EUROPE IN A (MUCH) WIDER WORLD

The Discovery and Dissemination of

The Americas

The Origins of Exploration

The first colonies: the Atlantic Islands as staging ground

The Horn of Africa: source of gold and slaves

Tapping into existing networks of exchange

A “trading post” empire: response to extant local powers

The caravel as essential technological advance

Technological Keys to Conquest

Besides the ship, four key technologies aided exploration: Compass, astrolabe, portolanos, and gunpowder

The caravel combined square and triangular sails, and could be sailed by a small crew in rough waters. It was an adaptation of existing ship forms, and was a dominant design for three centuries

Jose de Aguiar, Portolan Chart of 1492 showing coast lines and rhumb lines

Africa and Asia Vasco da Gama

(1497- 99): Rounded Cape of Good Hope and reached India

China as major power: unconcerned with expansion

Trade in luxury goods – for bullion or manufactured materials

Advanced local cultures, with limited European impact

Portugal’s “factory system” The exportation of

Christianity

The Birth of Imperial Spain Ferdinand of Aragon

and Isabella of Castile: the parents of Spain in 1469

Creating a Christian country: Inquisition and episcopal support

1492: The conquest of Granada, expulsion of the Jews, and sending of Columbus

Christopher Columbus:The Eschatological Explorer

Born in Genoa, he was 41 when he reached the Caribbean

Desired to reach both the Far East and Holy Land by circling around the Ottomans

First turned to Portuguese crown, but was turned down for his prophetic and biblical approach to geography

Drastically underestimated circumference of the globe, but accidentally reached the Americas

Columbus’s Career

Four voyages: 1492, 1493, 1498, and 1502

Always believed that he had reached India

Initially sailed with three ships and only ninety men

A great explorer, but a terrible administrator: arrested after stint as governor of Hispaniola in 1500

Spreading Knowledge of the New Worlds

The diffusion of new commodities: chocolate, tobacco, tomatoes, etc…

The display of new world natives: living ethnography

The quest for continued patronage and the granting of royal privileges

The diffusion of new knowledge Pictorial – woodcuts and art Literary – through the new vehicle of print Oral – the stories sailors share

Dividing the Globe

Legalizing Conquest The Role of the Popes

Eximiae Devotionis (May, 1493) – Papal sovereignty over the Americas?

Dudum Siquidem (Sept., 1493) – The Division of the New World

Treaty of Tordesillas (June 1494) – Political settlement of spheres of influence

The Role of the Spanish Junta (1504) – Consultation and confirmation

Requerimiento (1513) – Legal declaration of Spanish rites read to an unknowing audience

Spanish Conquest The role of conquistadores: the quest for

lands and royal income drove the integration of American lands into the Spanish empire The need for the “royal fifth”

Sham offers of peace: the requerimiento and an expansive definition of just war

The encomienda system: agricultural production, religious education, and the formation of a landed Spanish elite

The limits of assimilation: syncretic religion and the creation of a hybrid, mestizo culture

Trying to Impose Order:The Law of Burgos (1512)

1: The Indians are to be removed from their land and placed into encomiendas

3: The citizen to whom the Indians are given must erect a structure to be used as a church.

4: To make sure the Indians are learning Christianity properly, they shall be tested every two weeks and taught what they do not know by the Encomendero. 

14: The Indians must be allowed to perform their sacred dances.

23: Official inspectors must keep records of the activities and also the treatment of the Indians in the encomiendas.

24: The Indians are not to be physically or verbally abused for any reason.

The Dominant Societies of the New World

Aztecs: the flowery war, a militarized society, and the problem of human sacrifice

Incas: intense centralization, infrastructure, and a disastrous dynastic war

Aztec Society

Parallels to Ancient Sumeria: Irrigation and

agriculture City States and

Patron Gods Intensive regional

trade Stratification:

Noble vs. commoner

Unrelenting focus on hierarchy and status

Aztec Society Highly militarized, and

engaged in perpetual, “flowery war”

The goal: providing sacrifices for religious ritual

The construction of a central haven:Tenochtitlan as the center of empire

The contrast of refinement and savagery

Arriving in Mexico in 1519, Hernán Cortés set out to conquer the Aztecs. Despite having only 450 Spanish troops (and 15 horses), Cortés used native alliances and the Aztecs’ belief that he might

be a god to strike decisively at Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs were totally defeated by 1522.

The Incan Empire Expansive and multi-ethnic:

aggressively imperialistic in the 15th century

Infrastructure and administration: intensive tax gathering and local governance

Ecologically adaptive: terracing and corvee labor for roads and agriculture

Too centralized? Pyramidal social structure could lead to total dependence on ruler

The Fall of the Incas A weakened empire:

smallpox and a dynastic civil war

Francisco Pizarro and the kidnapping of Atahuallpa (1531)

The failure of ransom: only whet the Spaniards’ appetite for more

1533: Pizarro executes the emperor and seizes the capital of Cuzco

All about silver, not gold Potosí as the real El Dorado

The Impact of Exploration A transition from optimism to skepticism The need to adjust to the imperatives of

empire A shift in exploitative strategies

From easy money to agricultural development Developing infrastructure for large scale

extraction The difficulty of coming to grips with

human diversity State and Church at cross purposes?

The calculus of souls vs. the calculus of economic growth