Download Spanish: Social Structure of Colonial Empire

Portugal: Political Organization of Colonial Empire
Spanish, Portuguese spent 700 years reclaiming land from Muslims
• State supported, state financed campaign
• Well trained, well motivated, army and navy
• State gets its tenth of conquests, soldiers get a share of profits,
too
• Aristocrats obtain estates with feudal labor (Muslims)
King distributed land as estates to European landowners
• Provinces overseen by Captain-Generals ruling almost as feudal lords
• Colonial court resides in Salvador
Pursued mercantilism, autocratic reform from top down
• Brazil became the centerpiece of his reforms
• Vigorous, honest colonial administrators
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Portugal: Economic Structure of Colonial Empire
► Direct trade without Muslim intermediaries
 Bypass Italian trade monopolies with Ottomans
 Asian spice trade
 African gold, ivory, and slaves
► Model for Exploitation based on Canaries, Azores example
 Enslave natives, give land to Europeans
 Plantations set up for export of sugar
 Enslaved natives die off, import slaves, usually Africans
► Portuguese empire in Brazil dependent on sugar production
 Colonial Brazilian life revolved around sugar mill, or engenho
 Engenho combined agricultural and industrial enterprises
 Sugar planters became the landed nobility
 Brazil was the first European sugar plantation colony and a model for
others
 Imported African slaves
► For cane, sugar production after 1530
► High death rate, low birth rate
► Constant demand for slaves
► Roughly, every ton of sugar cost one human life
Pursued mercantilism, autocratic reform from top down
 Brazil became the centerpiece of his reforms
► Monopolies created to exploit areas
► Large importation of slaves began to increase production
► Cotton, cocoa produced introduced
The Bourbon reforms in Spain's New World empire were paralleled by the Pombal
reforms in Brazil. The Marquis of Pombal, Portugal's prime minister, wished to
free Portugal from its negative balance of trade with England. As in Spain, Pombal
expelled the Jesuits, who resisted his plans for reform. Monopolies were created
in Brazil, leading to the opening of new regions.
Cotton and cacao plantations arose in the Amazon basin. In order to ensure a
steady supply of slaves to Brazil, Pombal abolished slavery in Portugal. The colony
continued to rely on African slaves as their primary labor source. Although
Pombal's reforms did reduce Portugal's imbalance of trade with England, it could
not revise Brazil's position within the world trade system as a supplier of raw
materials.
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Portugal: Religious make-up of Colonial Empire
► Missionary efforts of European Christians
 Christians urged to spread the faith throughout the world
► Spanish and Portuguese missionaries introduced Catholicism
 Mission schools and churches established
 Missionaries recorded languages, traditions
 Catholic Church attracted many converts
 Church taught Indians skills: farming, herding
 Church became protector of Indians
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Portugal: Social Structure of Colonial Empire
• Restricted Church influence so he could use Indians as slaves
• Encouraged immigration of Europeans, women to Brazil
Spanish social hierarchies were complicated by intermarriage between races.
Marriages between Spaniards and Indians resulted in the creation of a group of
mixed race, the mestizos, who were regarded as socially superior to the Indians
and more acculturated to European patterns. Similar patterns of social hierarchy
resulted from Europeans sexual exploitation of African slaves in Brazil. In all of
Latin America, social status reflected racial origins. Whites were the elite, blacks
or Indians were at the bottom, and peoples of mixed race were in between.
Together, people of mixed racial origin were referred to as the castas. Castas found
that the higher offices and economic positions were closed to them.
Despite social limitations, peoples of mixed race made up a large proportion of
Latin American populations. Social mobility might result in changes in racial
categorization, but being white was still the most obvious qualification for elite
status. Even among whites, some distinctions were observed between those born
in Europe, the Peninsulares, and those born in the Americas, Creoles.
Peninsulares, about whose racial origins there could be no doubt, were regarded
as truly elite. Creoles rapidly developed a sense of identity separate from the
European white population. Regardless of racial origin, households remained
patriarchal. Women did have rights in dowry, inheritance, and some access to
commerce.
