Gold, God, and Glory: European Exploration & Colonization Notes

Gold, God, & Glory: Factors Motivating European Exploration (14th-17th Century)

Religious Motivations

  • Catholic Church's Unifying Influence: For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church unified Europe under Christendom.

  • Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther challenged the Church's authority in the early 1500s, leading to the birth of Lutheranism and other Protestant sects.

  • Religious Rivalries: Differences in religious beliefs intensified rivalries among emerging European nations.

  • Catholic Counter-Reformation: The Catholic Church encouraged loyal states (Spain & Portugal) to spread the Catholic faith globally.

  • Reconquista: After defeating Islamic Moors in Spain, Catholic nations aimed to expand Christianity beyond Europe.

Renaissance / Rebirth of Learning (14th-16th Centuries)

  • Upsurge in Arts and Science: The Renaissance saw a revival in literature, science, and the arts.

  • Scientific Advancements:

    • Theories: The idea that the Earth was round and revolved around the sun gained traction.

    • Impact: This spurred exploration by fostering the belief that one could reach the East by sailing West.

  • Technological Advancements:

    • Navigation: Europeans invented improved ships and navigation tools using ancient maps and Islamic mathematics.

    • Printing Press: The invention of the printing press in 1450 by Johan Gutenberg allowed for wider dissemination of knowledge, including explorers' accounts.

Technological Advancements

  • Improved Navigation: Advances in mathematics, astronomy, and geography enabled more precise sea route plotting.

  • Shipbuilding:

    • Caravel: A new type of ship with 3 movable masts.

    • Galleon: Armed cargo ships built for war.

  • Navigation Tools:

    • Magnetic Compass: Adopted from Muslim navigators.

    • Quadrant & Astrolabe: Used to measure distance and direction by calculating the angle of the stars.

  • Gunpowder: Europeans learned about gunpowder from the Chinese and incorporated it into military weapons.

Economic Motivations

  • Lucrative Commerce: A thriving trade existed between Europe and Asia by the 15th century, with Europe monopolizing the spice trade.

  • Trade Goods: European goods (wine, salted fish, furs, textiles) were exchanged for Asian silks, spices, ivory, velvet, and jewels.

  • Silk Road Limitations: The Silk Road was dangerous and limited due to Ottoman control and transport limitations.

  • Alternative Routes: European monarchs sought alternative routes to the Far East to increase wealth.

  • Gold Dependence:

    • European nations relied on gold to finance wars and pay debts.

    • Increased trade led to more gold entering the European economy.

    • Gold from West Africa & Asia poured into Europe.

    • Gold became a primary medium of exchange.

Wind and Ocean Currents

  • Trade Winds: Cool air blowing from the Northern Hemisphere towards the equator, following a North-Easterly direction, facilitated westward travel to the Caribbean.

  • Westerlies: Used for the return trip to Europe.

  • Ocean Currents: The North Equatorial Current assisted westward voyages, while the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift aided the return to Europe.

Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

  • Division of the World: Pope Alexander VI divided the world between Spain and Portugal with an imaginary line down the Atlantic Ocean (50 degrees west longitude).

    • Lands west of the line: Spain.

    • Lands east of the line: Portugal (including Brazil, Africa, and islands in the East Indies).

  • Non-Compliance: Some European countries ignored the treaty and seized lands by force.

Papal Bulls & Authority

  • Authority to Conquer: Papal Bulls issued in the mid-15th century granted Spain and Portugal the authority to conquer new lands and convert inhabitants to Christianity.

  • Line of Demarcation (Inter caetera): Pope Alexander VI drew a North-South line on a map through the Atlantic Ocean, granting Spain lands west of the line and Portugal lands east of it.

Spanish Colonial Economic System

  • Monopolies: Spain used monopolies to maintain economic and political control over its Caribbean colonies.

    • Foreigners were considered intruders.

    • Spain aimed for exclusive trade with its colonies (mercantilism).

  • Courts

    • Spanish courts of Seville & Cadiz were the main ports for goods & wealth coming from Spain's new colonies.

  • Casa de Contrascion (House of Trade): Regulated and controlled Spanish colonial trade, issuing licenses (asiento) for trade with colonies.

  • Asiento: Provided traders with legal authority to conduct trade in Spanish colonies.

Spanish Colonial Administration

  • Council of the Indies: Officials appointed by the Spanish crown to protect Spanish control and Catholic interests in the colonies. They prepared laws, nominated officials, and served as the highest legal body.

