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remember Black Legend + blending religions: Americas also changed Christianity. In the face of the demand of the Church that conquered people become Catholic, they might for instance blend their own beliefs with Catholic ones. In 1531, the Aztec Cuauhtlatoatzin, whose baptismal name was Juan Diego, had five visions of the Virgin Mary on a sacred Aztec spot of the corn goddess, near Mexico City. Mary’s miracles left an imprint of her form on Juan Diego’s cape. And on the cape, Mary appeared to be an Aztec woman wearing a robe with Aztec designs and symbols. This version of Mary, known as Our Lady of Guadalupe, was brown-skinned and was often called, “the dark virgin.” Many shrines to Our Lady of Guadalupe were built, and her story was written down both in Spanish and in the Aztec language, Nahuatl. Our Lady of Guadalupe replaced some of the local goddesses that were suppressed by the Christians. Women in particular took up devotion to her as a symbol of motherhood. And today, Our Lady of Guadalupe’s basilica in Mexico City is said to be the most visited shrine in the world.
Greg Jenner’s defin. Columbian Exchange
Proc. reciprocal exchange by which people, animals, foods, plants, cultures & even microbes were introduced in 2-way spread to both OW & NW, starting globalisation.
Who coined term CE & when?
(1970s) Marxist historian Alfred Crosby to descr. this big exchange
focus on political, econ. history
criticism of CE AS Eurocentric term
Often critic. (e.g. Caroline Dodds Pennock) for putting too much emphasis on Europeans such as Columbus (who merely discovered Bahamas), when it is really ab. exchange itself.
What was exchanged in CE + most signif. aspects?
Plants
Animals
Diseases
Demographic
Mineral Wealth
Trade Items
Technology
Lang.
Religion
Econ.
Govt
Plants
NW crops/plants → OW
(Pennock) Most signif. = wood
Espec. (French) brazil wood (early; hard + makes amazing red dye) → rubber (later) brought back by Columbus
CE: transatlantic → global across colonies → demand increases massively → rubber trees planted Sri Lanka, Singapore & Belgian-controlled Congo (used as shield to run slavery Congo 10 mil. die)
Plants
NW crops/plants → OW
(Pennock) anoth. signif. = nicotine
In tobacco → integral to indigenous practices
sniffed, smoked chewed
👓n as essential to physical, spiritual & emot. wellbeing (31 mins in for spec. example)
… & as globally consumed substance.
(12th Oct. 1492) Columbus 🎁ed w/dried tobacco 🍃- ceremonial 🎁 he throws away.
(after CE) Farmed & grown in Virginia Colony → 1 modt consumed substances in 🌍.
Medicinal significance - still medically endorsed.
neurosuppresent
calmed nerves
helped virility & digestion (smoke after eating)
wealth
class statement to smoke
leisure
relaxing
history of the senses - time fillers in era w/lot time to fill
heavy component socialising/ social activity; just like sports, drinking & smoking
currency
expense → commodity/ value in itself (market product in itself besides its value to be used)
What is overall impact on OW of NW pants?
New 🍔s: 🍅s, 🥔s, corn, cassava → massively ↑ agricultural productivity → 🍔 security in OW
NW crops had diff. nutritional properties, thrived in diff. soils, had diff. growing cycles & varying levels pest/weather resistance → could be grown productively in soils & climatic conditions suitable to OW staples + high calorie output → dominant many parts OW & alm. 1/2 global staple 🍔 production.
Crosby: introd. NW crops had ↑ demographic impact than introd. OW diseases to Americas ∵ facilitated popul. expansion 🌍 in 2nd 1/2 millennium.
🍔 preservation techniques
Incas dried some potatoes for instance, which made them lighter and easier to transport, and then would later reconstitute them so they could be eaten, a strategy which fortified messengers along the Inca’s extensive network of roads
Over time potatoes and maize (know here as corn) increased overall calories available to Europeans because they could be dried and stored in huge quantities. And that decreased starvation and increased populations.