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Portugal: Interactions
• African Slaves
• Africa had an overabundance of exportable labor
• Europeans diverted slaves to Atlantic Coast
• Slaves gradually introduced to Brazil, Caribbean
• Slavery spread to coastlines of the Caribbean
• Slaves used in plantation economies producing exportable cash crops
• Settlement of the Interior and Southern Plains
• Ranching becomes common to support mining and sugar plantations
• Church controlled missions protect Indians in communal living
Catholic Church and Royal Government were allies
• Church often functioned as a branch of the government
• Established churches, schools in towns, frontier areas
• Ran many of the social, intellectual activities of the colonies
• Catholic orders converted the Indians
• Settled the Indians in protected missions
• Introduced farming, herding, industry to Indians
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Portugal: Artistic, Scientific, Inventions During the period of Colonial Empire
► New technologies help Europeans travel offshore
 New types of ships
 Advance, sail against wind
► Navigational instruments
 Magnetic compass
 Astrolabe (and cross and back staffs)
► Knowledge of winds and currents
 Enabled Europeans to travel reliably
► Church stimulates intellectual growth
 Needs artists, architects to build, beautify churches
 Printing presses tended to do mostly Church business
 First universities (Mexico City, Lima) organized, run by clergy
► Produced bureaucrats for empire, clergy for church
► First universities in the Americas before Yale, Harvard
 Sister Juana Ines de la Cruz
► Mexican poet, musician, author, social thinker
► Joined Church and became great theologian and social thinker
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Portugal: Nature of the Colonial Empire
► Portugal searched for fresh resources
 Resource poor country blocked from expanding on land
 13th to 15th century they ventured out onto Atlantic
 Established sugar plantations in Azores, Madiera
► Europeans replace Native
 Flora, fauna, cultural norms replace Indian
 Farmers, ranchers take over Indian lands
 Sheep, horses, cattle, crops replace Indians, varieties
 European culture seen as superior – it won, we should adopt it
► A Golden Age
 As interior was settled, gold was discovered
 A land rush and gold rush ensued which open up the interior
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Spanish: Political Structure of Colonial Empire
Spanish, Portuguese spent 700 years reclaiming land from Muslims
• State supported, state financed campaign
• Well trained, well motivated, army and navy
• State gets its tenth of conquests, soldiers get a share of profits,
too
• Aristocrats obtain estates with feudal labor (Muslims)
Royal Administration arrives
• Governorship, treasury office, royal courts, professional
magistrates
• Capitals laid out in a grid pattern with royal palace, cathedral
Americans began to resent distant control
• Local born Americans demand greater say in their own future
• Urban riots, boycotts over foreign controls
• Tax revolts
• Slave revolts not uncommon
• Revolts against mercantilist policies, controls
• Spanish: tobacco, liquor, taxes led to Comunero Revolt in 1781
• Tupac Amaru led Indian revolt in Peru in 1783
• Lead up to the American Revolution: many Acts and then actual
rebellion
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Spanish: Economic Structure of Colonial Empire
• Model for Exploitation based on Canaries, Azores example
• Enslave natives, give land to Europeans
• Plantations set up for export of sugar
• Enslaved natives die off, import slaves, usually Africans
• Different forms of labor, taxation created
• Encomiendas used Indians as feudal like labor
• Old Indian models but now arbitrary, excessive
• Ended 1540 as too threatening to royal power
• Forced labor
• Mita in Peru
• Cuatequil in Mexico
• Repartimiento replaces Encomienda system
• Repartimiento redistributed natives for forced labor
• Little different from encomienda
• Except village decide whom to send as laborers
• Natives moved around as migrant workers, laborers on official
duties
th
17 century
• Indians flee villages, work for landlords, in cities; done to avoid
conscription
• Allowed Indians to choose work; began to work for wages
• Silver more plentiful than gold
• The basis of Spanish New World wealth
• Melted Aztec, Inca gold into ingots
• Two major sites of silver mining
• Zacatecas (Mexico)
• Potosi (Peru)
• Spanish Americas were largely an agrarian society
• Coastal Plantations
• Produced cash crops for export: sugar, cocoa
• Eventually required large imports of slave labor
• Large private estates (haciendas, estancias) set up
• Were the basis of Spanish American production, aristocratic wealth
• Spanish transplanted Iberian model
• Produced grains, grapes, cattle, horses, sheep
• Americas became self-sufficient for needs
• Foods, textiles, tools produced locally
• Luxuries imported
• Raw materials, minerals exported
• Trade was mercantilist
• Spanish government regulated trade
• Trade routed through Spain: Cadiz, Seville
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Only Spanish merchants could carry goods to Spain
All manufactures, imports had to come from Spain
Only Spaniards could sell products in Americas
Galleon convoys organized to protect, carry trade
• Ports to Spain: Veracruz, Cartagena, Havana
• Ports to Manila, China: Acapulco
Textile Industry
• Woolens developed from sheep ranching
• Leather industry developed from cattle
• Cotton produced locally by Indians also woven
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The Spanish colonies did develop a small woolen textile industry that supplied
colonial markets. Spanish commercial objectives were directed at exploitation of
mineral wealth, specifically silver. All American trade with Spain passed through
the Casa de Contratacion of Seville. Strict control of trade allowed Spanish
merchants to keep prices high. To discourage piracy and competition from other
European nations, Spanish trade with its colonies was shipped in a convoy system
composed of galleons. Trade from Europe passed to fortified ports in the
Caribbean and along the American mainland.
Although a seemingly endless supply of silver entered Spain, much of it was
eventually exported to pay for military service, debts, and a negative balance of
trade. Importation of American bullion contributed to sharp inflation in first
Spain, then the rest of Europe. Spain's control of the silver trade permitted its
monarchs to incur massive debts on the security of American bullion.
