Download File - Mr. Bacon`s world cultures class

English Motives (Reasons) for Colonization
ECONOMIC MOTIVES
Economic considerations were undoubtedly the most effective in promoting colonization.
1) Among these was the accumulation of surplus capital and the profit motive. Wealthy
businessmen sought opportunities to invest their money. Joint-stock companies sold shares of
stock to venturers and enabled them to share the great expense and risk of founding colonies as
business enterprises. 2) The prevailing economic theory of mercantilism stressed the need of a
nation to accumulate precious metals – the English hoped to find gold in the colonies. 3) Thus,
England wished to secure vital raw materials from her colonies instead of paying precious coin
to other countries. 4) The need for markets for England’s surplus of manufactures argued for the
establishment of captured markets in the form of colonies. 5) Among individual colonists the
simple desire to own land, in scarce supply in Europe, and enjoy a better living.
RELIGIOUS MOTIVES
The Protestant Reformation gave rise to dissenting sects who aggressively sought to
worship according to their own ideas instead of conforming to the religious uniformity required
by the Anglican Church. Non-conforming religious sects were persecuted as being treasonous
to the king. These people sought to escape to America where vacant land and great distance
from the mother country offered them a place to settle and follow their own consciences in
religious matters.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL MOTIVES
The enclosure movement, taking land out of cultivation and converting it into pastureland
for sheep, was creating a surplus population. Sheep raising, more profitable than traditional
agriculture, required less laborers. The new lands in America gave these unemployed a place to
work. Also, a surplus was occurring in the upper-classes as second and third born sons were
looking for work since the England was not at war. 2) The desire for adventure – opportunity
and new experiences – moved others to go to America. 3) Related to a desire for religious
freedom was the wish of some opposed to the monarchy for a greater degree of political
freedom than they had in England. 4) The English government also wanted to weaken Spain by
establishing military and naval outposts.
Outcomes of English Colonization
Economic Power
The English colonies were small in size, most in the Caribbean Islands. However, these
islands were extremely valuable because sugarcane could be grown there. Sugarcane was an
extremely valuable commodity (crop). The English colonies provided raw materials to the home
country, which was becoming the factory of Europe. Even though English colonization began
because they conceived of a mercantile economy (fixed amount of wealth); however, by the end
of English colonization, the Joint-Stock Company had been formed. Joint-Stock Companies
require investors to give money to the company, but there is safety in numbers of investors, so
instead of one person losing everything, the losses were spread. This was the beginning of
capitalism, the economic system that has ruled the world ever since Adam Smith wrote The
Wealth of Nations in 1776.
Military Power
The English (called British after 1707) Empire was feared for its naval ships. The English
Navy defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588, and ruled the waves ever since. The American
colonies became stockyards for English ships on trade missions, and more often, to fill up on
supplies before the committed acts of piracy. The origin of pirates in the Caribbean is attributed
to English “privateers” who were paid money by the Crown to capture or destroy Spanish ships.
Political and Social Power
England gained control of the Atlantic Slave Trade due to her economic power and
powerful navy. The control of the slave trade provided massive sums of money. This, combined
with the money earned from the sugar colonies, allowed England to become a wealthy,
capitalist nation with a hugely profitable empire.
Spanish Motivations for Colonization
Spain encouraged settlements in the New World to strengthen her claims to territory; to
secure gold, silver, and valuable agricultural produce, such as sugar and indigo (a blue dye); and
to convert the Indians to Catholicism. Spanish settlers were chiefly government officials,
soldiers, noblemen, merchants, and missionaries.
There are many probable reasons as to why Spain and Portugal decided to send out their
explorers in search of alien lands. Everyone involved in the exploration was impelled by their
own motives and desires, such as trade, personal wealth, glory and to spread Christianity. This
can be summarised in the quote by Bernal Diaz del Castillo (1492/93 - 1584), a sailor and later
Conquistador, “to serve God and His Majesty, to give light to those who were in darkness and
to grow rich, as all men desire to do". A key motive for beginning exploration was the hope of
finding trade and personal enrichment. Columbus writes this in his journal: But in truth, should
I meet with gold or spices in great quantity, I shall remain till I collect as much as possible, and
for this purpose I am proceeding solely in quest of them (19 Oct 1492)
Gold, Glory, and God were the primary aims of colonization. The Spanish Empire was a
tight-knit, closely supervised, source of wealth. Soldiers, merchants, and padres were the main
colonists. Natives were subjects of the Spanish sovereign (king/queen), too.
