Portugal: Political Organization of Colonial Empire
Spanish, Portuguese spent 700 years reclaiming land from Muslims
•State supported, state financed campaign
•Well trained, well motivated, army and navy
•State gets its tenth of conquests, soldiers get a share of profits, too
•Aristocrats obtain estates with feudal labor (Muslims)
King distributed land as estates to European landowners
•Provinces overseen by Captain-Generals ruling almost as feudal lords
•Colonial court resides in Salvador
Pursued mercantilism, autocratic reform from top down
•Brazil became the centerpiece of his reforms
•Vigorous, honest colonial administrators
Portugal: Economic Structure of Colonial Empire
►Direct trade without Muslim intermediaries
- Bypass Italian trade monopolies with Ottomans
- Asian spice trade
- African gold, ivory, and slaves
►Model for Exploitation based on Canaries, Azores example
- Enslave natives, give land to Europeans
- Plantations set up for export of sugar
- Enslaved natives die off, import slaves, usually Africans
►Portuguese empire in Brazil dependent on sugar production
- Colonial Brazilian life revolved around sugar mill, or engenho
- Engenho combined agricultural and industrial enterprises
- Sugar planters became the landed nobility
- Brazil was the first European sugar plantation colony and a model for others
- Imported African slaves
►For cane, sugar production after 1530
►High death rate, low birth rate
►Constant demand for slaves
►Roughly, every ton of sugar cost one human life
Pursued mercantilism, autocratic reform from top down
- Brazil became the centerpiece of his reforms
►Monopolies created to exploit areas
►Large importation of slaves began to increase production
►Cotton, cocoa produced introduced
The Bourbon reforms in Spain's New World empire were paralleled by the Pombal reforms in Brazil. The Marquis of Pombal, Portugal's prime minister, wished to free Portugal from its negative balance of trade with England. As in Spain, Pombal expelled the Jesuits, who resisted his plans for reform. Monopolies were created in Brazil, leading to the opening of new regions.
Cotton and cacao plantations arose in the Amazon basin. In order to ensure a steady supply of slaves to Brazil, Pombal abolished slavery in Portugal. The colony continued to rely on African slaves as their primary labor source. Although Pombal's reforms did reduce Portugal's imbalance of trade with England, it could not revise Brazil's position within the world trade system as a supplier of raw materials.
Portugal: Religious make-up of Colonial Empire
►Missionary efforts of European Christians
- Christians urged to spread the faith throughout the world
►Spanish and Portuguese missionaries introduced Catholicism
- Mission schools and churches established
- Missionaries recorded languages, traditions
- Catholic Church attracted many converts
- Church taught Indians skills: farming, herding
- Church became protector of Indians
Portugal: Social Structure of Colonial Empire
•Restricted Church influence so he could use Indians as slaves
•Encouraged immigration of Europeans, women to Brazil
Spanish social hierarchies were complicated by intermarriage between races. Marriages between Spaniards and Indians resulted in the creation of a group of mixed race, the mestizos, who were regarded as socially superior to the Indians and more acculturated to European patterns. Similar patterns of social hierarchy resulted from Europeans sexual exploitation of African slaves in Brazil. In all of Latin America, social status reflected racial origins. Whites were the elite, blacks or Indians were at the bottom, and peoples of mixed race were in between. Together, people of mixed racial origin were referred to as the castas. Castas found that the higher offices and economic positions were closed to them.
Despite social limitations, peoples of mixed race made up a large proportion of Latin American populations. Social mobility might result in changes in racial categorization, but being white was still the most obvious qualification for elite status. Even among whites, some distinctions were observed between those born in Europe, the Peninsulares, and those born in the Americas, Creoles. Peninsulares, about whose racial origins there could be no doubt, were regarded as truly elite. Creoles rapidly developed a sense of identity separate from the European white population. Regardless of racial origin, households remained patriarchal. Women did have rights in dowry, inheritance, and some access to commerce.
