Notes on The Atlantic World and Portugal in Africa

The Atlantic World

  • Context: Atlantic societies in the early modern era, focusing on the dynamics of Spanish America (the Atlantic frontier between Europe, Africa, and the Americas) and the Portuguese footprint in Africa.
  • Visual and ideological framing: The image caption from Theodor de Bry (Americae pars sexta, Frankfurt, 1596) depicts exploitation of Native Americans in mines and the broader violence of colonial rule: “Exploitation of Native Americans in the Mines of America.” The caption mentions that Indians were “cruelly treated” under load and suggests coexistence with religious authority (Inquisition mentioned).

Migration, mobility, and social origins in the Spanish Americas

  • Unlike rigid Spain’s aristocracy, people of low origins could prosper in the Spanish Atlantic world and climb social strata.
  • 1604 Mexico City observation: migration was driven by poverty and necessity; the realm was rich and abundant due to God’s mercy, allowing industrious newcomers to make an honest living. The quote underscores the perceived opportunity and mobility in the New World.
  • Enrique Otte’s study: analysis of over 600 letters from the New World to Castile shows emigrants often urged family and friends to join them for better living and business opportunities; they sought to emigrate and prosper together.
  • Emigrant motives and networks:
    • Emigration to the New World was not one-way; many kept ties with Castile and sent money home.
    • Letters home urged kin to join for “opportunity and good fortune” in America.
    • Some merchants and officials moved to Castile for visits and family connections; Spaniards in America maintained strong familial and town networks.
  • Early colonization and recruitment:
    • Francisco Pizarro, from Cáceres (neighboring Trujillo area), recruited brothers and others in support of the conquest of Peru.
    • The fleet of Governor Nicolás Ovando aided colonization; encomiendas were granted in large numbers to favored conquistadores.
  • Economic remittance and social ties:
    • Immigrants sent money back to Castile; a royal official, Dr. Francisco de Sande, supported his widowed mother and provided dowries for sisters to enter convents, even purchasing a city council seat in Cáceres.
    • Return migration was common: estimated at about 10\%, which in the sixteenth century could be around 30{,}000 people.
  • Scale of Castilian (Spanish) emigration:
    • Between 1492 and 1570, an estimated 226{,}000 Spaniards (about 95% Castilians) immigrated to the New World.
    • Almost every Castilian family knew someone who had emigrated; Castilians maintained strong ties with America, benefiting both sides through migration and return flows.
  • Social and demographic structure in the colonies:
    • American aristocracy formed by wealthy merchants, mine owners, royal officials, and high-ranking conquistadors and encomenderos; they were joined by clerics.
    • A broad middle stratum developed from bureaucrats, lower-class emigrants, professionals, petty merchants, successful artisans, and former sailors/soldiers.
    • Opportunities granted to Spaniards (such as exemptions from certain taxes) helped some view themselves as privileged; in contrast to Spain, opportunity and mobility were more persistent in the Americas.

The emergence of a creole society and racial hierarchies

  • Distinctions among Spaniards in the Americas:
    • Criollos/creoles: American-born Spaniards.
    • Peninsulares: Spaniards born in Spain.
    • A later (18th-century) category referencing American-born Spaniards as a distinct group within Iberian-defined society (often noted as a growing demographic in New Spain).
  • Castas and racial categorization:
    • African slaves accompanied conquistadors; mixed-race populations included Blacks, mulatos (mulattos), and mestizos.
    • The emergence of caste labels reflected social and legal stratification; many mixed-race groups were discriminated against in law and custom and typically engaged in labor considered lower-status.
    • The term castas encompassed all mixed-race groups and enslaved people, yet they formed part of a broader European-dominated social framework in America.
  • Attitudes toward race and birth:
    • Spaniards generally viewed themselves as superior to Indigenous peoples, yet within the colonial society there was a complex hierarchy where castas could be part of urban life and commerce, though still subordinate to pure-blood Spaniards.
  • Indigenous and African labor in the economy:
    • Indigenous and African labor underpinned mining, sugar production, and urban construction.
    • Indians and Africans designed, built, and maintained churches, monasteries, and other institutions; they contributed to baroque art and architecture.