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Spanish: Religious Structure of Colonial Empire
Conquest involved violence, murder, theft
• Raised moral, philosophical questions
• Many scholars justified it as (Sepulveda)
• Bring civilization, Christianity to backward
• Conquest of inferior by a superior culture
Spanish missionaries introduced Catholicism
• Mission schools and churches established
• Missionaries recorded languages, traditions
• Catholic Church attracted many converts
• Church taught Indians skills: farming, herding
• Church became protector of Indians
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Spanish: Social Structure of Colonial Empire
• Decline of Indian Population by 1750
• Drops from 125 million to 5 million
• Caribbean Indians disappeared
• Mexico: from 22 to 2 million by 1580
• Peru: from 10 to 1.5 million by 1590
• Diseases: smallpox, influenza, measles
• Results
• Whole areas abandoned
• Indian traditions, social norms questioned
• Economic structures collapse
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1550: Spanish King calls commission to investigate
• Bartolome de las Casas spoke against Sepulveda
• Defended Indians, their lives, conquest unjustified
• Crown backs de las Casas but conquest too much wealth to ignore
• Crown orders worst abuses halted
• Takes direct control of colonies, creates royal government
African Slaves
• Africa had an overabundance of exportable labor
• Europeans diverted slaves to Atlantic Coast
• Slaves gradually introduced to Brazil, Caribbean
• Slavery spread to coastlines of the Caribbean
• Slaves used in plantation economies producing exportable cash crops
In Spanish and Portuguese settlements, mestizo societies emerged
• Peoples of varied ancestry lived together under European rule
• Peninsulares were European born who dominated government,
society
• Creoles were American born Europeans who ran economy, few rights
• Mestizo: Mixed descent of Spanish and Portuguese men, native
women
• Many distinctions based on color, heritage
• Society of Brazil more thoroughly mixed: mestizos, mulattoes,
zambos
Typical social and racial hierarchy in Iberian colonies
• Strict hierarchy
• Whites (peninsulares and criollos) owned the land and held the
power
• Mixed races (mestizos and zambos) performed much of the manual
labor
• Africans and American natives were at the bottom
Spain and Portugal were heavily urbanized, a characteristic these nations
exported to the New World. Spanish and Portuguese colonists, though commoners
at home, often attempted to remake themselves as a colonial elite with Indians as
their serfs. Households were patriarchal, a trait carried over to the plantation
economy of Latin America. The Spanish state depended on a professional
bureaucracy and was closely tied to the Church. Plantation agriculture based on
slave labor, already established on the Atlantic islands, was readily transported to
the Americas.
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Spanish: Interactions
Columbus and Successors
• Early Successes
• Arrive Bahamas, Hispaniola
• Built fort of Santo Domingo
• 1511: controlled Cuba, Puerto Rico
• 1520: controlled Lesser Antilles
Catholic Church and Royal Government were allies
• Church often functioned as a branch of the government
• Established churches, schools in towns, frontier areas
• Ran many of the social, intellectual activities of the colonies
• Catholic orders converted the Indians
• Settled the Indians in protected missions
• Introduced farming, herding, industry to Indians
Crisis of the 18th Century: Shifting Balance of Trade and Politics
• Spanish model outmoded, Spanish hold on Americas not secure
• Increasing wars, competition from Northern Europeans
• French seize Santo Domingo, some lesser Antilles, Mississippi
Valley
• English seize Jamaica, Bahamas, some lesser Antilles, E. North
America
• Dutch seize Aruba, other lesser Antilles
• Failure of Spanish central administration to control colonies
• Decline of Spanish industry, merchants, treasure fleets
Pacific Islands
• Spain and the Pacific
• Pacific had been a Spanish possession until 19th century
(Philippines, Micronesia)
• Spanish yearly shipments of silver from Mexico to China ended
in 1812
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Spanish: Arts, Sciences, Technologies
► New technologies help Europeans travel offshore
 New types of ships
 Advance, sail against wind
► Navigational instruments
 Magnetic compass
 Astrolabe (and cross and back staffs)
► Knowledge of winds and currents
 Enabled Europeans to travel reliably
► Church stimulates intellectual growth
 Needs artists, architects to build, beautify churches
 Printing presses tended to do mostly Church business
 First universities (Mexico City, Lima) organized, run by clergy
► Produced bureaucrats for empire, clergy for church
► First universities in the Americas before Yale, Harvard
 Sister Juana Ines de la Cruz
► Mexican poet, musician, author, social thinker
► Joined Church and became great theologian and social thinker
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Spanish: Nature Of the Colonial Empire
• Europeans replace Native
• Flora, fauna, cultural norms replace Indian
• Farmers, ranchers take over Indian lands
• Sheep, horses, cattle, crops replace Indians, varieties
• European culture seen as superior – it won, we should adopt it
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Holland: Political Structure of the Colonial Empire
• Colonial government different from Iberian colonies
• North American colonies controlled by private investors
• Little royal financial support except protection, taxation
• Royal authority/governors, but also institutions of self-government
•
The Dutch had no patience for democratic institutions. The point of the
colony was to enrich its stockholders.
