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EUROPE IN A (MUCH) WIDER WORLD
The Discovery and Dissemination of
The Americas
The Origins of Exploration
The first colonies: the Atlantic Islands as staging ground
The Horn of Africa: source of gold and slaves
Tapping into existing networks of exchange
A “trading post” empire: response to extant local powers
The caravel as essential technological advance
Technological Keys to Conquest
Besides the ship, four key technologies aided exploration: Compass, astrolabe, portolanos, and gunpowder
The caravel combined square and triangular sails, and could be sailed by a small crew in rough waters. It was an adaptation of existing ship forms, and was a dominant design for three centuries
Jose de Aguiar, Portolan Chart of 1492 showing coast lines and rhumb lines
Africa and Asia Vasco da Gama
(1497- 99): Rounded Cape of Good Hope and reached India
China as major power: unconcerned with expansion
Trade in luxury goods – for bullion or manufactured materials
Advanced local cultures, with limited European impact
Portugal’s “factory system” The exportation of
Christianity
The Birth of Imperial Spain Ferdinand of Aragon
and Isabella of Castile: the parents of Spain in 1469
Creating a Christian country: Inquisition and episcopal support
1492: The conquest of Granada, expulsion of the Jews, and sending of Columbus
Christopher Columbus:The Eschatological Explorer
Born in Genoa, he was 41 when he reached the Caribbean
Desired to reach both the Far East and Holy Land by circling around the Ottomans
First turned to Portuguese crown, but was turned down for his prophetic and biblical approach to geography
Drastically underestimated circumference of the globe, but accidentally reached the Americas
Columbus’s Career
Four voyages: 1492, 1493, 1498, and 1502
Always believed that he had reached India
Initially sailed with three ships and only ninety men
A great explorer, but a terrible administrator: arrested after stint as governor of Hispaniola in 1500
Spreading Knowledge of the New Worlds
The diffusion of new commodities: chocolate, tobacco, tomatoes, etc…
The display of new world natives: living ethnography
The quest for continued patronage and the granting of royal privileges
The diffusion of new knowledge Pictorial – woodcuts and art Literary – through the new vehicle of print Oral – the stories sailors share
Dividing the Globe
Legalizing Conquest The Role of the Popes
Eximiae Devotionis (May, 1493) – Papal sovereignty over the Americas?
Dudum Siquidem (Sept., 1493) – The Division of the New World
Treaty of Tordesillas (June 1494) – Political settlement of spheres of influence
The Role of the Spanish Junta (1504) – Consultation and confirmation
Requerimiento (1513) – Legal declaration of Spanish rites read to an unknowing audience
Spanish Conquest The role of conquistadores: the quest for
lands and royal income drove the integration of American lands into the Spanish empire The need for the “royal fifth”
Sham offers of peace: the requerimiento and an expansive definition of just war
The encomienda system: agricultural production, religious education, and the formation of a landed Spanish elite
The limits of assimilation: syncretic religion and the creation of a hybrid, mestizo culture
Trying to Impose Order:The Law of Burgos (1512)
1: The Indians are to be removed from their land and placed into encomiendas
3: The citizen to whom the Indians are given must erect a structure to be used as a church.
4: To make sure the Indians are learning Christianity properly, they shall be tested every two weeks and taught what they do not know by the Encomendero.
14: The Indians must be allowed to perform their sacred dances.
23: Official inspectors must keep records of the activities and also the treatment of the Indians in the encomiendas.
24: The Indians are not to be physically or verbally abused for any reason.
The Dominant Societies of the New World
Aztecs: the flowery war, a militarized society, and the problem of human sacrifice
Incas: intense centralization, infrastructure, and a disastrous dynastic war
Aztec Society
Parallels to Ancient Sumeria: Irrigation and
agriculture City States and
Patron Gods Intensive regional
trade Stratification:
Noble vs. commoner
Unrelenting focus on hierarchy and status
Aztec Society Highly militarized, and
engaged in perpetual, “flowery war”
The goal: providing sacrifices for religious ritual
The construction of a central haven:Tenochtitlan as the center of empire
The contrast of refinement and savagery
Arriving in Mexico in 1519, Hernán Cortés set out to conquer the Aztecs. Despite having only 450 Spanish troops (and 15 horses), Cortés used native alliances and the Aztecs’ belief that he might
be a god to strike decisively at Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs were totally defeated by 1522.
The Incan Empire Expansive and multi-ethnic:
aggressively imperialistic in the 15th century
Infrastructure and administration: intensive tax gathering and local governance
Ecologically adaptive: terracing and corvee labor for roads and agriculture
Too centralized? Pyramidal social structure could lead to total dependence on ruler
The Fall of the Incas A weakened empire:
smallpox and a dynastic civil war
Francisco Pizarro and the kidnapping of Atahuallpa (1531)
The failure of ransom: only whet the Spaniards’ appetite for more
1533: Pizarro executes the emperor and seizes the capital of Cuzco
All about silver, not gold Potosí as the real El Dorado
The Impact of Exploration A transition from optimism to skepticism The need to adjust to the imperatives of
empire A shift in exploitative strategies
From easy money to agricultural development Developing infrastructure for large scale
extraction The difficulty of coming to grips with
human diversity State and Church at cross purposes?
The calculus of souls vs. the calculus of economic growth