→ enable food to be thought ab. as someth. ← which to derive pleasure rather than just source energy → don’t have to eat food because don’t like it for 1st time
The exchange of crops and plants during the Columbian Exchange increased food security and allowed food to be enjoyed for pleasure rather than just as a source of energy.
Plants
NW crops/plants → OW
(Alfred Crosby) Why is maize so signif.?
‘the single most important American crop’
Maize will prod. good crops in extreme variety climates; too dry for rice & too wet for rice.
High yield per unit 🟩 – roughly x2 wheat.
Prod. 🍔 fast – few other plants prod. so/m carbohydrate, sugar & fat in as short a grow. season → high energy yield.
Low lab. requirements + short grow. season.
Plants
NW crops/plants → OW
(Alfred Crosby) maize’s effect on Europe
Impact maize initially restricted alm. entirely to S ½ Europe ∵ plant thrives only where granted sev. months hot weather.
Yet (by 17thc) → staple southern French diet, figure. in renewed growth French popul.
Yugoslavia & Romania amongst biggest maize producers in 🌍 + Hungary’s biggest single crop = maize, where fed alm. exclusively to livestock.
(🇮🇹) Maize cultiv. v/early Po Valley à Goethe (1780s): polenta (corn meal mush) à Staple N 🇮🇹 peasant’s diet.
Plants
NW crops/plants → OW
(Alfred Crosby) maize’s effect on Africa
‘in no other continent, except the Americas themselves, is so great a proportion of the pop. so dependent on American foods’
∵ so few cultivated 🪴s originated in Africa (Valivov: 50/640), must import its chief 🍔 🪴s ß Asia & Africa (partic. true in rain forest areas ∵ none jungle 🍔 crops native to Africa)
‘↑ 🍔 prod. enabled slave trade to go on as long it did’
Atlantic slave drivers drew many/most their cargoes ,_ rainforest areas where American crops enables heaver settlem. than ever before.
(Jevan Cherniwchan and Juan Moreno-Cruz) introd. NW crops had material effect on Africa by ↑ both
Pop. density (follow. Malthus. Model)
Slave exports dur. precolonial era
Evid.
Follow. intro. Maize…
1% ↑ maize-suitable 🟩 à 0.040% ↑ pop. density + 0.029% ↑ Trans-Atlantic slave exports (ref. 6).
(for average African country) (1600-1900) alm. 23% pop. growth + 7% ↑ Trans-Atlantic slave exports @ height slave trades attributed to introd. maize.
↑ supply African slaves dur. Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
sugar
deforestation began with the clearing of forests for sugar cane production
sugar was initially such a precious luxury that a sprinkle of it was all that
even the wealthy could afford.
Queen Isabella of Castille and Spain gave a small box of sugar to her daughter as a
Christmas present to be treasured.
Chocolate began as a ceremonial drink for the powerful, as it was among the
Aztecs.
But as European communities became wealthier, more people transitioned from subsistence
living to being able to afford goods from distant places.
Treats of sugar, chocolate, tea, coffee and tobacco transformed attitudes, while the hot
water that was needed for making tea and coffee and hot cocoa is thought to have extended the life spans in Europe by killing water-born germs.
(Pennock) other important plants
tomatoes (all around Spain & Italy by end 16th), chilis (Portuguese introd. → South Asian cooking, beg. network reaching across Africa & Asia), avocados, pumpkins, papaya, potatoes (European & Indian curries), blueberries, peanuts, maize, all beans except soy beans, squash (African) (3 plants so central to indigenous cuisine called ‘3 sisters’, grown tog.)
most valuable in contemporary global trade: peanut & sunflower oil
potatoes not taxed upon → eaten more widely
pineapple diffic. to grow Europe so imported → symbol luxury, imprinted in bannisters, conversation starters - could rent them for table for dinner parties
sugar cane = A cash crop that had value in itself and played a central role in British identity, as it was used to sweeten British foods like cake and tea.