  • Viceroyalties: Spain divided its empire into viceroyalties, large areas under Spanish control headed by a viceroy appointed by the Spanish Crown.

    • The Caribbean region and Central America fell under the viceroyalty of New Spain.

  • Audencia: For administrative purposes, viceroyalties were divided into smaller areas with a governor and a tribunal known as an Audencia.

  • Cabildo: Municipal councils that administered the towns in Spanish colonies, serving as the local form of government.

Protecting Spanish Wealth

  • Convoy System: Spanish ships used a convoy system, establishing the Guarda Costa, to protect ships carrying goods back to Europe.

  • Flota & Armada: Two fleets of ships were used to protect Spanish ships:

    • Flota: Stationed at Vera Cruz to protect wealth from mainland colonies, escorting ships to Hispaniola to join another convoy.

    • Armada: Escorted ships from the Atlantic Ocean back to Spain from the Spanish mainland.

Exploitation of Indigenous Labor

  • Repartimiento System: Crown officials allocated Taino labor to Spanish settlers. A percentage of the Taino population (ages 18-60) were recruited to work for settlers.

    • Tainos also had to pay tribute to the Spanish in the form of gold.

    • In return, Spanish settlers were expected to be loyal to the Spanish Crown.

  • Requisition (1509): A document asserting Spain's legal rights over its colonies and the Taino people.

    • Claimed God ordained them to subdue "barbarious nations".

  • Encomienda System: Small groups of Tainos were allocated to privileged encomenderos who forced them to provide involuntary labor, pay gold, and pay tribute.

    • Encomenderos were supposed to "protect" the Tainos, enforce Christianity, and keep a Catholic priest on the encomienda.

    • The Spanish Crown granted encomenderos parcels of land to implement the system.

  • Destruction of Taino Society: The Encomienda System led to the destruction of Taino society through forced labor, family separation, lack of care, and severe punishments.

Laws of Burgos (1530)

  • Implemented by King Ferdinand I to improve conditions for Tainos.

    • Limited labor hours.

    • Kept children under 14 out of mines.

    • Preserved families.

    • Made Encomenderos responsible for social welfare.

  • Justification of Enslavement: Reinforced the Encomienda system and justified Taino enslavement.

  • Lack of Enforcement: No institution ensured the laws were implemented.

Impact of Colonization on Indigenous People

  • Disease: The Spanish introduced diseases (smallpox, typhus, influenza) that decimated the Taino population.

  • Resistance: Tainos carried out infanticide and suicide.

French & English Settlements

  • Differences from Spanish Colonies: French and English settlements differed from earlier Spanish colonies.

    • Scale: They began on a smaller scale, choosing smaller islands for colonization.

    • Focus: Large-scale conquests, gold mining, and cattle rearing were less emphasized.

  • Cash Crops: They focused on producing tropical goods, with tobacco and cotton as main cash crops.

  • Profitability: Tobacco and cotton were profitable commodities that survived transatlantic transport.
    *Tobacco as Luxury: Tobacco became a fashionable luxury item in Europe.

Indentured Servitude

  • Labor Demand: Increased tobacco and sugar production created a need for laborers.

  • Indentured Servants: British planters relied on white indentured servants bonded for a set period of time.

  • Conditions of Servitude:

    • Europeans unable to p UIay passage to the Caribbean became indentured servants.

    • In exchange for passage, food, clothing and shelter, the servants had to work for 5-7 years.

    • After their the servants were promised a small amount of land on money.

  • **British Convicts: These people were sent to the caribbean to work in the field as punishment.

  • Harsh Treatment: Indentured servants faced harsh conditions, including tropical climate, poor housing, and bad food.

Transition to Slave Trade

  • Shift to Sugar: Sugar cane became the most profitable crop, leading to monoculture.

  • "Sugar is King": Sugar's dominance led plantation owners to turn to West African chattel slaves to provide labor.

The Transatlantic Slave Trade

  • Profitability: The trade in enslaved West Africans was highly profitable for Europeans in the 18th and 19th centuries.

  • Slave Trading Companies: Companies were organized to manage the business, e.g., French, Dutch, West Indies Company, Guinea Company, Royal African Company.

  • Illegal Slave Trades: Operated alongside legal trades.

  • Major Slave Ports: Including Bristol, London & Liverpool (England), Nantes & Bordeaux (France).

  • Barter System: European slavers used bartering to purchase enslaved people from West African kingdoms.
    *Traded guns, gunpowder, iron pots, beads, mirrors, alcohol, cotton, copper, kettles & pans, silk & tobacco.

