.

New Spain

Secret to imperial success was Spain’s policy of divide and administer.

Each community was defined as a corporate group with the right to appeal to the king’s justice.

New Spain

Each community fought to defend its right, while proclaiming its loyalty to a distant figure, assumed to have its best interests at heart.

Trouble ensued when Spain moved outside the old empires.

New Spain

People outside empires were not accustomed to accepting authority of imperial ruler.

Spaniards entered the land of the “barbarians.”

Discovery of silver in 1550s in northern Mexico gave them incentive to venture outside empires.

New Spain

Revolt of Pueblo (New Mexico area), 1680, succeeded in getting rid of Spaniards – temporarily.

Primarily driven by anger of missionaries’ attempts to eradicate Pueblo culture.

New Spain

Harsh treatment by Spanish rulers, famine, and raids were factors as well.

Very bloody but resulted in Spaniards being driven out.

New Spain

Identity and RaceLargest part of colonial

population was mixed race (mestizo), but Indians were predominant.

Small number of Africans in Spanish America.

Brazil (Portuguese), slave society, Africans made up largest part of population.

Racial categories were arranged in complex hierarchy known as castas or castes.

Race was a legal status, not just biological.

Economic position and local social standing played a part: “money whitened.”

Racial identity was not fixed, it was possible to move up the racial hierarchy.

Identity and Race

In 1774, Pedro O’Crouley wrote his explanation of the racial hierarchies in New Spain:

At the time of the conquest, only Indians of unmixed blood were known to inhabit New Spain. The Spaniards associated with them, as also did the Negroes…Human weakness brought about the indistinct combination, the mixture of bloods…

Identity and Race

…that even to the present day has produced in the co-mingling of the three stocks and their descendants a number of other common mixtures. [Examples] in the general acceptation are as follows:

Identity and Race

Parentage OffspringSpaniard and Negro mulato

Mulato and Indian chino grifo

Negro and Indian lobo or sambayo

Spaniard and Indian mestizo

Spaniard and mestizo castizo or albino

Spaniard and castizo Spaniard

Spaniard and mulato morisco

“If the mixed blood is the offspring of a Spaniard and an Indian, the stigma disappears at the third step in descent…The admixture of Indian blood should not indeed be regarded as a blemish, since the provisions of the law give the Indian all that he could wish for, and Phillip II granted to mestizos the privilege of becoming priests.”

Identity and Race

France1608, French colony at Quebec was

founded by Samuel de Champlain (1570-1635).

Worked for a private company and the colony remained under the company’s control until 1663.

After years of warfare among Aboriginals, crown took over New France.

Iroquois threat was defeated and colony began to grow.

1680 = 10,000 colonists. 1700 = 15,000 colonists. 1750 = 70,000 colonists. Grew rapidly due to high birth rate. New France began as a commercial

operation, with religious motivation.

France

Seven years after the foundation of Quebec, members of the Recollects Order set out to convert the Huron.

The Jesuits followed in 1625. Despite efforts to learn the

language, they had little to no success.

France

Vast majority of population in New France were farmers (habitants).

Land was under seigneurial system – elite Catholics who received large grants of land from crown, which they then rented to the habitants, who paid rent to the Church.

France

Major source of exportable wealth from New France was the fur trade.

French depended on Algonquin allies to bring pelts to them at Montreal.

France

French soon faced serious competition.

1670, Charles II of England chartered the Hudson’s Bay Company to develop the fur trade.

Competition gave indigenous groups opportunity to pit Europeans against each other.

France

EnglandEnglish were latecomers in creating

colonies in Americas. First – Virginia (1607). Second – Massachusetts (1620). Third – Connecticut (1636). Fourth Rhode Island (1636). Fourteen in total between 1664 and

1732 (including Nova Scotia).

Northern and southern colonies developed very differently.

Southern colonies (North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia) were defined by plantation agriculture and slave labour.

England

Northern colonies were settled primarily by farmers, artisans, and small merchants.

Economy was overwhelmingly agricultural.

Most cities were situated along the coast.

England

Largest were Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.

Ports played important economic role, connecting colonies to British imperial world.

Timber, fish, and agricultural surpluses were sent to Britain.

England

Social structure of cities was made up of elite group of wealthy merchants, professionals, and government officials, as well as working people.

Sailors, servants, and slaves as well.

England

Largest group was skilled artisans who sought economic independence.

Women’s opportunities: running taverns or boarding houses.

Life still revolved around marriage and frequent childbirth.

England

Household was basic unit of economic activity, especially in the country.

Marriage had serious legal consequences for women in the colonies.

They were “covered” by husbands.

England

Husband had full control over family property.

English colonies in North America were established by religious minorities fleeing from persecution by the state church in England.

England

Massachusetts was founded by Puritans, Maryland by Catholics, and Pennsylvania by Quakers.

Massachusetts colony was closed to people of other faiths.

Salem witch trials in 1692.

England

Led to the arrest and trial of 150 women and execution of 19.

England

Europeans brought many plants and animals with them that changed the landscape of the Americas.

In the Caribbean, the Spaniards left cattle on islands where they affected local vegetation.

Ecological Imperialism

The cattle ate the fruit of citrus plants the Spaniards had brought and deposited the seeds in manure, where they germinated and grew.

By the mid 16th century, there were dense groups of orange and lemon trees on islands where they had been unknown previously.

Ecological Imperialism

The horse was also brought to the Americas.

Spaniards kept horses away from indigenous people, but after the revolt of 1680, the Pueblo acquired some horses left behind.

Made it easier for Plains nations to hunt buffalo and raid others.

Ecological Imperialism