World History: Colonialism

A depiction of Columbus

In 1492 Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas. Hardly two years later on June 7 1494 Pope Alexander VI divided this 'New World' along a line 370 leagues west of the Portuguese held Cape Verde islands with the Treaty of Tordesillas. Portugal would hold everything east of this line while Castille-Aragon (Spain) would hold everything to the west. Although the rest of Europe would ignore this treaty it would nevertheless begin around six centuries of European domination and exploitation of the rest of the world. We touched briefly on colonialism when we looked at the Age of Exploration as well as the empires of the Aztec and the Inca. This post will look mainly at the empires of Spain and Portugal but we shall also look at the French, English/British and the Dutch. As a side note slavery will be touched on briefly in this post as I plan to look more closely at slavery in the next World History post. First we shall look at the origins of the European empires.

The Start of Empire

Henry the Navigator

Those who read the post on the Age of Discovery will know that European conquest of the non-European world started long before Columbus. As early as 1415 a Portuguese prince nicknamed Henry the Navigator would capture Ceuta in Morocco and would fund over fifty voyages as well as cartographers, mathematicians and astronomers in order to map the non-European world. Henry and many other Portuguese/Spanish nobles became obsessed with finding the mythical kingdom of Prester John, (and gold). Prester John was a mythical Christian ruler and the rulers of Aragon, Castille and Portugal hoped to find this kingdom and recruit it into a crusade against non-Christians. It is important to remember that the Muslim Emirate of Granada was not conquered by Christian Spanish forces until 1492 so the crusading spirit lasted much longer in the Iberian peninsula compared to the rest of Europe. Both Portugal and Spain had created colonies in the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands, and Sao Tome. In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias rounded what is now referred to as the Cape of Good Hope. In 1453 the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople so European powers did not wish to access, or could not access, the lucrative spice market via a Muslim power. As a result the Spanish throne somewhat reluctantly sponsored Columbus' voyage to find an alternate route to the Indies. Instead he arrived in the Americas. Edmundo O'Gorman wrote that when Columbus arrived there was an 'invention of America'. Columbus had expected cannibals, Amazons, and mountains of gold but was repeatedly told by the people he encountered that there were none and if there were they would be on the next island. Many of the sources which we have of the European-American interactions were shaped by European preconceptions. Edward Said's Orientalist theory fits very well here. Said wrote that Europeans arrived in the colonized regions with their own ideas of what culture/civilization was and because it clashed with the local culture they in turn saw it as 'backward' or 'decadent'. 

In Columbus' first letters which were widely distributed upon his return in 1493 we clearly see this. In reference to possibly the Arawak people he wrote: 'They are naturally timid and fearful. As soon as they see they are safe, however, they are very simple and honest, and exceedingly liberal with all they have...' Here we see Columbus portray them as almost childlike in their actions. He goes on to write: 'I did not find, as some of had expected, any cannibals among them...' showing that he still had his preconceptions about the people. In his diary we see the horrific side of what would come in European colonialism. He wrote: 'These people are very unskilled in arms... with 50 men they could all be subjected and made to do all that one wished' and '[that upon his arrival the indigenous people cried] with a loud voice to the other Indians "Come, come and look upon beings of a celestial race"'. Here we see that Columbus clearly wished to conquer and enslave the local peoples, (which he did, by the end of the decade he sold over 1,400 to Spanish slave markets), as well as viewing himself as being superior. This would be a common theme in not only the Spanish empire but also that of Portugal, Britain, the Dutch and French.

The Great Dying

A Depiction of the Great Dying

The Great Dying is a term coined by historians to describe the genocide of Native Americans. When Europeans arrived in the Americas they not only brought with them weapons, animals, and vegetables but also diseases. As we saw when we looked at the Aztecs and Inca these empires were devastated by epidemics which allowed Spanish conquest under Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro to happen far more easily. When Columbus arrived on Santo Domingo, (Espanola), in 1492 there was around a million inhabitants but by the end of the 1520s when the conquistadors were conquering the mainland hardly any were left. Principally measles and smallpox, whom the Native Americans had virtually no immunity against, complicated by respiratory ailments devastated populations. Fourteen major epidemics in Mesoamerica and seventeen in the Andes wiped out whole populations between 1520 and 1600. In Mesoamerica local outbreaks of malaria, possibly introduced by Italian soldiers and Spanish merchants, added to this. It has been estimated that between 50% to 90% of the Native American population was wiped out. The later European states like France and the Netherlands also contributed to this in North America. This is especially prominent prior to and during the American Revolution. During Pontiac's Uprising in the early 1760s the British General Jeffrey Amherst even resorted to handing out blankets from smallpox hospitals to negotiating chiefs. Although this was rare it did happen. Although disease was not only part of the Great Dying. 