Culture, religion, and the arts in Spanish America

  • The material culture of a new civilization:
    • Spaniards built dense urban landscapes with stone churches, cathedrals, monasteries, hospitals, and universities across two continents.
    • The economy relied on mines and large agricultural estates; wealth generated from silver and sugar underwrote development.
  • Indigenous and African contributions to a European-dominated world:
    • Indians and Africans not only labored but also created art and architecture that blended European and Indigenous (Nahua, Andean) influences.
  • Baroque expression and cross-cultural artistic exchange in New Spain:
    • Indian art served Christian purposes, including sculpture and painted temples; murals and feather-work integrated Nahua motifs with European forms.
    • A notable example is the mural frieze in the Augustinian convent at Tlaxcala, Morelos, which blends European and Nahua iconography (e.g., the jaguar skin and a captured human prisoner).
    • Examination reveals a greater share of indigenous technique in the panels created by the principal artists, with subordinates or apprentices handling ornamental work.
  • Indian architects and church-building:
    • Indian architect José Kondori contributed to baroque church architecture in Potosí.
    • The façade of the Church of San Lorenzo features a synthesis of religious symbolism: a native Inca half-moon coexists with a traditional Mediterranean Corinthian vine; an Indian princess appears as an angel.
  • The broader cultural narrative:
    • Indians and castas often contributed to high achievement in a system that frequently overlooked or took for granted their inputs.
    • The sense of exploitation — “America by Europe” — was a shared perception among many colonists and critics.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and the prosperity of New Spain

  • Poetic voice reflecting regional abundance and global exchange:
    • Sor Juana in her verse describes the prosperity of her homeland and the economic bounty of the Americas:
    • “ Señora, I was born in America, land of plenty, Gold is my compatriot, and the precious metals my comrades. Here's a land where sustenance is almost freely given, to no other land on earth is Mother Earth so generous. From the common curse of man its sons appear to be born free, For here their daily bread costs but little sweat of labor. Europe knows this best of all for these many years, insatiable, She has bled the abundant veins of America's rich mines.”
  • The poem underscores a regional self-perception of abundance and the global extraction of wealth from American mines.

Portugal in Africa (Africa coast and Upper Guinea)

  • A starkly different imperial footprint: Portugal’s African realm consisted mainly of a chain of trading castles and trading houses along the coast, with only a few thousand Portuguese stationed in Africa during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (excluding São Tomé and Angola).

  • Geographic scope:

    • Upper Guinea: the coast from the Senegambia to Sierra Leone, with Portuguese establishments from Cacheu (the largest mainland settlement and chief factor’s residence) to smaller posts at Sierra Leone.
    • The trade network on the Guinea coast extended from Sierra Leone to Benin, with Cape Verde merchants (Santiago) dominating Upper Guinea trade.

  • Forts, castles, and administration:

    • By the early seventeenth century, roughly twelve to fifteen trading houses operated along the Guinea coast; these posts formed a network of fortifications and warehouses managed by royal and merchant interests.
    • Axim (Axem) was an important station and the next major castle on the Guinea coast after Cacheu, situated on the Gold Coast near Mina and the village of Two Parts; a large courtyard and towers protected the fort; the fort was enclosed by a separate fortification; the church of São Jorge sat outside the castle to allow African villagers as well as Portuguese officials and soldiers to attend mass.
    • In 1486, the king granted São Jorge municipal privileges, effectively recognizing a local self-government status for the fortress town.

  • Economic pattern and implication:

    • The Portuguese established a string of coastal settlements and forts to control trade, extract resources, and secure strategic positions rather than pursuing large-scale territorial conquest inland.
    • The coastal fort system supported the Atlantic slave and commodity trades that linked Africa with Europe and the Americas.

  • Key takeaways:

    • The Atlantic world consisted of interconnected, dynamic networks of people, goods, ideas, and power.
    • Emigration and return migration, social stratification, and cross-cultural exchange shaped the societies on both sides of the Atlantic.
    • The African littoral and the American continents were deeply entangled in economic and cultural processes that defined early modern global history.

Notes on sources and data in the transcript

  • Table 4.2 (Population of Spanish America, 1570-1800) is garbled in the transcript, but the intended gist is that population compositions shifted dramatically over time, with Europeans forming a smaller segment relative to mixed/indigenous populations in many periods. The text references sources such as Angel Rosenblat and Nicolás Sánchez-Albornoz for demographic estimates.

  • The narrative emphasizes not just population counts, but the social networks, family ties, and mobility that connected Castile with its American colonies, as well as the creation of a creole and caste-based social order in the Americas.

  • The chapter also highlights the material culture produced by both Europeans and Indigenous/African communities, including architectural and artistic syncretism, as well as the labor that underwrote economic wealth (mines, sugar, construction).

  • Key terms to remember:

    • encomienda: a grant by the Crown that allowed Spanish settlers to extract labor from Indigenous peoples in a given territory.
    • criollos/creoles: American-born Spaniards; peninsulares: Spaniards born in Spain.
    • castas: mixed-race categories (e.g., mestizos, mulattos) reflecting social and legal hierarchies.
    • Americano population: term used to describe American-born Spaniards within the broader colonial society.
    • Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: prominent Mexican poetess whose work reflects the prosperity and cultural life of the Spanish American world.