Spanish Empire Part 1 – European Foundations

European Background to the Spanish Empire

Big Picture

• Focus of lecture: transition from Pre-Columbian overview to “Spanish Empire – Part 1”.
• Goal: explain how medieval → early-modern European developments created the conditions that allowed Europeans to dominate the Americas.
• Key unifying traits among Europeans (contrast with the diversity of Native America):
  • Sedentary agriculture
  • Feudal land-based socio-political system
  • Roman Catholic worldview ("Latin Christendom")

Agriculture in Europe

• By $700$ CE Europe is overwhelmingly agricultural & sedentary.
  • Nomads (“gypsies”, Cossacks) are rare and distrusted.
• Dual basis of production:
  • Domesticated animals: cows, pigs, horses, goats, sheep, chickens → diversified diet & labor power.
  • Grain crops: wheat, barley, oats → multiple bread types.
  • Note absences: no corn, tomatoes, potatoes yet (still New-World crops).
• Agriculture = primary economic engine that shapes every other institution.

Feudalism (≈ European Operating System)

• Emerges c. $500$ CE (“May AD” in speaker’s shorthand).
  • Regulates land ownership, use, inheritance, political authority.
• Fundamental assumptions:
  • Land = wealth = power (often more valued than gold/silver).
  • Legal codes restrict ownership to a tiny elite → high-status titled nobility.
  – e.g.
  ▪ Duke of York ▪ Prince of Wales ▪ Baron of Normandy ▪ Earl of Cambridge
• Social strata:
  • Nobility/landlords (political & military leadership)
  • Peasants/serfs (vast majority, work the land)
  • Growing gentry (non-noble large landowners; early upper-middle class).
• Economic mechanism: share-cropping rent.
  • Peasant family receives $5$–$40$ acres, raises crops/livestock, pays annual "share" of produce to lord.
• Mutual obligations:
  • Lord gives protection (castle refuge, organizes armed defense & offense).
  • Peasants supply food & military manpower.
• Result: pan-European similarity in government, economy & everyday life.

Rise of Roman Catholicism

• Timeline of Christianization:
  • $ext{c. hinspace0–30}$ CE – ministry & crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.
  • Post-death: apostles spread oral traditions; Paul systematizes teachings → early scriptures.
• Roman Empire context: tolerant polytheism until Emperor Constantine converts ($325$ CE) → Christianity declared official religion.
  • Creates Roman Catholic Church with power centered in Rome.
• Military expansion of Rome carries the Church into Spain, France, southern Germany/Austria, England & Ireland.
  • By roughly $500$ CE Western Europe is majority Christian ("Latin Christendom").
• Eastern Orthodox (Constantinople) story diverges and has little later impact on U.S. history.
• Collapse of Western Roman Empire (trad. $476$ CE → speaker’s "April/May") removes imperial government but Church survives, reinforcing cultural unity.

Constant Warfare & Birth of Nation-States

• Period $800$–$1200$: feudal lords continually war for land & resources.
  • Alliances & conquests create ever-larger territories.
• By $1200$ mildly recognisable nation-state borders begin to appear.
  • Need for bureaucracies → tax collection, laws, courts.
• Long-term trend: fewer but larger political units preparing to act on global stage.

The Black Death (Bubonic Plague)

• Arrives $1348$ via Silk-Road caravans → Italian ports → rest of Europe.
• Recuring waves for ≈ $50$ years (until $1400$).
  • Mortality: about $\frac{1}{3}$ of Europeans (≈ $25\,\text{million}$).
  • Some villages lose $100\%$ population.
• Consequences:
  • Abandoned land can be claimed as "ownerless" → dynastic overturn.
  • Temporary surplus land/shortage of labor → higher wages; then rebound.
• Population rebounds by $1450$ → renewed pressure on finite land → search for new wealth overseas.

Intellectual–Economic Mind-set Before Exploration

• Prevailing belief: wealth is finite; to gain more, one must take from someone else.
• Europe therefore primed to look beyond the continent for land, gold, trading opportunities.

Viking Precedent (First European Contact with America)

• Vikings: last major nomadic-raiding Europeans → settle Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark).
  • Traditionally pillaged England/Ireland; by $1000$ CE raiding less profitable.
• Migration chain:
  • Eric the Red moves hundreds to Iceland (fertile).
  • Crowding → Leif Erikson leads group to Greenland (more ice than "green"), then to L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland (Canada) around $1000$ CE.
• Encounter formidable Native warriors → abandon after $3$–$4$ years.
• Vikings return with tales of a “farmer’s paradise” westward, but Europe dismisses stories due to:
  • Oral transmission (no printing press).
  • Viking reputation for drunken exaggeration.
• No European follow-up for almost $500$ years.

The Crusades (≈ $1095$–$1291$)

• Initiated October $1095$ by Pope Urban II to “reclaim” Jerusalem from Muslim control.
  • About $7$ Crusades over $∼200$ years.
  • Only fleeting Christian occupations; Muslims ultimately retain Jerusalem.
• Crucial by-product: sustained East–West contact.
  • Silk Road funnels Asian luxury goods (silk, spices, etc.) through Muslim → Italian intermediaries.
  • Each middleman adds markup → goods exorbitant in Northern & Western Europe.
• Desire to bypass middlemen becomes major motive for maritime exploration.

Portuguese Pioneering of Oceanic Exploration

• Mid-$1400$s: Portugal = first European power to explore/colonise outside Europe.
• Prince Henry “the Navigator”:
  • Devout Catholic & commercial visionary.
  • Establishes nautical school & navy; adopts compass, astrolabe, sextant for open-ocean navigation.
• Geographical moves:
  • Sail into North Atlantic → Azores & Canaries.
  • Push down West-African coast, setting up trading posts/forts (not full colonies).
• Dual mission:
  • Spread Christianity to animist/Islamic Africans.
  • Acquire gold, ivory, spices, later slaves → enormous profits.
• Early $ext{c.}$ $1450$–$1490$: trade largely equitable; African civil wars later let Portugal impose dominance.
• Result: Portugal becomes wealthiest & militarily formidable in Europe.
  • Other nations (esp. Spain) fear Portuguese hegemony → launch their own voyages (sets stage for Columbus).

Take-Away Connections & Significance

• Shared European systems (agriculture, feudalism, Catholicism) create cultural uniformity that contrasts with Native diversity and later aids European coordination in conquest.
• Black Death & demographic rebound generate land/wealth pressures → impetus for overseas expansion.
• Viking precedent shows North America reachable but forgotten, highlighting role of credibility & technology in exploration.
• Crusades integrate Europe into Afro-Eurasian trade, creating both appetite for and barriers to Asian goods.
• Portuguese model blends evangelism with profit, demonstrating the template Spain will emulate in the Spanish Empire.

What Comes Next

• Spain, alarmed by Portugal’s success, will soon sponsor Christopher Columbus (post-$1490$), initiating direct European colonisation of the Americas.
• Understanding this European backdrop is essential for analyzing Spanish policies, Native encounters, and colonial structures in forthcoming lectures.