Portugal: Interactions
•African Slaves
•Africa had an overabundance of exportable labor
•Europeans diverted slaves to Atlantic Coast
•Slaves gradually introduced to Brazil, Caribbean
•Slavery spread to coastlines of the Caribbean
•Slaves used in plantation economies producing exportable cash crops
•Settlement of the Interior and Southern Plains
•Ranching becomes common to support mining and sugar plantations
•Church controlled missions protect Indians in communal living
Catholic Church and Royal Government were allies
•Church often functioned as a branch of the government
•Established churches, schools in towns, frontier areas
•Ran many of the social, intellectual activities of the colonies
•Catholic orders converted the Indians
•Settled the Indians in protected missions
•Introduced farming, herding, industry to Indians
Portugal: Artistic, Scientific, Inventions During the period of Colonial Empire
►New technologies help Europeans travel offshore
- New types of ships
- Advance, sail against wind
►Navigational instruments
- Magnetic compass
- Astrolabe (and cross and back staffs)
►Knowledge of winds and currents
- Enabled Europeans to travel reliably
►Church stimulates intellectual growth
- Needs artists, architects to build, beautify churches
- Printing presses tended to do mostly Church business
- First universities (Mexico City, Lima) organized, run by clergy
►Produced bureaucrats for empire, clergy for church
►First universities in the Americas before Yale, Harvard
- Sister Juana Ines de la Cruz
►Mexican poet, musician, author, social thinker
►Joined Church and became great theologian and social thinker
Portugal: Nature of the Colonial Empire
►Portugal searched for fresh resources
- Resource poor country blocked from expanding on land
- 13th to 15th century they ventured out onto Atlantic
- Established sugar plantations in Azores, Madiera
►Europeans replace Native
- Flora, fauna, cultural norms replace Indian
- Farmers, ranchers take over Indian lands
- Sheep, horses, cattle, crops replace Indians, varieties
- European culture seen as superior – it won, we should adopt it
►A Golden Age
- As interior was settled, gold was discovered
- A land rush and gold rush ensued which open up the interior
Spanish: Political Structure of Colonial Empire
Spanish, Portuguese spent 700 years reclaiming land from Muslims
•State supported, state financed campaign
•Well trained, well motivated, army and navy
•State gets its tenth of conquests, soldiers get a share of profits, too
•Aristocrats obtain estates with feudal labor (Muslims)
Royal Administration arrives
•Governorship, treasury office, royal courts, professional magistrates
•Capitals laid out in a grid pattern with royal palace, cathedral
Americans began to resent distant control
•Local born Americans demand greater say in their own future
•Urban riots, boycotts over foreign controls
•Tax revolts
•Slave revolts not uncommon
•Revolts against mercantilist policies, controls
•Spanish: tobacco, liquor, taxes led to Comunero Revolt in 1781
•Tupac Amaru led Indian revolt in Peru in 1783
•Lead up to the American Revolution: many Acts and then actual rebellion
Spanish: Economic Structure of Colonial Empire
•Model for Exploitation based on Canaries, Azores example
•Enslave natives, give land to Europeans
•Plantations set up for export of sugar
•Enslaved natives die off, import slaves, usually Africans
•Different forms of labor, taxation created
•Encomiendas used Indians as feudal like labor
•Old Indian models but now arbitrary, excessive
•Ended 1540 as too threatening to royal power
•Forced labor
•Mita in Peru
•Cuatequil in Mexico
•Repartimiento replaces Encomienda system
•Repartimiento redistributed natives for forced labor
•Little different from encomienda
•Except village decide whom to send as laborers
•Natives moved around as migrant workers, laborers on official duties
17th century
•Indians flee villages, work for landlords, in cities; done to avoid conscription
•Allowed Indians to choose work; began to work for wages
•Silver more plentiful than gold
•The basis of Spanish New World wealth
•Melted Aztec, Inca gold into ingots
•Two major sites of silver mining
•Zacatecas (Mexico)
•Potosi (Peru)
•Spanish Americas were largely an agrarian society
•Coastal Plantations
•Produced cash crops for export: sugar, cocoa
•Eventually required large imports of slave labor
•Large private estates (haciendas, estancias) set up
•Were the basis of Spanish American production, aristocratic wealth
•Spanish transplanted Iberian model
•Produced grains, grapes, cattle, horses, sheep
•Americas became self-sufficient for needs
•Foods, textiles, tools produced locally
•Luxuries imported
•Raw materials, minerals exported
•Trade was mercantilist
•Spanish government regulated trade
•Trade routed through Spain: Cadiz, Seville
•Only Spanish merchants could carry goods to Spain
•All manufactures, imports had to come from Spain
•Only Spaniards could sell products in Americas
•Galleon convoys organized to protect, carry trade
•Ports to Spain: Veracruz, Cartagena, Havana
•Ports to Manila, China: Acapulco
•Textile Industry
•Woolens developed from sheep ranching
•Leather industry developed from cattle
•Cotton produced locally by Indians also woven
The Spanish colonies did develop a small woolen textile industry that supplied colonial markets. Spanish commercial objectives were directed at exploitation of mineral wealth, specifically silver. All American trade with Spain passed through the Casa de Contratacion of Seville. Strict control of trade allowed Spanish merchants to keep prices high. To discourage piracy and competition from other European nations, Spanish trade with its colonies was shipped in a convoy system composed of galleons. Trade from Europe passed to fortified ports in the Caribbean and along the American mainland.