Animals
NW → OW: birds
Birds brought back as curiosities (period scientific interest; people want to see amazing vibrant, speaking birds, e.g. parrots among 1st thing to be traded → owned by Columbus, appear maps by 16thc, Renaissance paintings, (1532) French ship seized by Portuguese had cargo supposedly includ. 600 parrots could all speak French → so associated w/Americas that every indigenous person depicted w/feathers on them in European art
Animals
(Pennock) NW → OW: cochinel
An insect that was crushed to create a red dye called carmine, which became a valuable export from the Americas.
(Spanish export: insect crushed → red dye, carmine) → such a big thing that dyes → 2nd most valuable export ← Americas after silver (light, easy to transport, profitable)
Transforms indigenous ways life; grow cacti instead food stuff → councils complaining nouveau riche class people making lots money when should be growing maize
Domesticated (large farming) animals 👓n as essential to European society & imported early on dur. CE.
(Pennock) 🐮s
use
how many
impact on landscape
impact on slavery
Because Amerindians didn’t use animals for farming (didn’t plough their fields; used digging sticks: mixed agriculture) → human manpower to dig around animals, using people/water to move things around
Provided 🥛, 🥩 & lab. for farming
(report as early 1520s) herds 500-8000 🐮s Hispaniola → (immed. after Conqest 1521) reports cattle ranches, w/some raches by late 1500s (explosion cattle farming) ↑150,000 cattle
changed up ecology area
sheep flourished in Andes
↓ pop. Amerindian animals → monoculture + deforestation
Stripped aw. vegetation nec. for soil conservation & trampled farmland.
90% llamas 😵 SA under careful stewardship Europeans due to mismanagement
still going on today w/cattle (to feed fast-food diet) - EM parallels to modern day
That many for food + hide → leather → big export back to Spain + tallow wax → candles cheaply avail. across Americas → more widely avail. → indigenous & enslaved made to work longer hrs
Domesticated (large farming) animals 👓n as essential to European society & imported early on dur. CE.
(Pennock) 🐷s
European animal that most quickly → part indigenous food chains (can keep in house to keep warm; need no land to graze upon), w/pork → primary 🥩 for poor
Provided🥩 & warmth + easy to raise
Domesticated (large farming) animals 👓n as essential to European society & imported early on dur. CE.
(Pennock) 🐴s
Discourse atm over whether horses were indigenous (→ indigenous connection to horses pre-dates CE)/Spanish brought them w/them → we do know though that Spanish introd. many morse horses/diff. breeds horse
Used for transportation, agriculture & warfare; symbol power
(within 8 yrs) large populations these domesticated animals due to lack predators, lots grasses, roots to eat
🐴s spread throughout OW → wild ones domesticated by Native Americas → recently became part of their identity
How does Crosby characterise introd. OW 🪴s & 🐱s to NW?
Introduction OW 🪴s & 🐱s, including wheat, 🐴s, cattle, 🐑, 🐔, 🐷 transformed 🟩scape, ecology & econ. pot. NW in proc. Crosby termed ‘ecological imperialism’
How did this → global cooling/ climate change?
Mineral wealth
silver + impact on Spain & global economies
colonization proved extremely lucrative for Spain and Portugal, which within a century went from being poor kingdoms to astonishingly rich ones, especially after 1545, when the Spanish uncovered a huge deposit of silver in Potosi, in present-day Bolivia, and began conscripting indigenous people to do the most dangerous work in the mines.
W/its SA mines prod. 80% 🌍’s silver (formed cheap basis 🌍’s economies) + seizure art & relig. objects made w/precous metals…
By mid16thC silver & gold pouring into Spain.
🇪🇸 → richest country in Europe (↑ power & influence) able to fund counter-reformation + engage militarily beyond Liberia
Set off huge bout inflation in Europe - prices ↑500% bifold over course century
→ developm. 1st global trading network (some silver prod. SA 🚢across Pacific to be used to buy Asiatic goods that then s🚢ped to European markets via Cape route.
How did this start globalisation?
