European Expansion and the Columbian Exchange

Colonization of the New and Old Worlds, 1500 - 1763

I. Reasons for Expansion

A. Advances in science

1. Tools/technology

2. Science enthroned

Academie de Science

Royal Scientific Society

Prince Henry

3. Journeys into the unknown

B. Expansion and European Conflict

1. Reformation and the Wars of Christianity,

1535-1648

1648, Europe

after the Peace of

Westphalia

2. Centralization of European governments

a. Absolute monarchy, 1500s - 1700s

James I, Divine Right of Kings (England)

Louis XIV, the “Sun King” (France)

Elizabeth I (England)

Philip II (Spain)

Peter the Great (Russia)

Catherine the Great (Russia)

Frederick the Great (Prussia)

Gustavus Adolphus (Sweden)

3. Mercantilism

state-controlled market system

“zero-sum” game

joint stock companies

II. The West Goes Global

The Consequences of Colonization

A. Colonization 1. Portuguese Empire and the rise of the Atlantic

economy

1452, Pope Nicolas V “heathens and infidels”

2. “New World” slavery

3. Europeans in Asia (peripheral colonization)

B. The Columbian Exchange

1. Ecological Imperialism

old world plants/animals flourish in colonial

regions

diminishes ecological/social stability of “native” peoples, enhances colonial power

2. The microbial exchange

smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, cholera

1492 = 100M - 70M in N/S Hemispheres

1900 = 250,000 left in North America

3. Impact on the West

- outlets for growing population

- new sources of food (carbohydrates)

- addictions for a modernizing society

tobacco, coffee, tea, sugar

C. Debating colonization

Pro

1. Richard Hakluyt

2. Jean Baptiste Colbert

- spurred domestic growth

- strengthened national position

- empowered “absolute” monarchs

Con

1. Jose de Acosta (1590s)

= Jesuit critique of slavery, Spanish and Portuguese colonization

2. Comte de Buffon (1750s - 60s)

= “wilderness” debased, humanity, animals

Frontier conditions drove civilization backwards

“Heart of Darkness”

Spain and France in the New World

I. The Spanish Empire

A. Reconquista 1492

Ferdinand/Isabella & Columbus

B. Reconquista in America

1. Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

2. 1511 - Caribbean Islands conquered

Conquistadors - local autonomy

3. 1519 - Hernan Cortès

4. Conquest of Mexico

disease

Aztec organization

Amerindian tensions

C. Spanish-Indian policy

1. Officially…

(Isabella) direct subjects

Encomienda System

tributary labor

2. Unofficially…

distance bred independence, cruelty

“Black Legend” of Spanish brutality

Bartolomè de Las Casas

D. Trials in North America1. Ponce de León, (Florida) 1513-1521

Cabeza de Vaca (Gulf Coast to Mexico) 1527

de Soto (Southeast to Texas) 1539-1543

Coronado (Southwest) 1540-42

little permanent presence;paved way for laterconquest

E. New Spain

1. 1542 - encomienda abolished

African slaves introduced

2. Hacienda system

3. 1524 - Council of the Indies

Viceroy > Creoles >Mestizos

4. Mestizo culture

a. Church/Indian compromise

Jesuits rituals deities

b. intermarriageracial caste system

c. intermarriage

interdependence

3. 1680 - 1692 - The Pueblo Revolt

hacienda dependency

“idolatry”

II. The French Empire - occupying the “Middle Ground”

A. Fish, fur and lead

1. Jacques Cartier (1534)

Northwest Passage

2. Indian resistance / French politics

B. France tries again

1. Early 1600s “New France”

2. Louis XIV “absolutism”

3. Louisiana, 1682 Biloxi, 1682

Mobile, 1702

New Orleans, 1718

4. Interior colonies Ste. Genevieve, 1735

St. Louis, 1764 “extractive” industries colonial women

4. River systems and

C. Empire of Rivers

1. Infiltration & cooperation coureurs de bois

2. The Middle Ground

3. Roots of dependency

C. “New” England

1. English rights v. economic necessity

a. rejection of non-English

influences

b. indentured servitude

2. The Puritan Mission

= redeem the Old, not the New

3. The paradox of English settlement

- Bacon’s Rebellion, 1676

heightened liberties for some, destroyed them for others