The European empires enslaved thousands of Native Americans. Although both the Spanish and Portuguese empires made the enslavement of Native Americans illegal, King Sebastiao of Portugal made it illegal in 1570 except for those taken during war, many thousands were enslaved before then. In what is now Nicaragua between 1500 and 1550 an estimated 200,000 were taken by slave raiders and by the 1560s there were 40,000 were slave labors in north Brazil. Conditions for slaves were awful with many thousands dying in mines looking for gold, silver and mercury. As early as 1515 this was criticized by Bartolome de las Casas. In Protestant countries this gave rise to the 'Black Legend' which then was used to justify their colonialism. In the English, and later British, colonies Native Americans were taken from North America and taken to the Caribbean where they were forced to work on sugar plantations. Brutal conditions, disease, and the climate created an extremely high mortality rate. For the Native Americans regardless of whether the conqueror was Catholic or Protestant colonialism only brought destruction.

Columbian Exchange

Some of what was exchanged

The Columbian Exchange is a term used to describe the movement of plants, animals and diseases from the Americas to Europe, Asia and Africa, and vice versa. As we mentioned above many diseases like measles, smallpox and influenza was spread from the 'Old World' to the 'New World'. It was believed that syphilis originated in the Americas but was spread to Europe via Columbus, (who had syphilis himself), although this is now disputed. Alfred Crosby has presented evidence suggesting that there is little evidence of syphilis before 1492 in the Americas, but equally he presents evidence that cultures across Europe, North Africa and Asia saw it as something new. Italians called it the French disease, the French the Naples disease, English the French, Spanish or Bordeaux disease, Russians the Polish disease, Poles the German disease, Indians the Frankish disease, Middle Easterners the European pustules, Chinese the ulcer of Canton, and Japan the Tang sore. With the exception of llamas in the Andes all large mammals that were able to be domesticated in the Americas had gone extinct during the last Ice Age so Europeans introducing cattle, pigs, sheep etc. changed the American landscape. North American Plains Native Americans domesticated horses from Europe and they became integral to their culture. Although it took generations for the landscape to be shaped by Europeans to let European livestock to live. English colonizers initially complained that they couldn't eat beef as the cows couldn't survive so they had to eat lobster instead. Plants were a key part of the exchange. Bananas, coffee and sugar were taken from Africa and became integral crops in the American economy, (especially sugar in the Caribbean and coffee in Brazil). Likewise potatoes, corn and tomatoes were introduced to Europe. Potatoes soon became a staple crop in the diet of many peoples, the Irish being possibly the most famous one. Cocoa and tobacco were also introduced with tobacco becoming so widespread that King James VI and I of Scotland and England even banned it. Even words were spread. In Brazil the colonizers adopted the local hammock with one arrival saying: 'Would you believe that a man could sleep suspended in a net in the air like a bunch of hanging grapes?...I tried it and I will never again be able to sleep in a bed...' Tobacco, tapioca and manioc are just some of the words whose origins were in the Americas.

This is also a good time to talk about silver. Particularly the Spanish crown were eager to see the profits from silver mines in South America. 80% of the world's silver was produced during the three centuries of Spanish rule in the Americas and two-thirds of it went to Europe via Spain. Soon the Spanish currency became the most powerful currency in perhaps the world, (as the British pound was during the 1800s or the American dollar after 1945). Thanks to American silver Spain managed to fund, or directly fight, wars across Europe. Of course this also made Spanish galleons perfect for raiding by English, Dutch and even at times French licensed pirates, like Sir Francis Drake. Unfortunately for the Spanish such an influx in silver caused skyrocketing inflation and fighting so many wars proved to be a drain on the Spanish treasury. This allowed France, England and the Netherlands to also rise as regional or colonial powers.