(Dr Evan Jones + Pennock)
Pennock defines globalisation as the beginnings of global networks
whilst some root these in silk road, those networks are within continents even if they are big
columbian exchange means they span the whole world
(Jones) 1492 set conditions significant expansion in range & scale commercial interactions, est. global markets/trad. network
Evidence: whilst took centuries to develop fully globalised economy, creation global trade network occurred within few decade voyages & was predicated on them.
2 worlds had prev. been entirely isol. ← each other
OW = Europe, Asia, Africa → lacked communication but trade routes etc meant diseases, crops & cultures could spread
globalisation & slavery
🇪🇸 & 🇵🇹 developed plantation agriculture in 🇺🇸 based on slaves imported ← Africa - est. form econ. exploitation that would form much basis American econ. next 300 yrs
Integrated Africa into global econ.
Discovery fostered developm. slaving 👾s in Africa by fostering the prosperous selling of Africans to European merchants for export to the Americas
Export textiles, iron & 🔫 ← Europe fostered developm. slaving 👾s in Africa , which prospered by selling their peoples to European merchants for exports to the Americas.
Disease
NW → OW
common OW diseases
Who was thought to be vector diseases?
Why were diseases so devastating to Amerindians?
plague, _pox, malaria, measles… + vicious tropical diseasses able to thrive in SA climate (yellow fever, malaria)
Trade good traveled ← tribe → tribe through middlemen.
(1630s) Smallpox transported ← Caribbean to mainland by Cortez expedition.
Locals → brutally treated source slave labour ∵ colonies est. by 🇪🇸 & Caribbean barely turning profit (↓ 🥇 than Columbus had promised (motivation early settlers) + lacking resistance to European diseases → devastating epidemics 😵 in vast numbers
Disease
NW → OW
How did _pox affect…
Iroquois
tribe Madans
indig. pop. Central Mexico
🏝 Hispaniola
Tainos of Greater Antilles
SA overall
NA
(1738 + 1959) killed ½ pop.
(winter 1837-8) elim. alm. entire tribe - 1600 → 125
(within century) 25 mil. → ↓ 1 mil.
(1492) 1 mil. → (1512) 46,000
(by 1600) ↓ indig. pop. by 50% → destroyed though DNA tests proved lineage remained (some survived & diluted into African & Hispanic cultures)
obliterated
90% Indian popul. gone within century Puritans landing on Plymouth Rock
In the long run, violence, enslavement, and European diseases like smallpox and measles led to the death of perhaps as much as 90% indigenous American population within century. Diseases spread and killed so quickly that entire communities ceased to exist almost at once, and with them their traditions, stories, and values.
Crosby’s issues w/these statistics
which disease?
Agreem. as to extent pop. collapse across SA (records existent/complete) but signif.
1st disease to arrive & deadliest said by contemporaries to be smallpox.
(even today) Smallpox occasionally misdiagnosed as influenza, pneumonia, measles, scarlet fever, syphilis or chicken pox.
400 yrs ago such mistakes commoner
Early historians ↑ likely to comment on sinfulness that had called down such epidemics as obvious evidence God’s wrath than to describe in detail diseases involved.
Estimates of numbers killed by epidemic disease may be ↑ accurate 📏ment their emotions than numbers who really 😵.
Alth. c20 epidemiologist/ demographer would 🔎 these c.16 statistics completely satisfactory, probably are crudely accurate.
Conditions which facilitate spread 1 disease will usually encourage spread others ∴ epidemics often 🛍 multiple maladies.
e.g. pneumonia & pleurisy often follow after smallpox, smothering those whom it has weakened.
Alth. 🇪🇸 ‘viruelas’ translated invariably as ‘smallpox’, specifically means disease but pimpled, pustuled appearance which = most obvious symptom disease ∴ conquistadores may have used word ‘viruelas’ to refer to measles/chicken pox/typhus.
But did differentiate - called 1531 epidemic Central America ‘sarampión’ - measles - & viruelas.