Outcomes of Spanish Colonization
The often-heavy handed rule from Madrid and the new ideas of liberty and freedom
coming out of the American and French Revolutions brought about the wars of Independence in
the early nineteenth century. Simón Bolívar—the Great Liberator—and José de San Martin led
the fight for independence, although this was not a fight for Indian rights, or on behalf of the
poor. Those who fought for South American independence were called criollos, American-born
descendants of Spaniards, and they continued to rule the many new nations of Spanish America
for generations. The Spanish left a legacy of cruelty and exploitation in their wake, but they also
managed to open the world and increase cultural exchanges to a level never before seen in
human history.
The Spanish received a large but short lived influx of gold from the colonies in the New
World as plunder when they were conquered, much of which Charles used to prosecute his wars
in Europe. The Spanish left mining to private enterprise but instituted a tax known as the
"quinto real" whereby a fifth of the metal was collected by the government. The Spanish were
quite successful in enforcing the tax throughout their vast empire in the New World; all bullion
had to pass through the House of Trade in Seville, under the direction of the Council of the
Indies. The supply of Almadén mercury, vital to extracting silver from the ore, was controlled
by the state and contributed to the rigor of Spanish tax policy. Inflation - both in Spain and in
the rest of Europe - was primarily caused by debt, and a massive debt would spell the end for
the Spanish Empire, when King Charles refused to pay the creditors who lent him money.
Dutch Motivations for Colonization
In the late 1500s A.D., the Dutch enjoyed one of the highest standards of living among all
the Europeans. They had grown wealthy through trade and commerce. However, their homeland
was small, and there was little room for farming or manufacturing. In order to maintain their
wealth, the Dutch decided to look at colonizing new lands.
Dutch involvement in the exploration of North America began almost accidentally in the
spring of 1609, when the Lords Seventeen, the highest authority of the United East India Company
(VOC), engaged the English navigator Henry Hudson to try to find a safe passage to the wealthy
Spice Islands in the East. At the time, many
geographers believed that a short and safe "northeast
passage" to Asia could be found that would make it
possible to avoid the long trip around the Cape of Good
Hope. Hudson had tried unsuccessfully to find such a
route on two previous voyages for the English Muscovy
Company, sailing as far north as the islands of Novaya
Zemlya in the "high" Arctic off the northern coast of
Siberia and Spitzbergen, in Svalbard, Norway.
Dutch leaders founded The Dutch East India Company to help expand trade throughout
the Indian Ocean. They established their headquarters on the island of Batavia in Indonesia in
1619. They then used Batavia as a base to further push their control outward in the region. In
the Atlantic, the West India Company concentrated on wresting from Portugal its grip on the
sugar and slave trade, and on opportunistic attacks on the Spanish treasure fleets on their
homeward bound voyage.
 More land
 More wealth
 More power
 Slaves for trade
 Better trade routes
Outcomes of Dutch Colonization
The 1600s were a golden era for the Dutch, much as the 1500s had been for the Spanish.
The Dutch merchant fleet became the greatest in the world, Amsterdam glittered as a trade
center and a Dutch empire was established. This was the age of Rembrandt and Vermeer. Dutch
society further distinguished itself by becoming a haven for the oppressed, opening its doors to
French Huguenots and Jews from the Iberian Peninsula. The Dutch began to fill a yawning
power vacuum in the New World and in Asia. With Spanish strength on the wane following the
defeat of the Armada (1588), Dutch "sea beggars" began to prey on poorly defended Spanish
and Portuguese possessions.
