Extracted AllCombined_TheEmpire

Introduction

Class Structure

  • The class structure is divided into the following sections:
    • The Endpoint
    • The Happenstance of Empire
    • Key Phases
    • The First British Empire (1583–1783)
      • The English Overseas Possessions (1583–1707)
      • Atlantic Phase (1707–1783)
    • The Second British Empire (1783–1918)
      • Pacific Phase: The Scramble for Asia (1783–1815)
      • The Imperial Century: The Scramble for Africa (1815–1918)
    • The Dissolution of the Empire (1918–1997)
      • Dominions into Commonwealth (1918–1945)
      • Decolonisation (1945–1997)
    • What Remains (1997–now)

The British Empire: The Endpoint

  • By 1920, the British Empire was the largest in world history, encompassing 415 million people and 24% of the total land area.
  • It was famously known as "the empire on which the sun never sets".
  • The Empire has left a vast legacy across the world, including linguistic, legal, and cultural influences, most notably the dominance of the English language.
  • The British Empire slowly accreted from the late 15th century forward until about 1920, expanding from England and Wales to cover 6 continents.
  • The American Empire has effectively taken over from the British, though it is not explicitly named as such.
  • Refer to Daniel Immerwahr's "How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States."
  • The history of the British Empire is complex, spanning 3.5 centuries, 6 continents, and involving 2 empires.
  • The terms "Empire", "imperialism", and the perceived solidity of the "British Empire" add to the complexity.

Defining Empire

  • Empire is traditionally defined as a union of kingdoms.
  • Practically, it is an aggregate of meaningfully different territories (ethnic, cultural, religious, political) where one territory (metropole) exercises control over others (periphery).
  • It contrasts with a nation state (a 1-on-1 relationship) and a federation (voluntary and equal autonomy).
  • Historical examples include the British, Spanish, German, Austrian, Roman, Mongolian, and Chinese empires, all of which were very different.
  • The term "empire" is now often used pejoratively but has a long-standing history as a form of organizing states, ranging from brutal to relatively benign.
  • Empires can include contiguous territories, far-flung possessions, or a mix of both.
  • Imperialism is the assembly and governance of an empire through acquisitive expansion and conquest, generally through the creation of hierarchies.
  • Colonialism is a specific form of imperialism focused on settlement, resource extraction, and the imposition of the colonizer’s culture.
  • Imperialism can be a policy even without an actual empire.

British Empire: Difficulties and Caveats

  • The British Empire constantly evolved, ceding some territories and acquiring new ones through wheeling, dealing, and warring.
  • It began as a trade project, though this is debatable.
  • It did not self-identify as an empire and was rarely identified as such until the mid-18th and especially the 19th century.
  • Informal empire and constructions like protectorates existed over Asia, Latin America, North Africa, and the Middle East, even without formal control.
  • The focus on the endpoint suggests uncontested hegemony or clear dominance, which was not the case until the late 18th/19th century and was not universally accepted.
  • The focus on the endpoint suggests inevitability or a clear plan, which is misleading.

The Happenstance of Empire: Why and How Britain Became the British Empire

  1. Position of Weakness:
    • Geographically and culturally/religiously isolated.
    • Less secure and economically powerful than neighbors.
    • Needed to strike out to maintain position amid France, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands.
    • Britain was late to the game of Empire and desperately trying to catch up.
  2. Mercantilist and Enterprise-Focused Policies:
    • A drive for wealth accumulation through trade and private property, working with the state.
    • Particularly interested in trade (especially slave trade), not so much territorial expansion.
    • The Industrial Revolution further heightened demand for resources and materials.
  3. Geographic and Maritime Advantages:
    • Island nation with a strategic position off the Atlantic.
    • Longer tradition of overseas possessions: Channel Islands through Duchy of Normandy; Lordship of Ireland though the Norman Invasion of Ireland and (disputed) papal license of Laudabiliter (1155).
  4. Naval Dominance:
    • A long history of dependence on seafare for security and trade.
  5. Political Stability and Strategic Governance:
    • Britain was relatively stable internally (especially after the 17th century) and developed political institutions that pursued long-term planning.
  6. National Culture:
    • Particularly fast to develop a national identity and a supranational identity that could accommodate other cultural groups.
    • Gradually developed a civilizing mission, if always second to trade.
    • Reasoning from an endpoint: reasons and motivations develop as the empire develops.
    • Phases may be delineated, but retrospective constructions.
    • Happenstance is more important than it appears.