Disease
impact
What else facilitated collapse Amerindian empire?
advantage of steel over stone
advantage cannon & firearms over 🏹s & slings (military superiority) → style fighting war
NA fought ritual wars (ab. actually defeating enemy but symbolising defeat)
terrorising effect 🐴s on 🦶 soldiers who had never 👓n such beasts before
lack unity among Indians, even within their empires
War broke out bet. Huascar & Atahualpa, a war which devastated empire & prepared way for quick 🇪🇸 conquest.
(Pedro Pizzaro - reference 48) ‘Had the 🟩 been divided bet. Huascar & Atahualpa, we would have been able to enter / win the 🟩 unless we could gather a 1000 Spaniards for the task, & @ that 🕑 it was poss. to get tog. even five hundred Spaniards’
cosmology/religion: prophecies in Indian mythology about arrival white gods
extreme overwork
gen. lack will to live after their whole culture had been shattered by alien invasion
starvation took toll ∵ lack ✋s to work fields
lack minimal care for ill
Motivated by desire colonial authorities to ensure natives would live ‘under the bells’ (near ⛪)
Often enforced relocation Amerindians into new villages (displacement 🧍 ← their own communities → smaller units) followed Spanish style (w/⛪, square, etc)
e.g. old Aztec capital Tenochtitlan destroyed so replace. Mexico City in Spanish style
Colonial auth. ensure 🟩 would be worked + 🧍 would be under control both colonial/seuclar & relig. auth.
Disrupted livelihood Amerindians, impacting fertility & lifespans.
Disease?
(Crosby
What is wrong w/focus on ecological imperialism?
Why are these factors not en.?
What is answer?
Focus on ecological imperialism ignores why so easy for 🇪🇸 (Europeans) to colonise NW/so succ. when had merely been traders in Asia
→ For all that, one might have @ least expected highly organised, militaristic societies of Mexico & Andean highlands to survive initial contact w/European societies. Should have been able to repel 1st few Spaniards to arrive.
Even after they learnt Spaniards = Gods, after they obtained their own 🐴s & 🔫s & developed tactics to deal w/Europeans, only slightly ↑ succ.
answer = Indians’ lack resistance diseases inadvertently brought w/them when they crossed Atlantic (microbes killing people with no resistance to them → spread like wildfire).
Worse than Black 😵
W/poss. exception Australian aborigine, American Indian had danger. privilege longest isol. ← rest 👨kind.
→ Effectively benign diseases OW turned killer in NW
Plague but a Holocaust that dwarfs any known since - 100s millions 😵
Most devestating single demographic crisis in human history
Story colonial success but microbial success
Disease
impact
(Crosby) Weakened Amerindian power structures, striking down their leaders & disrupting processes by which they were normally replaced - broke ⛓s command.
e.g. Incan Empire
Govt Incan Empire = absol. autocracy w/demigod (🧒☀) as its emperor.
Emperor Huayna Capac; general Mihcnaca Mayta & many other military leaders, governors Apu Hilquito & auqui Tupac (Inca’s uncle & brother); Inca’s sister (Mama Coca); Inca’s son & heir Ninan Cuyoche (reference 46); & many other members royal 👪 all 😵 smallpox epidemic 1520s
Pizzaro’s murder Atahualpa
😵s VIPs Incan soc. must have robbed empire m/resiliency
Left heirs to throne: all Inca’s children succumbed to smallpox pestilence (autocracy succession =autocrat himself choose his successor)
Disease
impact
How did disease (think sugar) facilitate slavery?
Lack resistance → _ dependable SA source slave labour → 🇪🇸 imported slaves ← Africa to replace locals
∵ they had advantage of having same germ resistance to OW diseases as Europeans + to stay within law, which yet say how they could be enslaved.
What did African lab. do + where shipped to?
worked in mines, agriculture, port towns, and sugar mills.
all parts Americas
How many total Africans were imported to the Americas during the Atlantic slave trade?
How many total Africans were imported to the West Indies during the Atlantic slave trade?
9.5 mil.
1.7 mil.
What’s the problem w/this focus?
(modern ethnohistorian Matthew Restall): What’s the problem w/this focus?
