Maritime Empires

Joint Stock Companies

Definition: Limited liability business, chartered by the state, funded by private investors.
- Limited liability: Investors only lose what they invested.
Interdependence of state and merchants:
- States relied on merchants for expansion.
- Merchants relied on states for monopolies.
States using joint stock companies prospered.
Example: Dutch East India Company (VOC)
- Chartered in 1602 with a monopoly on Indian Ocean trade.
- Expanded Dutch influence and enriched investors.
British and French also developed joint stock companies.
Rivalries among European states for dominance in the Indian Ocean, leading to conflicts.

Rise of Sea-Based Empires

Portugal:
- Prince Henry the Navigator: brought together sailors, mapmakers, and shipbuilders.
- Initial interest in the gold trade in West Africa.
- Established a trading post empire around Africa and the Indian Ocean.
  - Trading posts called factories
- Used fast ships like the Caravelle and the Carrick (with cannons).
Spain:
- Sponsored Christopher Columbus to find a western route to the spice trade.
- Columbus "ran into" the Americas instead of Asia.
- Spanish voyages led to colonization (not just trading posts).
- Opened the Trans-Atlantic trade.
- Established a base in the Philippines and used tribute collecting and coerced labor.
Other European States:
- France: Sponsored westward expeditions to find a North Atlantic sea route to Asia.
  - Established a presence in Canada for the fur trade.
- England:
  - Queen Elizabeth I sponsored exploration in the Americas.
  - Established the first colony, Virginia (Jamestown).
  - Sought influence in India but lacked naval power initially.
- Dutch:
  - Gained independence from Spain and became prosperous.
  - Challenged Spanish and Portuguese control in the Indian Ocean; VOC came out on top.
  - Colonized in the Americas (New Amsterdam).

Columbian Exchange

Definition: Transfer of new diseases, food, plants, and animals between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
Refers to environmental phenomena.
Transfer of disease:
- Afro-Eurasians had immunities due to contact over millennia.
- Indigenous peoples of the Americas lacked immunity (isolation).
- Smallpox and measles spread rapidly and were deadly (killed up to 90% in some cases).
- Malaria was introduced via mosquitoes.
- "The Great Dying" refers to the devastation of indigenous populations.
Transfer of food and plants:
- Europeans brought wheat, olives, and grapes.
- Eventually introduced African and Asian foods like rice, bananas, and sugar.
- American crops like maize and potatoes were introduced to Europe, Africa, and Asia.
  - Led to population growth after 1700
- Enslaved Africans introduced foods including okra and rice.
- Cash cropping: Growing crops (usually a single crop) primarily for export
  - Fueled by the demand for American crops in Europe.
  - Sugarcane in the Caribbean, worked by enslaved African laborers.
Transfer of Animals:
- Europeans introduced pigs, sheep, and cattle.
- Horses enabled indigenous plains peoples to more effectively hunt buffalo and feed their populations.

Resistance to Maritime Empires

Asian States:
- Tokugawa, Japan:
  - Initially open to trade with Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch for gunpowder weapons.
  - Suppressed Christianity due to perceived threat to unification.
  - Almost completely isolated itself from European commerce, only trading with the Dutch.
Local Resistance in Europe:
- The Fronde in France:
  - Rebellions against absolutism and increased taxation.
  - Led by the French nobility and peasants.
  - Crushed, resulting in increased monarchical power.
Resistance from the enslaved:
- Maroon societies:
  - Communities of runaway slaves in the Caribbean and Brazil.
  - Colonial authorities sought to crush them.
  - In Jamaica, Colonial troops could not defeat queen nanny and were forced to recognize maroon society's freedom.

Growth of African States

Expansion of maritime trading networks fostered growth of some African states.
- States connected to global economic linkages prospered.
Asante Empire (West Africa):
- Provided goods like gold, ivory, and enslaved people to European traders.
- Expanded military and political power.
Kingdom of the Congo (Southern Africa):
- Made diplomatic ties with the Portuguese and provided goods like gold, copper, and enslaved people.
- King converted to Christianity to facilitate trade.

Change and Continuity in Networks of Exchange

Indian Ocean Network:
- Change: Entrance and power grabs of European states.
- Continuity:
  - Middle Eastern, South Asian, East Asian, and Southeast Asian merchants continued to use the network.
  - Increased profits for some merchants.
  - Gujaratis continued to trade and increased the Mughal Empire's wealth.
  - Overland routes like the Silk Roads remained controlled by Asian land-based powers.
  - Peasant and artisan labor intensified (e.g., cotton in South Asia, silk in China).
The West (Atlantic System):
- Change: Opening of the Atlantic system of trade; European wealth and power increased substantially.
- Goods: Sugar was important. Colonial plantations specialized in sugarcane.
- Wealth: Silver from the Americas was used to purchase luxury goods from China and traded on the Atlantic System.
- Labor: Relied on coerced labor, e.g. the use of Indigenous labor, indentured servitude, or enslaved Africans. Enslaved Africans become the bulk of the imperial labor force.
- Silver and trade monopolies maintained the system.

Change and Continuity in Labor Systems

The Americas:
- Economies based on agriculture and mining.
- Continued existing labor systems and introduced new ones.
- Mit'a System:
  - Inca's system of requiring labor on state projects.
  - Spanish used the mit'a system for silver mining (dangerous and deadly work); For the spanish, this was done to force people to work in private mines for the good of individuals and the Spanish state.
- New Labor Systems:
  - Chattel slavery:
    - Total ownership over enslaved person.
    - Race-based and hereditary.
    - Not entirely new, but differed from previous forms (pre-1500 African slave trade).
      - Earlier enslavement not race-based.
    - Economic engine of empires was difficult agricultural work and mining.
    - Transatlantic slave trade was massive (over 12.5 million people).
    - Slavery was identified with blackness
  - Social effects of the African slave trade:
    - Profound gender imbalance (more men than women sold to the Americas).
    - Changing of family structure.
    - Rise of polygyny.
    - Cultural synthesis (e.g., Creole languages).
  - Indentured servitude:
    - Laborers signed contracts for a period of work (usually seven years).
    - Common in British colonies in North America.
  - Encomienda system:
    - Spanish divided indigenous Americans among settlers, who provided labor in exchange for food and protection.
  - Hacienda:
    - Indigenous laborers were forced to work on fields; a system centered on land ownership

Change of Belief Systems

Christianity in The Americas:
- Spain and Portugal sought to convert indigenous people via Catholic missionaries (Jesuits).
- Religion became a justification for conquest.
- Syncretism: blending of Christian beliefs and practices with indigenous beliefs and practices.
  - Indigenous African religions also participated (e.g., Vodun).

Changing Social Hierarchies

State responses to ethnic and religious diversity:
- Spain and Portugal expelled Jews after the Reconquista.
- Ottoman Empire opened its empire to displaced Jews.
Rise of new political elites:
- Spanish casta system in the Americas: organized society based on race and ancestry.
- Qing dynasty in China: Manchu reserved bureaucratic positions for themselves.
Struggles of existing elites:
- Russian boyars: Peter the Great curtailed their power by abolishing the rank of boyar and requiring anyone who wanted bureaucratic employment to serve the state directly.