Key Phases of the British Empire

  1. The First British Empire (1583–1783)
    • The English Overseas Possessions (1583–1707)
    • Atlantic Phase (1707–1783)
  2. The Second British Empire (1783–1918)
    • Pacific Phase: The Scramble for Asia (1783–1815)
    • The Imperial Century: The Scramble for Africa (1815–1918)
  3. The Dissolution of the Empire (1918–1997)
    • Dominions into Commonwealth (1918–1945)
    • Decolonisation (1945–1997)
  4. What Remains (1997–now)

The First British Empire (1583–1783)

  • Began from weakness, isolation, and endangerment.
  • England was trailing behind Spain and Portugal, who had claimed and divided South America through the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494.
  • In 1497, Henry VII commissioned John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) to chart the coast of North America.
  • Cabot undertook three voyages, with the second apparently successful (and the third possibly fatal).
  • The landing place and details are unclear, possibly Newfoundland, which he believed to be Asia.
  • Attention was diverted by internal politics during the reigns of Henry VII, VIII, and Mary I.
  • Henry VIII severed England from the Continent and declared it an empire.
  • This declaration stated that England is an empire governed by a supreme head and king, with all subjects bound to bear natural and humble obedience next to God.
  • The Act enacted that all testamentary causes, causes of matrimony and divorces, rights of tithes, oblations and obventions, etc., would be judged within the king's jurisdiction and authority, and not elsewhere.

The English Overseas Possessions (1583–1707)

  • In 1578, Elizabeth I pursued a course against the Spanish Empire.
  • England was embattled due to the Reformation and sought to lay hold of the Atlantic slave trade.
  • Privateers were licensed through letters of marque.
  • Letters patent were granted to a series of explorers.
  • Aims included extracting riches and claiming bases for privateering against Spain.
  • Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland in 1583, but no colony was established, and he died.
  • Walter Raleigh followed and founded Roanoke in 1584 in current North Carolina, but it failed.
  • Further attempts also failed until Jamestown was founded in current Virginia by John Smith in 1607.
  • Jamestown had a miserable start, including the Starving Time (1609–1610) and the Anglo-Powhatan Wars (1610–14, 1622–32, 1644–46), as well as the Indian Massacre of 1622.
  • It was supported by the joint stock company, the Virginia Company, and in 1624, it was taken over by the Crown, forming the Colony of Virginia.

The English Overseas Possessions (1583–1707) Continued

  • Jamestown marks the start of the First British Empire.
  • Until 1707, possessions were properly English and referred to as English overseas possessions.
  • Progress was hampered by the Civil War and internal ructions.
  • By 1707, the possessions comprised:
    • Settlements in North America, Bermuda, the West Indies (Caribbean, especially Barbados), and Ireland.
    • Factories (trading posts) in the East Indies (Malaya) and the Indian subcontinent.
    • Possessions in Africa (Tangier) and India (Bombay) through royal marriages and dowries.

Consolidation of Power in Ireland

  • As England began exploring far away, it also moved to consolidate power in Ireland.
  • This marked a reversal of the reduction of British presence to the Pale (Dublin and environs).
  • In hindsight, this was a dry run for colonial policies, unlike Scotland and Wales.
  • There were elements of internal colonialism (economic extraction, suppression of Gaelic), but it was more equal, especially for Scotland.
  • Colonial policies were deployed in Ireland, including land seizure and settlement from Great Britain (the plantations of Ireland).
  • Laudabiliter: papal bull that was used to justify the English invasion of Ireland.
  • Suppression of Gaelic identity, culture, language, clothing, customs, local elite, and Catholicism.