Robert C. Schwaller: religious resilience
Highlights indigenous agency + chall. notion of a simple conquest by sword & cross.
Portrays Amerindians as weak when actually…
(1521) Battle of Tenochtitlan (capital Aztec Empire) → fall Aztec civilisation & ensuing sacking & viol. against survivors
lased 8 days
240,000 natives perished
But leadership severely weakened by disease
Disease
OW → NW
(Johannes Fabricius) syphilis
origins
vectors
exacerbated by…
Origins
Explorers America caught syphilis & (on their return), introd. it into 🇪🇸 → & spread it throughout Europe. → HOW?
← here, disease transmitted to army Charles VIII 🇫🇷 by Spanish mercenaries in his service
(1494) Syphilis brought to 🇮🇹 when 🇫🇷 king crossed Alps to assert by force of arms his claim to throne Naples, where an epidemic occured dur. siege Naples (early 1495).
(spring 1495) 🇫🇷 army in disciplined retreat ← 🇮🇹, carrying w/it new disease to rest Europe.
Vectors
Both sexual & venereal means transmission
public 🛀 s medieval towns → infected towel
barbers’ shops → syphilitic barber
drinking cups shared in 🏠s & taverns → infected cup
custom 😘 → 😘 diseased 🧍
Exacerbated → devastating plague by…
Malnutrition (poorly provisioned c.15) & intercurrent illness prevalent amongst armies earlier 🕑 ↑∴ many ↑ often lost to disease than to battle - → important vector for pan-continental spread syphilis.
Low degree immunity pop. Renaissance Europe
Likely ‘herd immunity’ to syphilis amongst c.15 Europeans, succumbed to phenomenon ‘disease synergy’ (Oslo study 🎭 syphilis prod. mortality rate in excess of that which was directly attributable to disease itself - Gjestland, 1995, pp.345-55).
Disease
How does Johannes Fabricius spread syphilis OW?
Appearance syphilis on European scene @ close MA = ‘1 of the most crucial events in modern history’ → impact disease on alm. every spere cultural life
Disease
(Johannes Fabricius) impact syphilis
Prompted rofound change manners & morals (Renaissance) & → stressing desirability monogamy, premarital chastity & absol. fidelity within ⚭ as only safe position both secular & relig. matters.
Poisoned widely-practiced custom touching w/🫦
🎁ed real danger as source venereal infection ∵ contagious 2ndary lesions (syphilis) 🎁 in 👄
(syphilitic shock) Made sexual customs & regulations and religion stricter & ↑ conservative, w/promiscuous habits 🕑 → mortal danger (epidemic proportions & virulence its effects)
→ closure 🛀 🏠s → restrictive 📏s against prostitutes & brothels in all cities Europe
Introd. hitherto known elem. anxiety, suspicion & circumspection bet. sexes.
Theologians steered development. Prot. ethics in direction sexual puritanism, glorifying ⚭ as divine institution & violently denounced extra-marital sex.
Luther: (1522) Syphilis raging all over 🇩🇪 → held ‘Sermon on ⚭’
Calvin reformed Genenva along lines moral austerity, banning💃, drama & 🎶 banned ∵ regarded as diabolical incitement to lust + closed city’s numerous taverns & brothels ruthlessly suppressed prostitution.
Disease
(Johannes Fabricius) Why was syphilis so shameful?
+ impact → statistical issue
Moral opprobrium syphilis set it apart ← all other contemporary diseases (carried its own social stigma, in that most of its victims had been promiscuous)
Viciims given away by no. visible symptoms - goodn. assoc. w/beauty; evil w/uglin. → moralism - imposition moral values to shame
→ used as political weapon
Pop. but erroneous conception syphilis could spread via foul breath infected used as political weapon in anti-cleric nobles’ attempt to overthrow 🫅’s Lord Chancellor, Thomas Wolsey.
Accused him intending to kill Henry by infecting him w/his own ‘foul & contagious disease’.