Although a seemingly endless supply of silver entered Spain, much of it was eventually exported to pay for military service, debts, and a negative balance of trade. Importation of American bullion contributed to sharp inflation in first Spain, then the rest of Europe. Spain's control of the silver trade permitted its monarchs to incur massive debts on the security of American bullion.
Spanish: Religious Structure of Colonial Empire
Conquest involved violence, murder, theft
•Raised moral, philosophical questions
•Many scholars justified it as (Sepulveda)
•Bring civilization, Christianity to backward
•Conquest of inferior by a superior culture
Spanish missionaries introduced Catholicism
•Mission schools and churches established
•Missionaries recorded languages, traditions
•Catholic Church attracted many converts
•Church taught Indians skills: farming, herding
•Church became protector of Indians
Spanish: Social Structure of Colonial Empire
•Decline of Indian Population by 1750
•Drops from 125 million to 5 million
•Caribbean Indians disappeared
•Mexico: from 22 to 2 million by 1580
•Peru: from 10 to 1.5 million by 1590
•Diseases: smallpox, influenza, measles
•Results
•Whole areas abandoned
•Indian traditions, social norms questioned
•Economic structures collapse
•1550: Spanish King calls commission to investigate
•Bartolome de las Casas spoke against Sepulveda
•Defended Indians, their lives, conquest unjustified
•Crown backs de las Casas but conquest too much wealth to ignore
•Crown orders worst abuses halted
•Takes direct control of colonies, creates royal government
•African Slaves
•Africa had an overabundance of exportable labor
•Europeans diverted slaves to Atlantic Coast
•Slaves gradually introduced to Brazil, Caribbean
•Slavery spread to coastlines of the Caribbean
•Slaves used in plantation economies producing exportable cash crops
•In Spanish and Portuguese settlements, mestizo societies emerged
•Peoples of varied ancestry lived together under European rule
•Peninsulares were European born who dominated government, society
•Creoles were American born Europeans who ran economy, few rights
•Mestizo: Mixed descent of Spanish and Portuguese men, native women
•Many distinctions based on color, heritage
•Society of Brazil more thoroughly mixed: mestizos, mulattoes, zambos
•Typical social and racial hierarchy in Iberian colonies
•Strict hierarchy
•Whites (peninsulares and criollos) owned the land and held the power
•Mixed races (mestizos and zambos) performed much of the manual labor
•Africans and American natives were at the bottom
Spain and Portugal were heavily urbanized, a characteristic these nations exported to the New World. Spanish and Portuguese colonists, though commoners at home, often attempted to remake themselves as a colonial elite with Indians as their serfs. Households were patriarchal, a trait carried over to the plantation economy of Latin America. The Spanish state depended on a professional bureaucracy and was closely tied to the Church. Plantation agriculture based on slave labor, already established on the Atlantic islands, was readily transported to the Americas.