•
Slavery was common during the Dutch era, as the DUTCH WEST INDIA
COMPANY was one of the most prominent in the world's trade of slaves.
•
Dutch national identity emerged during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, especially in the struggle for independence from Catholic Spain
during the Eighty Year War (1568–1648). The Dutch people received
independence from the House of Habsburg in the Treaty of Munster in 1648.
The Netherlands was temporarily unified with Belgium after the Congress of
Vienna. The Catholic Belgian elite sought its freedom from the Protestant
Dutch, and Belgium became independent in 1839.
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y. Dutch national identity emerged from the struggle for political
sovereignty and religious freedom from the Catholic Habsburgs (Philip II).
The Dutch merchant class formed an alliance with the House of Orange; the
merchants supplied the funds to wage war, while the House of Orange
provided political stability and military protection. Politics became more
dependent on consensus and negotiation than on authoritarian rule as
power rested in the hands of provincial viceroys.
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Holland: Economic Structure of Colonial Empire
Dutch East India Company held tight control of Indonesia (Dutch East India)
South Africa
• Settled first by Dutch farmers (Afrikaners) in seventeenth century
• By 1800 was a European settler colony with enslaved black African
population
"Concessionary companies": granted considerable authority to private companies
 empowered to build plantations, mines, railroads
 made use of forced labor and taxation, as in Belgian Congo
 unprofitable, often replaced by more direct rule
Joint-stock companies
• Dutch East Indies, English East/West Indies Companies
• Organized commerce on a new scale
• Authorized to explore, conquer, colonize distant lands
English, French, Dutch create smaller empires on fringes
• Caribbean holdings more profitable than North American colonies
• Caribbean islands and Southern American colonies
 Export sugar, rice, tobacco, cotton, indigo rice
 Dominated by slaves, plantations; relied on importation of Africans
for labor
 The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when
the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out
colonial activities in Asia. It was the second multinational corporation in the world
(the British East India Company was founded two years earlier) and the first
company to issue stock. It was also arguably the first mega-corporation, possessing
quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, imprison and
execute convicts, negotiate treaties, coin money, and establish colonies.
 Statistically, the VOC eclipsed all of its rivals in the Asia trade. Between 1602 and
1796 the VOC sent almost a million Europeans to work in the Asia trade on 4,785
ships, and netted for their efforts more than 2.5 million tons of Asian trade goods.
By contrast, the rest of Europe combined sent only 882,412 people from 1500 to
1795, and the fleet of the English (later British) East India Company, the VOC’s
nearest competitor, was a distant second to its total traffic with 2,690 ships and a
mere one-fifth the tonnage of goods carried by the VOC. The VOC enjoyed huge
profits from its spice monopoly through most of the 17th century.
 Having been set up in 1602, to profit from the Malaccan spice trade, in 1619 the VOC
established a capital in the port city of Batavia (now Jakarta). Over the next two
centuries the Company acquired additional ports as trading bases and safeguarded
their interests by taking over surrounding territory. It remained an important
trading concern and paid an 18% annual dividend for almost 200 years.
 Weighed down by corruption in the late 18th century, the Company went bankrupt
and was formally dissolved in 1800, its possessions and the debt being taken over by
the government of the Dutch Batavian Republic. The VOC's territories became the
Dutch East Indies and were expanded over the course of the 19th century to include
the whole of the Indonesian archipelago, and in the 20th century would form
Indonesia.
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Holland: Religious Structure of Colonial Empire
The Netherlands has for centuries provided a safe haven for ethnic minorities
fleeing from discrimination and persecution, with each minority influencing
Dutch culture in its own way. Many Jews from Spain and Portugal and Protestant
merchants from the Spanish-ruled southern Netherlands sought refuge in the
Dutch Republic in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
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Holland: Social Structure of Colonial Empire
• North American societies
• Greater gender balance among settlers allowed marriage within own
groups
• Cultural borrowing: plants, crops, deerskin clothes, words, ideas of
nature
•
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Holland: Interactions
• Relations with indigenous peoples in North America
• Settlers' farms interrupted the migrations of indigenous peoples
• Settlers seized lands, then justified with treaties
• Natives retaliated with raids on farms and villages
• Attacks on European communities brought reprisals from settlers
• France actually got along very well with native populations
• Between 1500 & 1800, native population of North America dropped
90%
Crisis of the 18th Century: Shifting Balance of Trade and Politics
• Spanish model outmoded, Spanish hold on Americas not secure
• Increasing wars, competition from Northern Europeans
• Dutch seize Aruba, other lesser Antilles
The Dutch Empire comprised the overseas territories controlled by the Dutch
Republic and later, the modern Netherlands from the 17th to the 20th century. The
Dutch followed Portugal and Spain in establishing an overseas colonial empire,
but based on military conquest of already-existing Portuguese and Spanish
settlements, and not on discovery and colonization. For this, they were aided by
their skills in shipping and trade and the surge of nationalism accompanying the
struggle for independence from Spain. Alongside the British, the Dutch initially
built up colonial possessions on the basis of indirect state capitalist corporate
colonialism, via the Dutch East and West India Companies. Dutch exploratory
voyages such as those led by Willem Barents, Henry Hudson and Abel Tasman
revealed to Europeans vast new territories.