Fear social discrim., relig. condemnation & personal rejection (bigotry) variably induced sufferers to keep their disease to themselves ∴ enduring on top of their physical ordeal what was probably the worst aspect of their condition, namely sense isol. & secret guilt.
→ its being chronically underreported & has made it diffic. to estim. prevalence/ severity disease in any historical period - statistics blurred by common cover-up
Impact on NW vs OW
The Columbian Exchange had a positive impact on Europe but a negative impact on America, due to the imposition of monoculture, deforestation & disease.
Trad. historiography European colinialsm → studies Iberian olonial ventures Asia (think back to criticisms SE)
Regardless whether historians use colonial exper. in America to praise European actions as prelude to American civility & civilisation OR to denigrate European colonialism as purely extractive, evil & genocidal…
Most works looked at early colonialism ← POV in which Europeans = active agents, & indigenous 🧍 = passive recipients in a relational exchange, which placed Europe @ centre events.
(trad. view) European empires → centralised powers which had effective change in America)
→ history Americas studies as appendix of European history
How did John H Elliot chall. this?
Questioned ↑ forcefullly place American continent/s’ historical narratives for its own sake & in its own terms, rather than looking @ America through lens European history
→ to reach wider understanding their place in history, places so rich/ controversial began to be studied - e.g. colonial ventures Iberians in Asia
Importance mingling 🧍s, religions & ideas, just trade & econ. trends
Should focus on Jesuits’ evangelising projects as merely venture expression European colonial mentalities resorting to religion but instead fact meant new ideas & attitudes brought to Asia
Jesuits & locals in those territories interacted w/diff. cultures & ideas (trav. to Asian & African courts).
→ an element of circulation, just as silver & spice & silks were
Involvem. w/local polities & reliance on infidels
What motivated Iberian expansion into Asia?
How did this → globalisation?
micro-history
global history
Desire to tap into rich trade networks Asia (silk & spice trade).
Fall Constantinople → Ottomans controlled much SE Europe → est. navy, which they used in black, Adriatic and other seas in the region. Ottoman domination meant that European kingdoms and empires needed to find diff. paths to Afroeurasian trading routes – which ultim. heped spark the voyages of explorers ← Iberian peninsula
Existing Asian empires too long-est. powerful to be dislodged → forced to compromise & work tog. in way diff. & ← less advantaged pos. than was Spanish case SA → couldn’t carry out their evangelising policies → had to compromise & rely on people they would have consid. infidels in other places (Muslims, Hindus, Chinese folk religions) → world became more interconnected & globalised.
Increased connectivity that transpires in European colonies of Asia, which we can see through examination spec. localities → zoom out to see how developments there might affect other places across the world = micro-history
looking people in local context then applying that knowl. to wider world
chall. notions European superiority
study early colonialism now looked at from POV global history, a subfield of historical discipline which continues to grow
these historical narratives (whihc look at local developlemtn & global impact) contrib. to decentraliseing historical narrative ← idea West that brought prog. & civilisation (as trad. historiography says to rest world)
Relations bet. Iberian empires & their neighbours in Asia?
How does it compare to SA → globalisation?
compromise & collab.
Existing Asian empires too long-est. powerful to be dislodged → forced to compromise & work tog. in way diff. & ← less advantaged pos. than was Spanish case SA.
Alberquerque formed alliance w/privateer Timoji (in service neighbouring Vijayanagar Empire, Hindu rivals Bijapur), who prov. fleet & men
= intra-relig. alliance bet. Hindus & Portuguese Catholics against common Muslim enemy (Portuguese seen as way destabilising Muslim neigbours; Portuguese: alliance w/Hindus meant could est. another patria in Indian territory)
Gao → diverse city in which Muslims, Jews & Catholics converged → centre trade & Cath. evangelisation, w/impetus Counter-Reformation & Council of Trent, RCC entered phase renwed vigour & confid. which expansion Iberian Empires only contrib. too
← Goa, Portuguese organ. sev. conversion missions to other regions Asia
St Francis Xavier sponsored foundation Portuguese Inquisition in Goa + embarked on no. evangelising missions in India, modern-day Indoniesia, Japan & China.
