The Growth of States IV - The Spanish and Portuguese empires 1
- Created by: Alasdair
- Created on: 25-05-18 19:28
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- The Growth of States IV - The Spanish and Portuguese empires 1 (according to Gerritsen and McFarlane)
- Spanish American empire was first and most formidable of European empires in western hemisphere
- From Caribbean colonies of Hispaniola and Cuba, Spaniards entered American continents in pursuit of gold, salves and new land to conquer
- Colonisation of mainlands started on northern shores of South America in 1509-10
- but crucial feats of conquest were in Mexico and Peru
- where small groups of Spaniards defeated large Amerindian states and took possession of lands that were to become Spain's richest colonies
- but crucial feats of conquest were in Mexico and Peru
- In 1519, Hernan Cortes entered Mexico
- By 1521, he had overthrown Aztec state, and on ruins of its capital Tenochtitlan, founded Mexico City
- Later capital and Viceroyalty of New Spain
- By 1521, he had overthrown Aztec state, and on ruins of its capital Tenochtitlan, founded Mexico City
- In 1532, Francisco Pizarro penetrated into Peru
- after capturing, ransoming and killing the Inca King Atahualpa, he and his conquistadors entered the Inca capital at Cuzco in 1533
- Established at Cuzco a base for further conquests in South America
- after capturing, ransoming and killing the Inca King Atahualpa, he and his conquistadors entered the Inca capital at Cuzco in 1533
- By mid-C16th, waves of Spanish conquerors and settlers had spread from core areas of conquest into adjoining regions
- where they asserted control over other indigenous peoples
- Spanish overseas colonisation
- According to Parry
- colonies concentrated on towns which acted as bases for dominating Indian countryside
- At first, Spanish colonists sustained and enriched themselves by exploitation of Indian peoples
- Indian peoples forced to provide setters with labour, food and other commodities
- Primary mechanism of exploitation was encomienda
- which gave individuals (known as encomenderos) the legal right to demand payments or services from Indians
- From this practice, some Spaniards acquired disproportionate share of rewards of conquest and colonisation
- great encomenderos came to form wealthy and powerful cliques that royal officials found difficult to control
- Gradually, Habsburg monarchy superimposed system of royal government on American dominions
- At its centre stood the king and his Council of the Indies in Spain
- In colonies the crown delegated authority to:
- viceroys of Mexico and Peru
- judges of supreme colonial courts (known as audiencias) that were established in all main colonial regions
- Under viceroys and judges, a host of other, lesser officials
- According to Parry
- Spanish crown justification for sovereignty over American lands and indigenous peoples
- Proclaimed a religious and civilising mission
- But evangelicalism did little to protect Indians from dire effects of contact with Europeans
- Proclaimed a religious and civilising mission
- Effects of Spanish Empire on indigenous Indians and other natives
- Devastation of Indian communities started in Caribbean islands where, within two generations of Spanish colonisation, native peoples had largely disappeared
- When Spanish colonists moved to mainland
- great epidemics of smallpox, measles, diphtheria, influenza and other World diseases swept through native populations with catastrophic effect
- Perhaps about 80% of Amerindian population in Spanish America died during century after Columbus's discovery, cut down by illnesses against which native Americans had little or no immunity
- great epidemics of smallpox, measles, diphtheria, influenza and other World diseases swept through native populations with catastrophic effect
- Spain's overseas territories generally became multiracial societies
- formed from fusion of peoples of several different origins
- due to decline of indigenous populations
- minorities
- People of European descent
- Africans and their descendants
- worked as slaves
- largest elements of colonial populations
- people of mixed-race
- known as mestizos and mulattos
- born from unions between whites, Indians and blacks
- Indians
- people of mixed-race
- mixture of peoples did not produce integrated societies
- whites regarded as socially superior simply by reason of ethnic origin
- Indians, mestizos and blacks were treated as inferiors
- Demographic and social transformation in Spain's American empire was matched by ecological and economic change
- As Spanish colonists sought to turn resources of New World to their own uses
- Principal force for ecological change
- came from introduction of European animals, crops and agricultural practices
- cattle, horses, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens (previously unknown in Americas)
- multiplied rapidly in favourable environments
- European crops like wheat and barely provided new sources of good to supplement or supplant traditional Indian crops of maize, beans, potatoes and plantains
- Columbian exchange
- Involved transfer to Old World of Indian cultigens
- Maize, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, squash, common beans and pineapples were among most notable American crops subsequently cultivated in Old World (according to Crosby)
- tobacco became one of largest American exports across Atlantic (according to Crosby)
- Riches
- Discovery of rich deposits of silver in Mexico and Peru
- especially important in expanding extra-European trade and shaping early modern economy
- Mexican and Peruvian silver mines provided tremendous wealth for colonists and Spanish crown
- silver and gold financed importation of goods from Europe and thus provided new markets for its foods and manufactures
- By end of C16th
- enormously valuable shipments of silver were regularly exchanged for goods exported from Europe across Atlantic
- Carried in large fleets, escorted by naval warships to and from Spanish port of Seville
- enormously valuable shipments of silver were regularly exchanged for goods exported from Europe across Atlantic
- Network of Spanish Atlantic commerce was supplemented by another system of trade in Pacific
- in 1564, Spaniards established bases in Philippines, and with founding of colonial base in Manila in 1571 created rich commerce that circumnavigated globe
- Mexican silver was used to purchase Chinese silks and porcelains that had become so popular in Europe
- Discovery of rich deposits of silver in Mexico and Peru
- Appetite for luxury goods from East Asia
- luxury goods filled houses of European aristocrats
- Increasingly, merchants coincided with near insatiable demand for silver in China
- where all tax duties (previously payable in silks and grain) and forced labour had only recently been commuted to payments in silver
- According to Flynn and Giraldez
- As there was little silver mining in China, and only some in Japan, Chinese economy rapidly grew dependent on European imports of New World silver to keep wheels of its extensive silverised economy turning
- this demand for silver from China and other Asian societies reminds us that, though Europeans were in forefront of expanding maritime trade, growth of global commerce owed great deal to economies of China, India and other Asian societies
- which had pre-industrial economies that were at least as dynamic as those of contemporary Europe and were already linked in a vast network of maritime and overland trade
- Spanish American empire was first and most formidable of European empires in western hemisphere
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