Spanish: Interactions
Columbus and Successors
•Early Successes
•Arrive Bahamas, Hispaniola
•Built fort of Santo Domingo
•1511: controlled Cuba, Puerto Rico
•1520: controlled Lesser Antilles
Catholic Church and Royal Government were allies
•Church often functioned as a branch of the government
•Established churches, schools in towns, frontier areas
•Ran many of the social, intellectual activities of the colonies
•Catholic orders converted the Indians
•Settled the Indians in protected missions
•Introduced farming, herding, industry to Indians
Crisis of the 18th Century: Shifting Balance of Trade and Politics
•Spanish model outmoded, Spanish hold on Americas not secure
•Increasing wars, competition from Northern Europeans
•French seize Santo Domingo, some lesser Antilles, Mississippi Valley
•English seize Jamaica, Bahamas, some lesser Antilles, E. North America
•Dutch seize Aruba, other lesser Antilles
•Failure of Spanish central administration to control colonies
•Decline of Spanish industry, merchants, treasure fleets
Pacific Islands
•Spain and the Pacific
•Pacific had been a Spanish possession until 19th century (Philippines, Micronesia)
•Spanish yearly shipments of silver from Mexico to China ended in 1812
Spanish: Arts, Sciences, Technologies
►New technologies help Europeans travel offshore
- New types of ships
- Advance, sail against wind
►Navigational instruments
- Magnetic compass
- Astrolabe (and cross and back staffs)
►Knowledge of winds and currents
- Enabled Europeans to travel reliably
►Church stimulates intellectual growth
- Needs artists, architects to build, beautify churches
- Printing presses tended to do mostly Church business
- First universities (Mexico City, Lima) organized, run by clergy
►Produced bureaucrats for empire, clergy for church
►First universities in the Americas before Yale, Harvard
- Sister Juana Ines de la Cruz
►Mexican poet, musician, author, social thinker
►Joined Church and became great theologian and social thinker
Spanish: Nature Of the Colonial Empire
•Europeans replace Native
•Flora, fauna, cultural norms replace Indian
•Farmers, ranchers take over Indian lands
•Sheep, horses, cattle, crops replace Indians, varieties
•European culture seen as superior – it won, we should adopt it
Holland: Political Structure of the Colonial Empire
•Colonial government different from Iberian colonies
•North American colonies controlled by private investors
•Little royal financial support except protection, taxation
•Royal authority/governors, but also institutions of self-government
•The Dutch had no patience for democratic institutions. The point of the colony was to enrich its stockholders.
•Slavery was common during the Dutch era, as the Dutch West India Company was one of the most prominent in the world's trade of slaves.
•Dutch national identity emerged during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, especially in the struggle for independence from Catholic Spain during the Eighty Year War (1568–1648). The Dutch people received independence from the House of Habsburg in the Treaty of Munster in 1648. The Netherlands was temporarily unified with Belgium after the Congress of Vienna. The Catholic Belgian elite sought its freedom from the Protestant Dutch, and Belgium became independent in 1839.
•y. Dutch national identity emerged from the struggle for political sovereignty and religious freedom from the Catholic Habsburgs (Philip II). The Dutch merchant class formed an alliance with the House of Orange; the merchants supplied the funds to wage war, while the House of Orange provided political stability and military protection. Politics became more dependent on consensus and negotiation than on authoritarian rule as power rested in the hands of provincial viceroys.
Holland: Economic Structure of Colonial Empire
Dutch East India Company held tight control of Indonesia (Dutch East India)
South Africa
•Settled first by Dutch farmers (Afrikaners) in seventeenth century
•By 1800 was a European settler colony with enslaved black African population
"Concessionary companies": granted considerable authority to private companies
empowered to build plantations, mines, railroads
made use of forced labor and taxation, as in Belgian Congo
unprofitable, often replaced by more direct rule
Joint-stock companies
•Dutch East Indies, English East/West Indies Companies
•Organized commerce on a new scale
•Authorized to explore, conquer, colonize distant lands
English, French, Dutch create smaller empires on fringes
•Caribbean holdings more profitable than North American colonies
•Caribbean islands and Southern American colonies
Export sugar, rice, tobacco, cotton, indigo rice
Dominated by slaves, plantations; relied on importation of Africans for labor
Holland: Religious Structure of Colonial Empire
The Netherlands has for centuries provided a safe haven for ethnic minorities fleeing from discrimination and persecution, with each minority influencing Dutch culture in its own way. Many Jews from Spain and Portugal and Protestant merchants from the Spanish-ruled southern Netherlands sought refuge in the Dutch Republic in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.