Focus on Munster and Ulster

  • Focus on Munster (from 1583) and Ulster (from 1606) through joint stock partnerships, backed up by military intervention, leading to bloody rebellions.
  • This had a lasting impact: Protestants in Ulster, the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, and Northern Ireland.
  • The Flight of the Earls (from Ulster) in 1607 was regarded as the collapse of Gaelic authority.
  • Particularly encouraged by the West Country Men.
  • Ireland fits into a larger urging for a more assertive England, including attacks on the Spanish Empire and overseas expansion of England.
  • Prominent members included Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir Richard Grenville.
  • From Mary I to James I (1556–1625), the policy of colonial suppression was continued by Cromwell.

Americas, West Indies, Africa, and Asia

  • Americas: Covered in the next lecture; enticing but not a great destination.
  • West Indies:
    • Lucrative and much more important due to sugarcane.
    • Settlements in St Kitts (1624), Nevis (1628), Barbados (1627), and the Bahamas (1666).
    • Annexation of Jamaica from Spain (1655).
  • Africa:
    • Slave trade: after privateering, conducting own trade through the Royal African Company (1672).
  • Asia:
    • East India Company (1600): spice and textiles trade.
    • Enormously competitive and contentious: four Anglo-Dutch Wars, Nine Years’ War (France v the rest), two Anglo-Spanish Wars, and the War of the Spanish Succession.
    • Great Game avant la lettre.

Union Between England and Scotland

  • 1707: political, monetary, and trade union between England and Scotland.
  • They had shared a monarch since 1603; now one monarch (Queen Anne).
  • This enhanced power for Britain: more people, more economic heft, and greater internal stability.
  • Even more significant participation of Scottish people in the Empire.
  • From this point, it was properly a British Empire.

The Atlantic Phase (1707–1783)

  • Period marked by the gradual rise of Britain to the world’s dominant power.
  • Against the backdrop of continuing struggles between great empires.
  • Britain outpaced competitors in trade and naval power, and in territories.
  • Other empires descended into internal instability (War of the Spanish Succession; economic collapse in the Netherlands; building Revolution in France).
  • Particular interest in the Atlantic space (i.e., the Americas).
  • Britain acquired territories from the Spanish and the French.
  • 1763: Treaty of Paris: France ceded New France, creating Canada.
  • Indigenous peoples: evolved from uneasy stand-off to wars (often allied with the French) and brutal suppression, regarded as uncivilized and backward.
  • Increasing presence and power in Asia.
  • Britain acquired territories from the Dutch and the French.
  • 1757: Battle of Plassey left Britain as the key power in India and Bengal.
  • Indigenous peoples: treated better in that they had urban spaces and developed institutions, which were nevertheless co-opted.

Conclusion of the First British Empire

  • 1783: Conclusion of the First British Empire.
  • Loss of the Thirteen Colonies in 1776, formalized in the 1783 Peace of Paris.
  • Canada remained.
  • Humiliating defeat, but not much impact on the British economy or standing.
  • The Thirteen Colonies were regarded as somewhat unique (education, organization, inhabitants).
  • Economically not particularly lucrative.

The Pacific Phase (1783–1815)

  • 1769: New Zealand discovered by James Cook.
  • 1770: Australia claimed by Cook (discovered by the Dutch in 1606, but no colonization).
  • Named New Holland; New South Wales to be the focus of colonization through transportation (from 1788 until 1840; larger Australia until 1868).
  • Developed wool and gold industries.
  • Policy of terra nullius against indigenous inhabitants, regarded as absolutely uncivilized.
  • Continued colonization of Canadian coasts (North Pacific).
  • Dramatic conquest of India through a series of wars at the behest of the East India Company.

Slave Trade

  • Had been the impetus for the creation of the empire.
  • Widely felt to be deeply immoral, and the Industrial Revolution rendered slaves much less interesting.
  • 1807: abolition of slave trade.
  • 1833: slavery abolished (but no compensation for slaves, and a few years of apprenticeship).
  • 1844: manumission expands to territories of the East India Company.
  • Pressures other governments to follow suit.

