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The Heritage of World Civilizations
Brief Fifth Edition
Chapter
17
Conquest and
Exploitation: The
Development of the
Transatlantic Economy
The Heritage of World Civilizations, Brief Fifth Edition
Albert Craig • William Graham • Donald Kagan • Steven Ozment • Frank Turner
Conquest and Exploitation: The
Development of the Transatlantic Economy
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Periods of European Overseas Expansion
Mercantilist Theory of Economic Exploitation
Establishment of the Spanish Empire in America
Economies of Exploitation in the Spanish Empire
Colonial Brazil
French and British Colonies in North America
The Columbian Exchange: Disease, Animals,
and Agriculture
Conquest and Exploitation: The
Development of the Transatlantic Economy
• Slavery in the Americas
• Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Slave Auction Notice
Introduction
• European encounters with the Americas
 European traditions prevailed in Americas
 Gave Europe disproportionate global power
• Slave trade profoundly altered Africa
• Transatlantic interactions of populations
• Transatlantic economy
Global Perspectives:
The Atlantic World
• How did the encounter of Europe and
Africa with the Americas change the global
ecological balance?
• Why was the Spanish Empire based on
economies of exploitation? How was the
labor of non-European peoples drawn into
the economy of this empire?
Global Perspectives:
The Atlantic World (cont'd)
• How and why did the plantation economy
develop? Why did it rely on African slaves
for its labor? What were the consequences
of the slave trade for individuals and
institutions in each of the three continents
constituting the Atlantic world?
Global Perspectives:
The Atlantic World (cont'd)
• Why do we think of the plantation
economy as a global, rather than regional,
system of production? Why was it the
“engine” of Atlantic basin trade?
Periods of European
Overseas Expansion
Periods of European Expansion
• Four periods of European overseas
expansion
• Initial period of expansion
 Fifteenth through seventeenth centuries
• Colonial trade rivalry
 England, Spain, France
 Seventeenth through early nineteenth century
Periods of European Expansion
(cont’d)
• New empires in Africa and Asia
 Nineteenth century
• Decolonization – mid-twentieth century
El Morro, Puerto Rico
Mercantilist Theory
of Economic Exploitation
Mercantilist Theory
• A system in which governments heavily
regulate trade and commerce in hope of
increasing individual national wealth
 Favorable trade balance of gold and silver
 National monopoly of home country
 Colonies provide markets and natural
resources
Mercantilist Theory (cont’d)
• Desire to forge trade-tight systems
 Navigation laws, tariffs, prohibitions
 Discourage trade with other European
nations
Mercantilism
Establishment of the
Spanish Empire in America
Conquest of Aztecs
• Hernán Cortés (1484-1547)
 Small force of 500 soldiers
• Moctezuma II (1466-1520)
 May have thought Cortez to be Quetzalcoatl
• Cortés forms alliance with Tlaxcala
 Welcomed into Tenochtitlan
 Capture and death of Moctezuma II
• Cuauhtemoc defeated in 1521
Conquest of Incas
• Francisco Pizarro (ca. 1478-1541)
 Two-hundred men
 Military might that Incas did not understand
• Atahualpa (ca. 1500-1533)
 Tricked and captured by Pizarro
 Garroted in 1533
• Cuzco captured
• Full Spanish control not until 1560s
Consequences of the Conquests
• Conquests of Mexico and Peru
 Dramatic and brutal events
• Two huge amd powerful empires
destroyed by small groups with advanced
weapons
Consequences of the Conquests
(cont’d)
• Spread of European diseases
 Smallpox
 Impact of isolation
• Turning point in Americas
 Entire civilizations destroyed
Roman Catholic Church
• Vast new regions opened to Catholic
Church
• Relation to crusade against Islamic forces
 Policy of military conquest on ground of
converting non-Christians
 Eradicating indigenous religious practices
Roman Catholic Church (cont’d)
• Roman Catholic Church often acted as a
conservative force
 Working to protect political power and
prestige of the conquerors
Spanish Conquest of Mexico
Black Legend
• Papacy turned over much of the control of
the church in the New World directly to
Spanish monarchy
 Conversion by Franciscans, Dominicans,
Jesuits
• Bartolomé de Las Casas (1474-1566)
 Dominican
 Deplored harsh conditions
Black Legend (cont’d)
• Emergence of “Black Legend”
 Spanish treatment unprincipled and
inhumane
Economies of Exploitation in the
Spanish Empire
Economies of Exploitation
• Colonial economy of Spanish America was
an economy of exploitation in two senses
 The organization of labor involved structures
of highly dependent servitude or slavery
 The resources of the continent were exploited
in mercantilist fashion for the economic
advantage of Spain
• Conquistadores interested in gold