Colonial Society in the Americas

The Spanish Colonial System

Society varied over geography, colony and time so we can't talk about every system. In Peru the Spanish Empire continued the old mitmaq system of the Inka having the indigenous peoples upkeep roads, buildings and mines, often through force. In the Spanish Empire the encomienda system was established for the conquerors; Hernan Cortes, the conqueror of the Aztec Empire, had one of the largest encomiendas. The Native Americans, and later Filipinos, in an encomienda were considered vassals of the encomendaro, i.e. slaves. It was this system which Bartolomé de las Casas heavily criticized. When the genocide of Native Americans had devastated the population the encomienda was replaced by the haciendas which were smaller scale ranches and mines. Like Spain, and the Inkan/Mesoamerican empires, the colonies were incredibly hierarchical. At the top were the peninsulares, reinois in Brazil, who were from the mainland of which the highest ranking were the viceroys. Below them were creoles who were Europeans born in the Americas. Below them were the mestizos and mulattos who were descended from the marriage, or rape, of Europeans with Native Americans or slaves. At the bottom were slaves from Africa or Native Americans. As generations passed this system became more complex until there were over thirty different distinctions made by the Spanish. In the colonies slavery was widespread, (which we'll talk about next time), and there were many in Brazil. From the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century 3.5 million slaves were taken from across Africa. In Brazil escapee slaves formed small communities called quilombos, often with Native Americans, which later offered refuge to religious minorities and political dissenters.

The British colonial system in North America differed from this but at the same time was very similar. In the Caribbean it was very similar to Latin America. This is also a perfect time to talk about religion. Colonialism coincided with the Reformation and colonizers brought their religious conviction to the colonies. The English colonies in New England were formed through religious dissenters, often called Puritans but the ones to arrive at Plymouth were Pilgrims, and Massachusetts had a population of 21,000 by 1642. Here there was greater tolerance to the Native Americans as they showed the colonizers how to farm the land. However, as the population expanded this alliance soon came to resemble the Black Legend of their Iberian counterparts. In many areas of the English colonies, especially in Carolina, a social hierarchy was established. Rich colonizers could sponsor poor English, Welsh, Irish and Scottish in something called indentured servitude, (something later replicated in British India). It was expensive to buy African slaves and Native American slaves could easily escape so they resorted to enslaving poor Irish and Brits under the illusion that it was freeing them. For five years an indentured person would be the owner's slave in everything but name. If they got pregnant or married more years were added to their contract. Thanks to poor conditions many died before their contract ended. Only when conditions improved and more lived than died did slavery come into full force in British North America.

Europe and Africa

A Crucifix from the Kongo

European-African relations were far less one sided compared to European-American relations. Most of the relations in this section of the world has been dominated by the slave trade so we shall discuss that more in the next World History post. Diseases such as yellow fever and malaria, which Europeans had little resistance to, limited Portuguese presence as well as the strength of the coastal African kingdoms. When the Spanish arrived in Mesoamerica and the Andes the Aztec and Inka were facing major domestic disturbances. For years Iberia had been enraptured by Africa. The wealth of Mali and the existence of one of the oldest Christian kingdoms with Ethiopia convinced many, including Henry the Navigator, wanted gold and the kingdom of Prester John. Instead of conquest trade happened. Benin, Oyo and Kongo would trade gold, ivory, sugar and slaves in return for wool, silk, tools and weapons. The sugar trade, made profitable by slavery, allowed the Caribbean islands to become very lucrative. Today Cuba is still famed for its sugar. In the Kingdom of the Kongo we see a unique amalgamation of Africa and Europe. Prosperous through both trade with Portugal and an internal African trade Kongo was a very powerful state. Jesuit and Capuchin missionaries hoped to make this kingdom Christian. The manikongo, (king), Nzinga Nkuwu accepted the missionaries hoping that this would open more doors for trade with Europe. He converted to Christianity adopting the name Jaoa, and his son adopted the name Afonso. Here African and Christian cultures combined forming an entirely new culture; something fairly easy as many Christian ideas were already present in the local culture. 