Conclusion of the Pacific Phase

  • Conclusion of the Pacific Phase: the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
  • Titanomachy between two states, empires, political models.
  • Britain felt existentially threatened by Napoleonic Europe (analogous to the threat of the Spanish Empire).
  • Spilled over into colonies.
  • 1805: Battle of Trafalgar: crushing defeat for French-Spanish Navies.
  • 1815: Battle of Waterloo.
  • Continuing expansion of colonial possessions through peace treaties in Europe and the Indian Ocean.
  • Confirmation of British naval supremacy and preeminence in international politics.

The Imperial Century (1815–1918)

  • Britain rules the waves.
  • Pax Britannica: peace between the great powers through the hegemony of the British Empire.
  • Treaties and patrols by the Royal Navy ensure trade routes and territories are protected.
  • Sole threats: Russia in Central Asia, hence the Crimea War (1853–56); France with some naval power; Germany at the end of the century.
  • Great Game: predominantly between the Russian and British Empires through proxy wars and negotiations, with Afghanistan a particular focus.
  • Informal empire: exercises control even over those territories that it does not formally rule through treaties, threats of sanctions, etc.
  • Controls all major trade routes and access to a number of nominally independent countries like China, or countries in Oceania, Africa, and most of Latin America (Argentina, Chile, etc.).
  • Where control is threatened, war ensues: e.g., the Opium Wars (1839–42; 1856–60) and the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901).
  • Splendid isolation: the British Empire has such power that it can avoid any international entanglements, particularly with regard to European affairs.
  • Leaves the Concert of Europe formed in 1814–15.

The British Raj

  • The greatest and most valuable possession; “the Jewel in the Crown”.
  • Fabulous wealth, territory, prestige.
  • The East India Company was increasingly taken over by the Crown.
  • 1857: Indian or Sepoy Mutiny or Great Rebellion: against British rule, aimed at the Company.
  • Triggered by fears of forcible conversion of the troops and populace, taxes, lack of material progress, and harsh treatment of local rulers.
  • Spark: the new Enfield Rifle insulted Hindus and Muslims.
  • Phenomenally violent on both sides (6k British; 800k Indians).
  • Dissolution of the Company.
  • From 1858, Britain formally becomes an Empire.
  • Victoria crowned Empress of India in 1877, following the death of the last Mughal emperor.
  • Promises full citizens’ rights, but these did not materialize, fueling Indian nationalism.
  • Reforms governance, but does not go very far.
  • Famines, especially 1876–8.

Focus on South Africa

  • Focus on South Africa as crucial to safeguarding routes to India and Asia (before the Suez Canal, finished in 1869 under British control).
  • Cape Colony: from Dutch to British in 1806, with immigration from Britain, especially from 1820.
  • In response, Dutch/Afrikaans-speaking Boers moved away to evade British rule, creating Boer Republics, annexed after the Boer Wars (1880–81; 1899–1902).
  • Signs of trouble: international (and national) sympathy for Boers, and the British experienced significant trouble in putting down the Boers.
  • Vast expansion of territories as a result of the Scramble for Africa (regulated in 1884 at the Berlin Conference).
  • From 10% European occupation in 1870 to 90% in 1914.

Conclusion of the Imperial Century

  • The Empire limped on until after World War I but gradually reduced in power and scope.
  • White colonies were increasingly granted autonomy in governance through Responsible Government (local Westminster-based systems), but international relations remained British.
  • Dominion status was granted to Canada (1867, federated), New Zealand (1852), and Australia (1852, federated), with debates over Ireland.
  • World War I greatly reduced British power and placed a great imposition on colonies/dominions.
  • In effect, Britain marshaled its Empire to fight Germany.
  • The Treaty of Versailles added German possessions to the Empire (including Palestine), but this was the last great gasp.