The slow expansion of New Netherland, however, caused conflicts with both English
colonists and Native Americans in the region. Along the West Coast of Africa, British charter
companies clashed with the forces of the Dutch West India Company over rights to slaves,
ivory, and gold in 1663. Less about slaves or ivory, the Anglo-Dutch Wars were actually more
about who would be the dominant European naval power. By 1664, both the Dutch and English
were preparing for war.
The Second Anglo-Dutch War was precipitated in 1664, when English forces moved to
capture New Netherland. Under the Treaty of Breda (1667), New Netherland was ceded to
England in exchange for the English settlements in Suriname, which had been conquered by
Dutch forces earlier that year. Though the Dutch would again take New Netherland in 1673,
during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, it was returned to England the following year, thereby
ending the Dutch Empire in continental North America, but leaving behind a large Dutch
community under English rule that persisted with its language, church and customs until the
mid-18th century. In South America, the Dutch seized Cayenne from the French in 1658 and
drove off a French attempt to retake it a year later. However, it was returned to France in 1664,
since the colony proved to be unprofitable. It was recaptured by the Dutch in 1676, but was
returned again a year later, this time permanently. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 saw the
Dutch William of Orange ascend to the throne, and win the English, Scottish, and Irish crowns,
ending eighty years of rivalry between the Netherlands and England, while the rivalry with
France remained strong.
Scottish Colonization
The Darien scheme is probably the best known of all Scotland's colonial endeavours, and
the most disastrous. In 1695, an act was passed in the Parliament of Scotland establishing the
Company of Scotland. The purpose of the company was to compete with English joint-stock
companies that were colonizing the New World.
Trading to Africa and the Indies and was given royal assent by the Scottish representative
of King William II of Scotland (and III of England). This act gave the company a 31-year
monopoly on trade with Africa and Asia, authorizing it to arm and equip ships and to establish
colonies in uninhabited or unclaimed areas of America, Asia or Africa. These powers were
similar to those of the English East India Company, which opposed the establishment of a
Scottish rival.
In 1696, 2,500 Scottish settlers, in two expeditions, set out to found a Scottish trading
colony at Darién on the isthmus of Panama. These settlers were made up of ex-soldiers,
ministers of religion, merchants, sailors and the younger sons of the gentry, to receive 50 to 150
acres (0.61 km2) each. The government of the colony was run by a committee, the chairman of
which changed every two weeks, thus preventing any real sustained progress in solving the
problems faced by the settlers. These problems included a lack of provisions due to famine in
Scotland, the Scots' lack of colonizing experience, diseases such as malaria, poor weather and
the proximity of the Spanish, who claimed the land the Scots had settled on. Also, for a trading
colony established to trade with passing ships in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, they
carried a poor choice of trade goods, including wigs, shoes, bibles, woolen clothing and clay
pipes. The colony received no assistance from the crown or English colonies in the West Indies
or Jamaica, despite having been promised, in the 1695 act, the assistance of William II. Thus,
the Scots faced assaults by the Spanish on their own. In 1699, they dealt with this by recruiting
a Jamaican captain to raid Spanish shipping as a privateer, but this achieved little. Soon
thereafter, the Spanish mounted an expedition of 500 men to wipe out the Scots. This was
effective, as most settlers had already succumbed to disease or starvation.
Outcomes of Scottish Colonization
The Darien colony in Panama was a complete disaster. Many of the nobility and
commoners sent there had died, and the people who funded the mission were totally bankrupt.
The failure of the Darien colonization project has been cited as one of the motivations for the
1707 Acts of Union. The Act of Union brought the kingdom of Scotland and England under one
crown. According to this argument, the Scottish establishment (landed aristocracy and
mercantile elites) considered that their best chance of being part of a major power would be to
share the benefits of England's international trade and the growth of the English Empire, so its
future would have to lie in unity with England. Furthermore, Scotland's nobles were almost
bankrupted by the Darien fiasco.
In Scotland, some claimed that union would enable Scotland to recover from the financial
disaster wrought by the Darien scheme through English assistance and the lifting of measures
put in place through the Alien Act to force the Scottish Parliament into compliance with the Act
of Settlement. The combined votes of the Court party with a majority of the Squadrone Volante
were sufficient to ensure the final passage of the treaty through the House.