Place where Europeans 1st came into contact w/Hindu system castes, which took on new meanings when fused w/Iberian notions nation, 🩸 & lineage
Members Brahmim caste India converted to Cath. & syncratised their own beliefs & customs w/those of the Portuguese YET wouldn’t often mingle w/Portuguese → kept idea their caste superior; Portuguese ethnically lower than themselves.
Head European missionaries dressed local clothing & learnt lang. encouraged others to do the same + blending Christian doctrine w/confucian teaching (adopting Chinese cultural attitudes + indigenous peoples ← China became Jesuits)
→ could carry out their evangelising policies same way → had to compromise & rely on 🧍 they would have consid. infidels in other places (Muslims, Hindus, Chinese folk religions) → 🌍 became ↑ interconnected & globalised.
Their network colleges & busin. enterpreses turned them → 1st global organ. in history.
Once Jesuits est. these global contacts, prod. reports which created Eurocentirc globalisation that went beyond religion.
E.g. → early version industrial spies when it came to prod. porcelain, reporting back ← China → Europe ab. processes went into mak. high-quality porcelain
spreading RCism their mission but Jesuits amongst those advancing commercial & agricultural developm. too
difference imperial structures Portugal & 🥘
Trad. empire: inst. conquering & settling large amounts land, Portuguese concentrated/tended to est. factories, which were localised trading ports.
The wealth would be extracted from controlling shipping and trading routes,
Did this by…
conquering surrounding areas to port
reaching agreem. w/local leaders
encroach on neighbouring politics territories little by little
_ & agile ships known as caravels patrolling ports and collecting large fees.
These territories never meant to be huge extensions of land/ dominated by Portuguese law (like Spanish model imperialism SA)
Based on colonies
Rather than controlling trade routes, would control land itself & people who lived there + extract wealth from them to enrich SE.
galleon trade
When the Portuguese reached Southeast Asia and China, they found a cornucopia of goods that Europeans came to crave and about whose production they hadn’t the slightest knowledge: colorful, washable cottons, and finely crafted porcelain, also tea.
By the seventeenth century, the Portuguese were importing millions of pieces of porcelain into Europe along with lots of delicious spices.
see seminar notes
Relations bet. Iberian empires & their neighbours in Asia?
conflict + some European enmities transferred to Asia
case study = Hormuz
1622 Anglo-Persian campaign
but…
signif.
Portugal belongs to Kingdom Spain
England broke 300 year-old alliance w/Portugalteamed up w/Shah, launching attack on Portugal’s ships. Shah gained England some benefits in the area
(1622) East India Company (repres. English interests in region) tried to est. 💪er 🦶hold Persian Gulf by capturing Hormuz.
W/Safavid Perisa, launched attack on Portuguese garrison stationed city (Capture Ormuz) → succ. took control Hormuz ← Portuguese.
Shah granted English certain exemptions & privileges in silk trade in area
Tensions soon arose bet. English & Safavid Empire.
Safavids accused English overstaying their welcome, failing to pay their promised tribute, & engag. in author. activities.
(1623) Safavids ousted the English from the city, effectively ending their control over strategic port.
Intra-religious alliances: 1st alliance bet. Muslim & Christian European polity in region against another Christian European polity
Undermined Iberian dream & ended English attempts to dominate spice trade/vital trade routes Persian Gulf.
🎭 how local grievances played out in global area (Portugal united under Spainish Crown + England has assumed hostilities to Spain, thereby mak. Portugal their enemy too → hence why they helped Shah expell Portuguese)
intra-European hostilities somet. translated into global arena & played out w/places outside Europe
EUROPEAN POWERS NOT THAT PWOERFUL - HAD TO ALLY THEMSELVES W/LOCAL MUSLIM RULERS TO GAIN ANY POWER/INFLUENCE → EVEN THEN FLIMSY/INEFFECTUAL/SHORT-LASTING POWER
Note 
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