The Dissolution of the Empire: Dominions into Commonwealth (1918–1945)

  • Mounting independence movements and an inability to project power to protect interests and trade routes: the USA was muscling in.
  • The Empire had largely operated through indirect rule, which now turned against the British.
  • Within Britain: gathering anxieties over the collapse of the Empire and dangers to its security and maintenance.
  • Symptoms of collapse included:
    • 1919: Irish independence and War of Independence (ended in 1921–2; effectively a dominion-like status until 1937).
    • 1922: Washington Naval Treaty: the Royal Navy could not exceed the USA in number.
    • 1926: Balfour Declaration: Dominions identified as equals within a Commonwealth with Britain.
    • Independence for Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Irish Free State.
    • 1936: Anglo-Egyptian Treaty: greatly reduced British presence, but the Suez was retained.

World War II and its Impact

  • World War II: a new war, same as the old war.
  • Britain again drew on the remaining rump and was joined by old dominions (not Ireland); later by the USA from 1941.
  • Weakened the Empire further still: reduced power; economic issues; undermined control of colonies.
  • Britain was bankrupt, averted only by a loan from the USA.
  • New geopolitical set-up: the two new Great Powers were the USA and USSR, with the UK an appendix of the USA through the special relationship (1946 term by Churchill).
  • The humiliation of the Suez Crisis of 1956 fully put paid to the Empire.
  • Anthony Eden invaded Egypt to retake the canal from Nasser’s Egypt, resulting in a furious reaction from the USA.
  • This confirmed the fall of the British Empire.

Decolonisation (1945–1997)

  • The Empire struggled to sustain itself.
  • Until 1960, (Tory) attempts were made to preserve at least the prestige of the Empire through colonies; after, the gradual relinquishing of great power status, and acceptance of decolonisation.
  • Development of policies to ensure an orderly and peaceful transition.
  • Harold Macmillan’s "Wind of Change" speech (1960) acknowledged the awakening of national consciousness in peoples who had for centuries lived in dependence upon some other power and the need to accept it as a political fact.
  • https://youtu.be/c07MiYfpOMw?si=bdbtsluym0U8mt3c&t=721

First Decolonisation

  • First decolonisation: the Raj and adjacent territories.
  • The Labour government under Attlee (elected in 1945) moved to implement Indian independence.
  • Split between Muslim and Hindu groups: the Muslim League wanted a separate Islamic state; Congress (Gandhi) wanted a secular unified state.
  • 1947: Partition of India: India and Pakistan; 12–20 million displaced, leading to massive violence (200k–2 million dead).
  • 1948: Burma split off; independent.
  • 1949: British Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
  • 1957: Malaya (now Malaysia).

Mandate for Palestine

  • First decolonisation also included the Mandate for Palestine.
  • Similar to India: Hindus and Muslims; here: Muslims and Jews.
  • After the Holocaust, a great number of Jewish refugees sought to move to Palestine, adding to the issue.
  • Britain resolved to withdraw and leave it to the UN.
  • Palestine was partitioned into Jewish and Palestinian Territories: war and Israeli independence without a two-state solution (1948).

Second Decolonisation

  • Second decolonisation: Africa, including the Middle East, and the Caribbean.
  • 1950s: Sudan andThe Gold Coast (now Ghana).
  • 1960s: wholesale decolonisation, no independence before majority rule to prevent the creation of white dictatorships.
  • Last colonies: 1970s.
  • The Falklands War (1982) to recapture the Falklands from Argentina on the grounds that it was not a colonial possession.
  • Victory reasserted a new kind of British dominance, not as an Empire but as a significant power.
  • 1997: the end of the Empire with the handover of Hong Kong to China under special protections.

What Remains (1997–now)

  • From the Empire, the Commonwealth was formed.
  • Based on imperial possessions, but voluntary as an association.
  • UK + 14 other countries, with Charles as HoS: 2.2 billion people.
  • Lasting impact through language, spreading of innovation and education, the Westminster system of governance, and vast migration flows.
  • Two schools of thought:
    • The Empire was largely a force for evil, was dictatorial, and worsened many emergencies and crises (famines, massacres of indigenous peoples, invention of the concentration camp in South Africa during the Boer Wars).
      • Caroline Elkins, Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire
    • The Empire was largely a force for good, enacting economic and institutional development and modernization.
      • Niall Ferguson, Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World
  • In Britain, the recovery from Empire has been slow and difficult: often a positive view of Empire, with nostalgia for what once was, and a tendency towards self-overestimation in international affairs (see: Brexit).