  • Capturing Slaves: African slavers captured slaves through kidnapping, prisoners of war, raiding villages, criminal convictions and political conflicts.

  • Coffle: Captives were marched to the West African coast chained together around the neck to prevent escape.

The Middle Passage

  • Conditions: Captives were crammed together and chained on floors below deck in naked contitions.

  • Tight Packing vs, Loose Packing:
    -Tight packing assumed savers would lose at lease 20% of their cargo, this meath was meant to be economical and travel very fast.
    -Loose Packing - Believed that it was better to improve conditions, the slavers would allow the vessels to only reach to about 75% to reduce the death rate and this method was deemed very succesful..

  • Unsanitary Conditions: Led to disease outbreaks (yellow fever, scurvy, smallpox).

  • Punishment: Captives were severely punished for resistance.

  • Attempts of insurrection and suicide by jumping aboard was frequent.

  • Dumping Cargo: Captains sometimes dumped sick, old, or weak captives overboard to maximize profit when rations were low.

Arrival and Sale in the Caribbean

  • Preparation: Slave ships arrived with a foul stench. Before sale, slaves were washed, rubbed with palm oil, and wounds were covered with gunpowder.

  • Methods of Sale: Sold either by scramble or by auction.
    -Scramble: A signal given and Planters rushing among the slaves choosing the desired ones and negotation a price.
    An auction: Where by slaves brought up on a platform with buyers bidding for one or several at a time.
    Branding: Captives would later beranded to indicate which plantation they belonged too.

  • Chattel Slaves: the captives were were now considered property and had no civil rights.

Impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

  • Economic Impact: The trade significantly impacted European economies, with slavers stocking their vessels with sugar, rum, molasses, tobacco, coffee, and indigo from Caribbean plantations.

*Trade in slaves, supplement the trans-atlantic trade and improved Euopean cities and lead to The Industrail Revolution in Europe.

  • Banacoons: Captives were placed in quarters called Banacoons before being packed for paleltabilty and given treatment e.g shaved,oil… to enhance appearence.

Pirates and Privateers

  • Raiding Spanish Ships: Pirates and privateers raided Spanish ships, with some being merchants, noblemen, or slave traders.

  • Motivations: They traded slaves and goods in addition to raiding for wealth.

  • National Perspectives: While Spain viewed them as worthless, England and France welcomed those who raided Spanish ships.

  • French Corsairs: Were the first to attack Spanish ships. 1306.

France captured The Coat of Mexico, from Spain in 1523 sent by Contes to his own king.

Supplies was not enough and the growth fo trade was encouraged.
Spain banned the growth.
Smuggling of goods occurred.
Colonists got punsihed trading with privateers.

Spain's Defense of its Colonies

  • Realization of Need for Defense: By the second half of the 16th century, Spain realized it had to defend its colonies against other nations.

  • Religious Conflict: England (Protestant) and France/Netherlands (Calvinists, Hugennits, Lutherans) challenged Spain (Catholic).
    Religious War and Heretics occurred.
    English US French
    French US Spanish
    Spanish US English.
    *Isalnds did not income hide of Sugar canes.
    They used time to profect The Caribbean Gold and SIlver.

Challenge to Spanish Power

  • European Disturbance: Any disturbance in the Caribbean would affect the balance of power in Europe.

  • French Huguenot Settlement: In 1536, French Huguenots established a settlement in South Florida and began raiding Spanish treasure ships.

  • Spanish Response:
    sent Aviles from Perto Rico and Espanola to capture.
    Destroyed the French settlement.
    Spanish Font fortresses Cuba And Florida was reinforced

  • John Hawkings' Voyage: John Hawkings' third voyage to the Caribbean in 1567 would upset the history of Europe and the Caribbean.

Trouble at San Juan de Ulua

  • Hawkings' Fleet: Hawkings, damaged by bad weather seeking shelter at Spain the Spanish ort at Jan Jauan de lilua.
    *Warned the at that time The king had fleet and Viceroy ready.
    *Damaged fleet Hawkings repaired the ships anyway.

Spanish attack and the enlishmen killed and captured.
Haewkings escaped.

Francis Drake's Revenge

  • Drake's Motivation: Francis Drake (cousin of Hawkings) sought revenge for the attack at San Juan de Ulua.

  • Drake's First Voyage: Shot and Defeated!

  • Attack on Mule Train: DRAKK ATTACKED 70 men with Africans against against Spain.