• Silver was chief interest of crown – quinto
Encomienda
• A formal grant by the crown
 Right to the labor of a specific number of
Native Americans
 For a particular time
• Usually a few hundred Native Americans
• Spanish crown disliked encomienda
system
 Reports of poor treatment
 Also growing power of encomienda holders
Repartimiento
• Replaced the encomienda system
 Copied from the draft practices of the Incas
 Adaptation of the Inca mita
• Required adult male Native Americans to
devote a set number of days of labor
annually to Spanish economic enterprises
• Time limit led some Spanish managers to
use their workers in extremely harsh
fashion
Hacienda
• Royal grants led to establishment of large
landed estates owned by whites
 Peninsulares – whites born in Spain
 Creoles – whites born in America
• Transfer of principle of large unit of
privately owned land from Europe to
America
 Laborers had formal servitude to owner
 Debt peonage
Hacienda (cont’d)
• Two major products – foodstuffs and
leather
The Silver Mines of Potosí
Commercial Regulation
• Council of the Indies
 Nominated viceroys of New Spain and Peru
• Audiencias – subordinate judicial councils
• Corregidores – presided over municipal
councils
 Opportunities for royal patronage
Commercial Regulation (cont’d)
• System of monopolistic trade regulation
 Casa de Contratación (House of Trade)
• Flota
 Fleet of commercial vehicles
Map 17–2. The Americas, ca. 1750
Colonial Brazil
Sugar plantations
Colonial Brazil and Slavery
• Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494
 Portuguese control over Brazil
• Very different labor practices than Spain
 Imported African slaves early
• Preeminence of sugar production
 Fazendas – large sugar cane estates
• Gold discoveries
• Portuguese allowed more local autonomy
French Colonies
• French explorers sailed down St.
Lawrence River
 Fur traders
 Roman Catholic Jesuit missionaries
• Trade rather than extensive settlements
 Quebec – founded in 1608
• No drive to permanently claim land
 Reduced conflicts between French and
Native Americans
French and British Colonies in
North America
British Colonies
• Settlement for enrichment
 Virginia and New Amsterdam
• Development by royal favorites
 Carolinas
• Refuge for English debtors
 Georgia
• Pursuit of religious freedom
 Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania,
Maryland
Fur Trade
British Interactions
• Complex relations with Native American
population
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Little interest in missionary efforts
English encountered no large native cities
Occasional well-organized opposition
Powhatan conspiracy, Pequots, Iroquois
• Agriculture was largest economic activity
 Southern colonies dependent upon slaves
• Close ties with England until 1760s
The Columbian Exchange
Disease, Animals, and Agriculture
The Columbian Exchange
• Massive movement and interaction of
biological organisms after Columbus
 People, plants, animals, diseases
 Between Europe, Americas, Africa
• Shapes world up to present
The Columbian Exchange: Disease
• Long isolation of Americas
 Americans vulnerable to European diseases
- Pre-contact population figures controversial
- Epidemics of European diseases killed huge
numbers of indigenous peoples
- Facilitated European conquest
 Syphilis transmitted from Americas to Europe
Map 17–3. Biological Exchanges
Smallpox
The Columbian Exchange:
Animals and Agriculture
• European livestock revolutionized
American agriculture
• European plants important to Americas
 Sugar
 Wheat
• American plants altered European and
African diets
Global Foods
Overview The Columbian Exchange
Slavery in the Americas
Background of Slavery
• Slave institutions in sub-Saharan Africa
were ancient
 Included traffic with Mediterranean world
• Islamic states of southwestern Asia and
North Africa continued and expanded
trade
Background of Slavery (cont’d)
• Different forms of slavery
 Chattel slavery was sanctioned form of
transatlantic trade
 Less dehumanizing forms of trade existed
• All slavery built on exploitation and
degradation
Map 17–4. The Slave Trade, 1400–1860
Slavery in the Americas
• By 1600 the slave population exceeded
the white population in the West Indies
 Decline in slave numbers in South America
 Slaves imported to Jamestown in 1619
 Cultivation of sugar led to spread of slavery in
Brazil and West Indies
- Only slavery provided enough workers for
profitable slave plantations
Slavery in the Americas (cont’d)
• Caribbean was world center for sugar
production
Plantation Economy
• New World plantations formed vast
corridor of slave societies – novel in world
history
 Maryland to Brazil, also West Indies
 On periphery: West Africa, western Europe,
New England
 Still impacts these societies today
Plantation Economy (cont’d)
• Part of larger system of transatlantic trade
 Americas – labor-intensive raw materials
 Europe – manufactured items