Introduction to the Americas

Class Structure

  • A Place of its Own (until 1492)
  • The Discovery of the Americas (1492–1890)
    • The Colonisation of the Americas
  • The Colonisation of North America (1565–1732)
  • The Thirteen Colonies (1607–1776)

The Americas: A Place of Its Own (until 1492)

  • History and development of the Americas proceeded largely apart from other continents.
  • Waves of emigration towards the Americas across land bridges during the Ice Age, probably 30,000 to 10,000 years ago.
  • Human migration from North to South.
  • Groups and civilizations developed for thousands of years in the pre-Columbian period (30k-10k years ago to 1492 and after).
  • Long and involved histories of development, consolidation, and rupture; war and trade.
  • Before colonization: 50–100 million, with some agreement as to 90–112 million; some 50–90% in death toll due to colonization (disease, violence, war, slavery, displacement, famine).
  • North: About 10 major cultural groupings comprising hundreds of cultures/societies/languages; some 2–18 million.
  • US: currently 574 tribes recognized; today 5 million in US (out of 335 million).

Highly Evolved Diverse Societies and Cultures

  • Urban societies: especially Aztecs, Maya, Inca etc. in Latin America and Pueblo peoples (e.g., the Hopi) in NM and AZ.
  • Sedentary, village-based: Iroquois or Haudenosaunee, or the five plus one nations: Mohawk, Oneida, Seneca, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Tuscarora in NY, Ontario, and Quebec.
  • Semi-sedentary (herding animals, farming; in rotation): Navajo in AZ, UT, NM and Algonquian in New England and Great Lakes (including Powhatan in VA).
  • Hunter-gatherers: Ute in CO, UT, NM; Sioux = Lakota + Dakota (Oceti Sakowin) in the ND and SD, MN, NE, Manitoba, Saskatchewan.
  • Established their own territories, which largely look very different from post-colonization.

Europe's Push for the Orient

  • Meanwhile, in Europe: experiencing its own developments, and slowly a push for the (vaguely defined) Orient gathers pace.
  • Push factors; or: why did Europe discover the Americas?
  • A combination of weaknesses and strengths: Europe is feeling squeezed and ambitious (and Britain will really feel the squeeze and really get ambitious).
  • Commercial:
    • Complex trade networks sought to bring Asian goods to Europe (spices, silks, sugar, etc.) + African slave trade with the Middle East—extremely lucrative.
    • The Fall of Constantinople (1453) complicated access.
    • The push was for an alternative route to the Indies.
  • Cultural/Political:
    • Cultural/political prominence focused on the Mediterranean basin, especially Italy.
    • Significant competition between many players (Italy, Spain, France, UK) as national definition grows (rise of powerful “nations”) in the later Renaissance (15–16Ce).
    • Creates the will (and ensures the funding) for risky enterprises.
    • The Renaissance furthers a broad desire for exploration.

Religious Factors

  • Religious factors grow increasingly prominent.
  • Wealth to beat Ottomans and transform the reconquista was a motivator.
  • The quest to Christianize peoples, partly proceeding from the zeal of the reconquista and the policy of forcible conversion.
  • Technological transformation of European seafaring due to new types of vessels, better instruments, better astronomical knowledge, and a better understanding of currents.
  • This facilitated the transition from the coast to the oceans.
  • Scientifically, the world was widely understood to be a sphere, if not very precise in measurement.
  • The Americas were utterly unknown apart from the 10Ce Norse settlement of Greenland (which lasted about 5 centuries), and around 1000, the discovery of Vinland (probably Newfoundland) by Leif Erikson (settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows—short-lived).