Personal financial interests were also allegedly involved. Many Commissioners had
invested heavily in the Darien Scheme and they believed that they would receive compensation
for their losses; Article 15 granted £398,085 to Scotland, a sum known as The Equivalent, to
offset future liability towards the English national debt. In essence it was also used as a means
of compensation for investors in the Company of Scotland's Darien Scheme, as 58.6% was
allocated to its shareholders and creditors. Scottish colonization was a failed attempt of
ecomomic expansion, and ended with them ceasing to exist as a country.
Native American Motivations for Resisting Colonization
The Native American resistance to colonization was motivated by a want for
independence from the European ways of living, protection from Old World
diseases that were ravaging the people, and for their literal freedom.
Spanish conquistadors were rewarded with land (encomiendas) for their
service. The conquistadors forced Native Americans to cultivate sugarcane, but the
sharp spines of the plant cut the workers, and many died of infection. The Native
Americans opposed the Spanish system since the average life expectancy of a
worker on an encomienda was about two years. Tropical diseases quickly killed the
farmers who cut their hands. Running out of natives to use as workers, the Spanish
imported Africans, beginning the Atlantic Slave Trade. Even though the
encomienda system was abolished in 1720, slavery continued.
European settlers and African slaves served as even more vectors of disease,
and by 1600, 50% or more of the Native Americans on the Atlantic Coast had
perished. Indigenous groups moved to the interior of Latin America to resist both
the European way of life and their diseases.
Lastly, the Native Americans resisted European colonization of the Americas
because even though many of them were not enslaved, they were considered
inferior to slaves in the social pyramid. Natives had less control of their society than
anyone else in the New World, and their fight against colonization was a fight for
the oppressed.
Native American Outcomes for Resisting Colonization
In the hundred years after Columbus accidentally discovered the New World,
about 75% to 90% of the population of the New World had died. The real killers of
Native Americans were germs. The Germ theory of disease was not accepted by
European society until the 1880s. Smallpox, measles, and yellow fever wiped out
Native American societies between 1492 and 1600—these germs had always been
in the Old World, and many people had immunities to them, but not so in the New.
Native American culture was also repressed (stamped out) by colonial rulers.
Native American religion, culture, education, language, and dress—basically every
element of culture—was limited by European governments. Christianity and a
Christian education replaced these things, and Native Americans fought to hold
onto their heritage. Because of the Columbian Exchange, thousands of Native
American languages ceased to be spoken.
The last part of the Native American legacy revolves around what they gave
to the world. The exchange of plants and animals ever since has saved hundreds of
millions of lives and allowed for the 7.3 billion people to exist today. Corn (maize)
and potatoes lifted the European, African, and Asian (Old World) populations from
starvation, circa 1500-1600 CE. Without New World crops, the Old would have
died. Lastly, if there is any consolation for all the deaths of Native Americans, they
did get some revenge by giving the Old World tobacco, killing millions.
Portuguese Motivations for Colonization
Portugal was the leading country in the European exploration of the world in the 15th
century. The Treaty of Tordesillas divided the Earth, outside Europe, in 1494 into Spanish
(Castilian) and Portuguese global territorial hemispheres for exclusive conquest and
colonization. Portugal colonized parts of South America (mostly Brazil), but also some failed
attempts to colonize North America in present day Canada.
Portugal's long shoreline, with its many harbors and rivers flowing westward to the
Atlantic ocean was the ideal environment to raise generations of adventurous seamen. As a
seafaring people in the south-westernmost region of Europe, the Portuguese became natural
leaders of exploration during the Middle Ages.
Having fought to achieve and to retain independence, the nation's leadership had also a
desire for fresh conquests. Added to this was a long struggle to expel the Moors that was
religiously sanctioned and influenced by foreign crusaders with a desire for martial fame.
Making war on Islam seemed to the Portuguese both their natural destiny and their duty as
Christians.