The rapid expansion of the Dutch merchant fleet enabled the establishment of a
worldwide network of trade relations that created naval dominance and increasing
wealth for the merchant class. Handicapped by a small population (670,000
inhabitants in 1622) and besieged by growing English and French might, the Dutch
Republic began to decline. Paradoxically, at that time, the conspicuous
consumption of the wealthy merchant class
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Holland: Arts, Sciences, Technologies
► New technologies help Europeans travel offshore
 New types of ships
 Advance, sail against wind
► Navigational instruments
 Magnetic compass
 Astrolabe (and cross and back staffs)
► Knowledge of winds and currents
 Enabled Europeans to travel reliably
22
Holland: Nature of the Colonial Empire
• Holland & Sweden: New York, Pennsylvania-Delaware
• Caribbean: owned sugar islands earning more than N. America
Crops such like coffee, tea, cacao, tobacco and rubber were all introduced by the
Dutch. The Dutch were the first to start the spread of the coffee plant in Central
and South America, and by the early 19th century Java was the third largest
producer in the world. In 1778 the Dutch brought cacao from the Philippines to
Indonesia and commenced mass production. Currently Indonesia is the world's
second largest producer of natural rubber, a crop that was introduced by the
Dutch in the early 20th century. Tobacco was introduced from the Americas and in
1863 the first plantation was established by the Dutch.
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France: Political Structure of the Colonial Empire
• Colonial government different from Iberian colonies
• North American colonies controlled by private investors
• Little royal financial support except protection, taxation
• Royal authority/governors, but also institutions of self-government
Direct rule: replacing local rulers with Europeans--French model
• justified by "civilizing mission"
• hard to find enough European personnel
•
however, in practice, implementation was always a bit
superficial; at best, Africans and ‘traditional’ authorities were
used only at the very bottom rung of the administration. They
were subordinate cogs in the bureaucracy for carrying out
policies which were developed by expatriate French officials
with no real consultation with Africans.
• African societies were carved up into ‘cantons’ (districts) and
chiefs who were not adequately efficient or subservient were
deposed and replaced, often with little regard for traditional
status. The Kingdom of Dahomey, which would have been an
ideal candidate under the British system of ‘indirect rule’, was
completely dismantled and no significant members of the royal
family were employed by the colonial administration.
• advisory councils were started in each level of the bureaucracy
(supposedly to provide knowledge about African law and
custom), but they had no power and not much influence.
• in effect, there was a dual legal system set up—French law for
whites, métis, African residents of Saint-Louis and the few
Africans in West Africa who were naturalised ‘citoyens’; ‘sujets’
were subject to a system called justice indigène.
• in spite of the name it was not a real attempt to preserve or
revive African law or justice; instead French administrators,
assisted by African assessors, dispensed civil and criminal
justice ostensibly according to African law, but mostly
according to what the white official decided was African law or
more usually, according to what he thought was natural justice.
Of course, this produced a great deal of variation in the law and
its administration.
• there was little machinery or penal provisions to curb an
administrator; there were few appeals from his decisions
except that he could not execute on his own authority (however,
he presented the evidence to his superiors so usually he could
get his decision confirmed).
• in addition, there was a system called indigénat which in fact
allowed administrative tyranny; governors could define certain
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offences by decree, and persons could be tried summarily by
local administrators.
also, very heavy obligations were placed on the African
population by the colonial administration
• Prestation—12 days of free labour (or its money
equivalent) for public works and purposes.
• Compulsory or forced labor paid at very low rates
(conscription of labor).
• Conscription in wartime.
• Money taxes (as was frequently the case in Africa) were
designed to force Africans to grow export crops or go out
to work (we shall return to discuss this further).
• in practice, ‘association’ brought a greater degree of
authoritarianism. It provided a rationale for withholding
rights which were taken for granted in France (freedom
of the press, trade unions, free speech etc) from African
‘sujets’. There was no development of these rights in
Francophone areas of Africa before 1945. This was a
sharp contrast with British colonies.
• curiously, this situation did not change during the
Popular Front gov’t (made up of centre and left parties)
in the 1930s. In fact, there seems to have been a division.
Even under republican gov’ts (including those left of
centre), the colonies were under much more control by
the military and conservative elements. While separation
of church and state was being pushed in France, the
colonial administrations in Africa were deep partners
with missionaries.
