The Growth of States IV - The Spanish and Portuguese empires 2

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  • Created by: Alasdair
  • Created on: 25-05-18 20:42
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  • The Growth of States IV - The Spanish and Portuguese empires 2 (according to Gerritsen and McFarlane)
    • Portuguese much slower than Spaniards to colonise their American lands
    • Portuguese found neither rich indigenous cultures nor precious metals
    • Brazil
      • By later C16th
      • Had become important adjunct of European commerce, as it gradually transformed into European's leading source of sugar
      • Portuguese settlers drew on their previous experience in Madeira to establish sugar plantations and overcame problems with Indian labour by importing African slaves
      • In 1559, crown authorised trade in slaves from Africa to Brazil
        • Provided legal basis for growth of massive trade in black slaves and for formation of world's first great plantation economy
      • According to Boxer
        • By 1600, Brazil had become largest sugar-producing area in western world, and its colonial society, resting on black slavery, was on way to becoming distinctive Afro-Brazilian culture
    • Portuguese placed far greater emphasis on Asia than America
      • Asia offered much larger profits than America
      • Vasco da Gama's arrival in India opened way for direct European penetration of great maritime trading area
        • prototype of a 'global economy'
          • in which Asian merchants exchanged dazzling array of commodities in complex system of inter-regional trades that extended from East Africa to Persian Gulf, India, China, Japan and South-east Asia
      • Portugal was too small to people a global empire
        • But secured wealth and power by establishing territorial possessions, trading factories or fortresses at strategic points from Africa to Asia
      • Conquest of Goa (1510)
        • Allowed Portuguese to challenge Gujarati domination of trade routes to Levant
      • Occupation of Malacca (1511)
        • provided a base for participation in trade to east with China, Japan, Indonesia and Spice Islands and to west with routes of Indian Ocean
      • capture of Hormuz (1515) gave control of routes from Persian Gulf to Levant, while fortress established at Colombo (1518) stood on trade routes between Bay of Bengal and Sea of Oman
      • Fortified trading posts in Africa and by 1550s, Portugal had laid down about fifty ports between Mozambique in southern Africa and Macao in south China
      • 'Golden Gao'
        • Became centre of their Estado de India, but Portuguese possessions in Asia did not constitute an empire in any conventional sense
          • they were more a system for squeezing profits from lucrative Asian trades by imposing monopolies, and were peopled by relatively small Portuguese diaspora of traders and mariners
    • Status of Portuguese Empire
      • Until pushed out by rather more aggressive Dutch and English traders
        • Portuguese controlled most of Indian Ocean Trade
          • Including coveted trade with China from Macoa, where they established their base from early C16th
      • Initial Portuguese interest was black pepper, but they also supplied textiles, Lacquerwares and porcelains to European markets
        • Porcelain had special appeal, and first pieces brought back by Vasco de Gama sparked off a European craze that led not only to vast imports but an ongoing quest for technology to produce it in Europe
          • until specialists at court of Augustus II (Elector of Saxony and King of Poland) succeeded in producing porcelain in 1708, Chinese had monopoly on its manufacture, and European ships transported millions of pieces back to Europe (according to Finlay)

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