The Aviz dynasty that had come to power in 1385 marked a new era. A constant
exchange of cultural ideals made Portugal a centre of knowledge and technological
development. Due to these connections with Islamic kingdoms, many mathematicians and
experts in naval technology appeared in Portugal. The Portuguese government impelled this
even further by taking full advantage of this and by creating several important research centres
in Portugal, where Portuguese and foreign experts made several breakthroughs in the fields of
mathematics, cartography and naval technology.
Outcomes of Portuguese Colonization
Portuguese Colonies sprang up across the world, but the largest was in Brazil. Brazil was
a colony until 1815, when it was elevated to a kingdom. During the early 300 years of Brazilian
colonial history, the economic exploitation of the territory was based first on brazilwood
extraction (16th century), sugar production (16th–18th centuries), and finally on gold and
diamond mining (18th century). Slaves, especially those brought from Africa, provided most of
the working force of the Brazilian economy.
Prince Henry the Navigator, the Portuguese explorer of the Western Atlantic, influenced
the success of every other colonial power. The Portuguese were the first to explore and colonize
the New World. During Prince Henry`s time and after, the Portuguese navigators discovered
and perfected the North Atlantic "Volta do Mar" (the turn of the sea or return from the sea).
This was a major step in the history of navigation, when an understanding of winds in the age of
sail was crucial to Atlantic navigation, from Africa and the open ocean to Europe, and enabling
the main route between the New World and Europe in the North Atlantic, in future voyages of
discovery.
However, Portugal did not remain long at the top of the heap. As a small nation with
severely limited internal resources, Portugal experienced chaos at home while its energies were
focused abroad. Agriculture languished and industry failed to develop as it did elsewhere in
Europe. A weakened Portugal soon fell under the influence of vastly superior Spain; the two
nations were merged for 60 years in what was known as the Spanish Captivity (1580-1640). As
Portugal declined, the upstart Dutch capitalized on the apparent weakness and seized many of
the Portuguese possessions in the Far East.
French Motivations for Colonization
The French first came to the New World as explorers, seeking a route to the
Pacific Ocean and to gain wealth. However, the French were somewhat slow to
develop an interest in the New World. It was only after a French privateer captured
a Spanish ship laden with Mexican gold and silver that attentions were directed
westward. Spurred by dreams of great wealth, Francis I (r. 1515-47), dispatched
three navigators to the New World, the first two of whom were instructed to
discover a Northwest Passage to India.
French efforts in the New World differed sharply from those of the English.
The French excelled at exploring new areas — even deep into the interior regions
— while the English usually stayed close to the coastlines. The French contented
themselves with developing thriving commercial interests, especially fur trading
and fishing, rather than planting large permanent settlements populated by French
citizens. These radically different colonial strategies did nothing to dim the growing
rivalry between the two nations.
The French also wanted to colonize the New World to spread Catholicism,
since France and the rest of Europe was torn between Protestants and Catholics.
French Protestants (Huegonots) wanted to escape the Thirty Year’s War in Europe
(fought over religion), and French Catholics wanted to spread their religion, so the
devilish English and Dutch Protestants would not spread.
Outcomes of French Colonization
From 1555 to 1567, French Huguenots, under the leadership of vice-admiral
Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, made an attempt to establish the colony of France
Antarctique in what is now Brazil, but were expelled (sent away). From 1612 to
1615, a second failed attempt (France Équinoxiale) was made in present-day São
Luís, Brazil.
French Guiana was first settled by the French in 1604, although its earliest
settlements were abandoned in the face of hostilities from the indigenous population
and tropical diseases. The settlement of Cayenne was established in 1643, but was
abandoned. It was re-established in the 1660s. Except for brief occupations by the
English and Dutch in the 17th century, and by the Portuguese in the 19th century,
Guiana has remained under French rule ever since. From 1851 to 1951 it was the
site of a notorious penal colony, Devil's Island (Île du Diable).
Since 1946, French Guiana has been an overseas department of France. In
1860, a French adventurer, Orelie-Antoine de Tounens proclaimed himself king of
Araucania and Patagonia. His claim was not accepted by foreign powers and Chile
and Argentina took firm control over the regions, treating him as insane.