France: Economic Structure of Colonial Empire
The fur trade was very profitable
• Native peoples trapped for and traded with Europeans
• Hudson Bay Co. (England) and French dominate trade from Canada
New England, Mid Atlantic, Canadian Atlantic small farms
• Rich investors, aristocrats acquire best lands downriver, near coast
• New York, Southern colonies tended towards larger estates,
plantations
• Cultivation of cash crops—grain, tobacco, rice, indigo, and
later, cotton
Economic Structure: mostly trading and gaining natural resources such as fish
and lumber; in Haiti a plantation system did develop with use of slave labor
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France: Religious Structure of Colonial Empire
French and English missions less successful than Spanish
• North American populations not settled or captive
• English colonists had little interest in converting indigenous peoples
• French missionaries worked actively, but met only modest success
• Jesuits, Franciscans successful with Iroquois, S. American Indians
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France: Social Structure of Colonial Empire
North American societies
• Greater gender balance among settlers allowed marriage within own
groups
• Relationships of French traders and native women generated some
métis
• English disdainful of interracial marriages, going “native”
• Cultural borrowing: plants, crops, deerskin clothes, words, ideas of
nature
Reestablish European feudal, aristocratic society often including cattle
• Indentured labor flocked to North America in 17th and 18th centuries
• Many came to Americas as a way to work off passage
• After contract over, stake own land claims in backwoods (Irish,
Scotts)
African slaves replaced indentured servants in late 17th century
• Slaves not yet prominent in North America (lack of labor-intensive
crops)
• New England merchants participated in slave trade, distillation of
rum
Social Structure: not as defined as Spanish and Portuguese; mostly male settlers
to conduct business; not a large French population living in colonies
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France: Interactions
Relations with indigenous peoples in North America
• Settlers' farms interrupted the migrations of indigenous peoples
• Settlers seized lands, then justified with treaties
• Natives retaliated with raids on farms and villages
• Attacks on European communities brought reprisals from settlers
• France actually got along very well with native populations
• Between 1500 & 1800, native population of North America dropped
90%
Impact of the fur trade
• Environmental impact
• Conflicts among natives competing for resources
• Many Indian wars especially as Iroquois came to dominate Great
Lakes
Crisis of the 18th Century: Shifting Balance of Trade and Politics
• Spanish model outmoded, Spanish hold on Americas not secure
• Increasing wars, competition from Northern Europeans
• French seize Santo Domingo, some lesser Antilles, Mississippi
Valley
French and Indian Wars
• English, French contest for North America
• British government forced to pay for defense
• Many burdens, deprivations fell on colonists
• Resulted in the loss of colonies by French
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France: Arts, Sciences, Technologies
► New technologies help Europeans travel offshore
 New types of ships
 Advance, sail against wind
► Navigational instruments
 Magnetic compass
 Astrolabe (and cross and back staffs)
► Knowledge of winds and currents
 Enabled Europeans to travel reliably
30
France: Nature of the Colonial Empire
• Foundation of colonies on east coast, exploration of west coast
• France, England came seeking fur, fish, trade routes in early 17th
century
• Settlements suffered isolation, food shortages
• France: St. Lawrence Valley, Mississippi Valley, Great Lakes Region
• Caribbean: owned sugar islands earning more than N. America
Established colonies in North America and the Caribbean: Canada, Haiti
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Great Britain: Political Structure of the Colonial Empire
• Colonial government different from Iberian colonies
• North American colonies controlled by private investors
• Little royal financial support except protection, taxation
• Royal authority/governors, but also institutions of self-government
English needed colonists to pay for local defenses
• Created a series of taxes, rules to raise funds
• Colonists resented, resisted
• Colonists demand representation or no taxation
• Colonists favored free trade, opposed mercantilism
• English react by basically repealing English Bill of Rights
Americans began to resent distant control
• Local born Americans demand greater say in their own future
• Urban riots, boycotts over foreign controls
• Tax revolts
• Slave revolts not uncommon
• Revolts against mercantilist policies, controls
• Spanish: tobacco, liquor, taxes led to Comunero Revolt in 1781
• Tupac Amaru led Indian revolt in Peru in 1783
• Lead up to the American Revolution: many Acts and then actual
rebellion
The British empire in India
• Company rule under the English East India Company
• EIC took advantage of Mughal decline in India, began conquest of
India in 1750s
• Built trading cities and forts at Calcutta, Madras, Bombay
• Ruled with small British force, Indian troops called sepoys
• Sepoy Rebellion, 1857: attacks on British led to reprisals
• British imperial rule replaced the EIC, 1858
• British viceroy and high-level British civil service ruled India
• British appointed viceroy, ran all domestic, foreign policy
• Indians held low-level bureaucratic positions
South Africa
• British seized Cape Colony in early nineteenth century, abolished slavery in
1833
Indirect rule: control over subjects through local institutions--British model
• worked best in African societies that were highly organized
• assumed firm tribal boundaries where often none existed
Australia and New Zealand
• Both became settler colonies in the Pacific
• 1770, Captain Cook reached Australia, reported it suitable for settlement
• 1788, one thousand settlers established colony of New South Wales