 Africa – slaves, gold, ivory, wood
Slavery on the Plantations
• Conditions of slaves differed between
colonies
 Vast slave-holding was the exception
 Slaves in Portuguese regions had fewest
legal protections
• Slave owners always feared slave revolts
 Revolts were actually rare
Slavery on the Plantations (cont’d)
• Slave laws favored masters over slaves
 Children of slaves became slaves
 Slave families could be separated
African American Culture
Daily Life of Slaves
• Daily life of most slaves consisted of
 Hard agricultural labor
 Poor diet and clothing
 Inadequate housing
• Death rate among slaves was high
Daily Life of Slaves (cont’d)
• Became separated from African religious
beliefs
 Mixed Christianity with African beliefs
• European racial prejudice against Africans
Africa and the
Transatlantic Slave Trade
Chronology:
Conquest of the
Americas and the
Transatlantic Slave
Trade
Transatlantic Slave Trade
• Plantations drew Africans into the heart of
transatlantic economy
 West and central Africa – center for slaves
• Economic needs of colonial powers
 Willingness to exploit weaker peoples
 Built on racist notion that non-European, nonwhite tribal peoples were subhuman
• Portuguese have early monopoly
 Later joined by other Europeans, Americans
Slavery and Slaving in Africa
• Oriental slave trade – trade to Islamic
lands
 Sudan and Horn of Africa – main sources
• Occidental slave trade – managed by
Europeans
 Western coast of Africa – main source
 Portuguese developed plantation system of
slave labor
Slavery and Slaving in Africa
(cont’d)
• Until the full development of transatlantic
trade, Africa had been no more significant
than any other part of the world in the
slave trade
Growth of Occidental Trade
• By 1650 the Occidental slave trade
 Equaled the Oriental trade
 Far surpassed it for the following two
centuries
• West Africa saw a sharp decline in
productive male population
 Between 1640-1690 – number of slaves
doubled
 Increase in internal African warfare
Growth of Occidental Trade (cont’d)
• Formal end of African indigenous slavery
 Gold Coast – 1874
 Sierra Leone – 1928
The African Side of Atlantic Trade
• Africans actively involved in slave trade
 European slave traders generally obtained
slaves from African middlemen at coastal fort
towns
- Sometimes private middlemen
- Sometimes government-supported
 They undertook actual capture of slaves
• Some African societies profited from trade
 Locations for slaves changed over the years
King Affonso I
Extent of the Slave Trade
• Greatest active period for Occidental trade
 1701–1810 – 60% of total
• Total numbers still debated
 Number who died along the way unknown
- Middle Passage
• Best estimates
 Occidental trade – at least 11 million
 Oriental trade – at least 5 million
 Enslaved within African – 15 million
Map 17–5. Origins of African Slaves
Figure 17–1 The Atlantic Slave Trade, 1400–
1800
Consequences for Africa
• Measurably changed patterns of life and
balances of power
 By stimulating trade or warfare
 By disrupting previous market and political
structures
 By substantially increasing slavery inside
Africa
 By disrupting the male-female ratio
• Important regional variations in impact
Job ben Solomon
A Slave Trader Describes the
Atlantic Passage
A Slave Trader Describes the
Atlantic Passage
A Closer Look:
The Slave Ship Brookes
• Print published in 1788
• Important abolitionist image
The Slave Ship Brookes
Review Questions
1. How were small groups of Spaniards able
to conquer the Aztec and Inca empires?
Review Questions
2. What was the basis of the mercantilist
theory of economics? What was the
relationship between the colonial
economies and those of the homelands?
Review Questions
3. What was the relationship between
conquistadores and missionaries in
Spain’s American colonies?
Review Questions
4. Describe the economies of Spanish
America and Brazil. What were the
similarities and differences between them
and the British and French colonies in the
Caribbean and North America? What role
did the various colonies play in the
transatlantic economy?
Review Questions
5. Explain the chief factors involved in the
Columbian Exchange. Which animals
from Europe flourished in the Americas?
Why? Which American plants produced
broad impact in Europe and elsewhere in
the world?
Review Questions
6. Why did forced labor and slavery develop
in tropical colonies? How was slavery in
the Americas different from slavery in
earlier societies?
Review Questions
7. What historical patterns emerged in the
slave trade(s) within and out of Africa?
Consider the gender and age distribution
of slaves, their places of origin, and their
destinations.
Review Questions
8. Compare and contrast the Oriental and
Occidental slave trades. What was the
effect of the transatlantic slave trade on
West African societies? On East Africa?
What role did Africans themselves play in
the slave trade?