The Voyages of Columbus (1492–1504)

  • Cometh the hour cometh the man: Columbus (Genoese), 1451–1506.
  • Proposed to sail across the ocean to the Indies to secure a new route.
  • Operated on behalf of the Crown of Castile, merged with the Crown of Aragon.
  • First proposed to João II of Portugal (refused); sent his brother to English Henry VII (captured by pirates).
  • Initial scepticism correctly pointed out that the distance would be far greater.
  • Approved in 1492 and richly provided for by the Capitulations of Santa Fe; later reneged upon.

Columbus's Landfall

  • 1492: landfall in the Bahamas (named San Salvador).
  • 1493: Lesser Antilles (Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Cuba).
  • 1498: Trinidad, northern coast of Latin America (Venezuela).
  • 1502: coast of Central America (Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama).
  • Named the inhabitants "Indios" and named numerous islands and places.
  • Columbus took some of the natives by force to learn about the region, and they were very serviceable.
  • The natives believed Columbus and his crew came from Heaven.

The Naming of America

  • Columbus failed to understand the magnitude of his discovery.
  • Amerigo Vespucci (Florence, 1451–1512) did, as he discovered Brazil in 1501–2.
  • Publicized his discoveries in a series of hugely successful letters which were translated.
  • Named the Americas "Mundus Novus".
  • 1499–1500: Venezuelan coast.
  • 1501–1502: Brazilian coast.
  • 1507: a map made by Martin Waldseemüller named the continent "America" to honor Vespucci.

The Scramble for the Americas

  • The maps were slowly filled in by conquering.
  • The focus shifted from coasts to the continent.
  • This was an extremely slow process, which continued for centuries even as coasts etc. were charted.
    • The Pacific Northwest only in the 1770s (James Cook).
    • North America to the Pacific only fully in 1804–06 (Lewis and Clark expedition).
    • The Amazon only in the 1830s–1880s.
  • The official end was 1890, the closing of the West declared by the US: there were no more worlds to conquer.

Key Explorers and Conquistadors

  • Spanish Empire:
    • Ponce de Léon (first European on NA mainland, 1513).
    • Vasco de Balboa (Isthmus of Panama, Pacific Ocean, 1513).
    • Hernán Cortez (overthrows Aztec Empire, 1521).
    • Francisco Pizarro (overthrows Inca Empire, 1533).
  • Portuguese Empire:
    • Pedro Cabral (discovers and claims Brazil, 1500).
    • Ferdinand Magellan (circumnavigation; Straits of Magellan, 1519).
  • British Empire:
    • John Cabot (east coast of NA, establishes the English claim to North America, 1497).
  • French Empire:
    • Giovanni da Verrazzano (upper east coast of NA, 1524).
    • Jacques Cartier (explores St Lawrence River, laying foundations for French Canada, 1534–42).
    • Champlain (charted Great Lakes and Canada, 1610–30s).
    • Marquette and Joliet (charted Mississippi River, 1673–82).
  • Dutch Empire:
    • Henry Hudson (explored the Hudson, founding Dutch claims on NA; present-day NY, 1609).

Transformation Following Discovery

  • Americas were a world not described by Ancients or the Bible; a long process of digestion and discovery followed.
  • Enhanced by the extraordinary vastness of North and Latin America, much bigger than Europe.
  • Imaginations ran rampant, leading to idealization and projection.
  • The Americas created the great Empires of the following centuries, their wars, and their policies.
  • The Americas made the world modern.

Meeting and Clash of East and West

  • A meeting and a clash of “East” and “West”—with West decidedly the victor, and fast.
  • Columbian Exchange describes the meeting of East and West.
  • The term "Exchange" suggests harmonious equality, but that was hardly the case.
  • The exchange of goods:
    • New World: Three Sisters (corn, beans, squash), peanuts, tomato, potato, blueberry, tobacco, turkey: often more laborious.
    • Old World: citrus, coffee, rice, wheat, apples, onions, rabbit, horses, domesticated cows, domesticated bees and cats, chickens, grapes.

Advantage on the European Side

  • Politics: a highly frangible political and cultural situation allowing for divide and conquer policies.
  • Technology: military, logistical, and informational superiority through steel, gunpowder, horses, print, cavalry, and advanced tactics