• Became a penal colony after loss of Georgia in American Revolution
• 1851, gold discovered; surge of European migration to Australia
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Great Britain: Economic Structure of Colonial Empire
The fur trade was very profitable
• Native peoples trapped for and traded with Europeans
• Hudson Bay Co. (England) and French dominate trade from Canada
New England, Mid Atlantic, Canadian Atlantic small farms
• Rich investors, aristocrats acquire best lands downriver, near coast
• New York, Southern colonies tended towards larger estates,
plantations
• Cultivation of cash crops—grain, tobacco, rice, indigo, and
later, cotton
Economic restructuring of India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
• Introduction of commercial crops: tea, coffee, opium
• Built railroads, telegraph lines, canals, harbors, irrigation
"Concessionary companies": granted considerable authority to private companies
• empowered to build plantations, mines, railroads
• made use of forced labor and taxation, as in Belgian Congo
• unprofitable, often replaced by more direct rule
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Great Britain: Religious Structure of Colonial Empire
French and English missions less successful than Spanish
• North American populations not settled or captive
• English colonists had little interest in converting indigenous peoples
• French missionaries worked actively, but met only modest success
• Jesuits, Franciscans successful with Iroquois, S. American Indians
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Great Britain: Social Structure of Colonial Empire
North American societies
• Greater gender balance among settlers allowed marriage within own
groups
• Relationships of French traders and native women generated some
métis
• English disdainful of interracial marriages, going “native”
• Cultural borrowing: plants, crops, deerskin clothes, words, ideas of
nature
Reestablish European feudal, aristocratic society often including cattle
• Indentured labor flocked to North America in 17th and 18th centuries
• Many came to Americas as a way to work off passage
• After contract over, stake own land claims in backwoods (Irish,
Scotts)
African slaves replaced indentured servants in late 17th century
• Slaves not yet prominent in North America (lack of labor-intensive
crops)
• New England merchants participated in slave trade, distillation of
rum
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Great Britain: Interactions
Relations with indigenous peoples in North America
• Settlers' farms interrupted the migrations of indigenous peoples
• Settlers seized lands, then justified with treaties
• Natives retaliated with raids on farms and villages
• Attacks on European communities brought reprisals from settlers
• France actually got along very well with native populations
• Between 1500 & 1800, native population of North America dropped
90%
Impact of the fur trade
• Environmental impact
• Conflicts among natives competing for resources
• Many Indian wars especially as Iroquois came to dominate Great
Lakes
African Slaves
• Africa had an overabundance of exportable labor
• Europeans diverted slaves to Atlantic Coast
• Slaves gradually introduced to Brazil, Caribbean
• Slavery spread to coastlines of the Caribbean
• Slaves used in plantation economies producing exportable cash crops
Crisis of the 18th Century: Shifting Balance of Trade and Politics
• Spanish model outmoded, Spanish hold on Americas not secure
• Increasing wars, competition from Northern Europeans
• English seize Jamaica, Bahamas, some lesser Antilles, E. North
America
War of Spanish Succession: First World War!
• Last Hapsburg king dies, sparks war
• Empire willed to French king
• English, Dutch refuse to accept agreement
• French obtain Spain, colonies but lose much
• English merchants to operate out of Seville
• English to supply slaves to Spanish Americas (asciento)
• English even get to send one ship a year to Americas to collect silver
India: Did not interfere with Indian culture, religion
• Established English-style schools for Indian elites
• Outlawed Indian customs considered offensive, (sati)
Imperialism in central Asia and southeast Asia
• "Great Game" refers to competition between Britain, Russia in central
Asia
• By 1860s Russian expansion reached northern frontiers of
British India
• Russian and British explorers mapped, scouted, but never
colonized Afghanistan
• Russian dominance of central Asia lasted until 1991
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Great Britain: Arts, Sciences, Technologies
New technologies help Europeans travel offshore
 New types of ships
 Advance, sail against wind
Navigational instruments
 Magnetic compass
 Astrolabe (and cross and back staffs)
Knowledge of winds and currents
 Enabled Europeans to travel reliably
Enlightenment ideas spread amongst colonists, local notables
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Great Britain: Nature of the Colonial Empires
• Foundation of colonies on east coast, exploration of west coast
• France, England came seeking fur, fish, trade routes in early 17th
century
• Settlements suffered isolation, food shortages
• England: Atlantic Seaboard, St. James Bay (Hudson’s Bay)
• Caribbean: owned sugar islands earning more than N. America
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Russia: Political Structure of the Colonial Empire
Peter the Great reorganised his government on the latest modern models,
molding Russia into an absolutist state. He replaced the old boyar Duma (council
of nobles) with a nine-member Senate, in effect a supreme council of state. The
countryside was also divided into new provinces and districts. Peter told the
Senate that its mission was to collect tax revenues. In turn tax revenues tripled
over the course of his reign. As part of the government reform, the Orthodox
Church was partially incorporated into the country's administrative structure, in
effect making it a tool of the state. Peter abolished the patriarchate and replaced
it with a collective body, the Holy Synod, led by a lay government official.
Meanwhile, all vestiges of local self-government were removed, and Peter
continued and intensified his predecessors' requirement of state service for all
nobles.
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Russia: Economic Structure of Colonial Empire
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Russia: Religious Structure of Colonial Empire
Autocracy, Orthodoxy, Conservatism
 Official government policy to uphold conservatism
 Pre-destined Russia to oppose revolution, change everywhere
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Russia: Social Structure of Colonial Empire
42
Russia: Interactions
Collapse of Napoleon left Russia as great power
 Russia dominates Eastern Europe (saved both Prussia, Austria)
 Russia increased presence in Central Europe, Northern Europe
 Russia wants to push into Ottoman SE Europe, SW Asia
 Expands into Central Asia, Pacific
Rise of Pan-Slavic Nationalism
 Sought to control all Orthodox, Slavs
 Brought Russia into conflict with Ottoman Empire, Austria in
Balkans
 Also wanted access to Mediterranean Sea
 Hoped to seize control of Constantinople
War against the Ottoman Empire
• Numerous wars to acquire Turkish lands in SE Europe, Caucasus
• Supported rise of Christian Balkan states under Russian influence
• Crimean War 1853 - 1856
 France, Great Britain, Sardinia supported Ottomans
 Crushing defeat; forced tsars to modernize army, industry
Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905
• Russian expansion into China, Korea met Japan
• Japanese attack Russia without warning
• Defeat two Russian fleets, armies
• First defeat of a European by an Asian power
• Japan emerges as a world military power
Imperialism in central Asia and southeast Asia
• "Great Game" refers to competition between Britain, Russia in central Asia
• By 1860s Russian expansion reached northern frontiers of British India
• Russian and British explorers mapped, scouted, but never colonized
Afghanistan
• Russian dominance of central Asia lasted until 1991
43
Russia: Arts, Sciences, Technologies
► New technologies help Europeans travel offshore
 New types of ships
 Advance, sail against wind
► Navigational instruments
 Magnetic compass
 Astrolabe (and cross and back staffs)
► Knowledge of winds and currents
 Enabled Europeans to travel reliably
Russia: Nature
Peter's first military efforts were directed against the Ottoman Turks. His attention then
turned to the north. Peter still lacked a secure northern seaport except at Archangel on the
White Sea, whose harbor was frozen for nine months a year. Access to the Baltic was
blocked by Sweden, whose territory enclosed it on three sides. Peter's ambitions for a
"window to the sea" led him in 1699 to make a secret alliance with Saxony, the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth and Denmark against Sweden, resulting in the Great Northern
War. The war ended in 1721 when an exhausted Sweden sued for peace with Russia. Peter
acquired four provinces situated south and east of the Gulf of Finland, thus securing his
coveted access to the sea. There he built Russia's new capital, Saint Petersburg, to replace
Moscow, which had long been Russia's cultural center.
According to the 1st article of the Organic law, the Russian Empire was one indivisible
state. In addition, the 26th article stated that "With the Imperial Russian throne are
indivisible the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Principality of Finland". Relations with the
Grand Principality of Finland were also regulated by the 2nd article, "The Grand
Principality of Finland, constituted an indivisible part of the Russian state, in its internal
affairs governed by special regulations at the base of special laws" and the law of June 10,
1910.
In 1744–1867 the empire also controlled the so-called Russian America. With the exception
of this territory (modern day Alaska), the Russian Empire was a contiguous landmass
spanning Europe and Asia. In this it differed from contemporary, colonial-style empires.
The result of this was that while the British and French Empire declined in the 20th
century, the Russian Empire kept a large proportion of its territory, firstly as the
Communist Soviet Union, and latterly as part of the present-day Russian Federation.
Furthermore, the empire at times controlled concession territories, notably the port of
Kwantung and the Chinese Eastern Railway Zone, both conceded by imperial China, as well
as a concession in Tianjin.
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Russia: Nature of the Colonial Empires
It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the shortlived Russian Republic, which was succeeded by the Soviet Union. It was one of the
largest empires in world history, surpassed in landmass only by the British and
Mongol empires: at one point in 1866, it stretched from Eastern Europe across
Asia and into North America.
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Spanish: Social Structure of Colonial Empire
46
Economics: British – Spanish – French – Dutch -
47
Economics: Spain
48
Economics
49
Nature: Spanish and Portuguese
50
Nature
51
Nature
52
Nature: Colonial Imperialism in Central and Southeast Asia
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