Asia- Similarities and Differences

Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi

In Asia the European empires differed greatly in their approach. In specific we shall look at China and Japan, and then India. China under the Ming held considerable sway in East Asia with merchants settling in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines, although there was also an illegal trade with Japan as well. The Portuguese were the first to arrive in China and Japan, (1520s and 1540s), and the relationship was based on trade. Later the Spanish formed the city of Manila in 1571. Silver from South America, around a third of all silver, went to East Asia. In 1597 307 tons of silver passed through Manila to China and Japan. The Ming changed their tax system and currency in the late sixteenth-century. Instead of being taxed with goods people were taxed via currency which went from paper to silver coins. Silver from Japan and the Americas became very much in demand in China. Initially, like in India, Europeans remained very respectful of China and Japan. China viewed itself as the center of the world so European homage remained part of their world view. As the picture above shows Matteo Ricci adopted Chinese clothing and Europeans did the same in Japan as well. Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga was in particular eager to get hold of firearms. Christianity spread as both states tolerated missionaries. The worship of Christ became one of many religions and philosophies to exist within the Chinese empire alongside Confucianism, Islam, Taoism and Buddhism. However, things changed. Like in Spain the influx in silver caused issues for both China and Japan. Inflation added to the Ming's many issues and helped their collapse. Meanwhile, missionaries, particularly Jesuit missionaries, in Japan were seen as taking too many liberties with their growing influence. The rising power of Christianity and the addition of inflation caused Japan in the early 1600s to isolate itself from Europe excluding the new colonial power of the Netherlands who had access to Japan via Nagasaki.

India was different. Vasco da Gama had arrived in Calicut in 1488 to bring Portuguese influence to the Indian Ocean. Just over twenty years later in 1510 they captured Goa. Here Portugal formed factories. These were not like modern factories; instead they were trading posts to tap into the lucrative spice trade from the Indies. Here there was a cultural clash. Largely Indian states believed that their sovereignty stopped at the coast, something very different to European views, and piracy often was seen less negatively. Seasonal fishermen would turn pirate, raid coastal towns or ships, and then return home, (giving some of the profit to the local temple). When the Portuguese moved in they introduced the cartaz or licence. This meant one required a licence to trade or engage in piracy. This allowed Portugal to hold a trade monopoly as one had to pay for a cartaz which many Indians couldn't afford. Later the Dutch East India Company, Vereenigte Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC), moved in. The VOC was a private company designed to profit from the spice trade through direct political power and to do that they waged war against Portugal and local rulers. This more direct action meant that no profits could be made. All profit was spent on war and defending themselves, and when the VOC finally got a monopoly on the spice trade the appeal of spices soon dissipated. England too tried to muscle into South Asia. While the Portuguese came as religious crusaders and the VOC in search of political power the English East Indian Company just wanted profit. Establishing themselves at Surat and Madras they traded at the bequest of the Mughal emperors. As England became more powerful, and local rulers made alliances with the Mughals, they used this to slowly extend their own political power. Over years this allowed direct English control over India.

Conclusion

Colonialism is one of the darkest parts of world history. Driven by greed and religious zealotry many hundreds of thousands to millions were killed or enslaved. This post has not even touched one of the darkest parts of colonialism, that of slavery. Colonialism would later shape the world that we live in today. It brought Christianity to central Africa via Kongo, caused the demographic makeup of Latin America to be changed, brought plants to Europe which would shape the region, and allowed empires to rise and fall. The position of the viceroyalties in Latin America even shaped what countries would form in the region centuries later. Next time we will look at a major side of colonialism: the Atlantic Slave Trade.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-Dennis O. Flynn and Arturo Giraldez, 'Born with a "Silver Spoon": The Origin of World Trade in 1571', Journal of World History, 6/2

-Europe and the People Without History by Eric R. Wolf

-Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789 by Merry Wiesner-Hanks

-Give Me Liberty! An American History by Eric Foner

-The Columbian Exchange by Alfred Crosby

-A History of Brazil by E. Bradford Burns

-Spain in America by Charles Gibson

-J.D. Fage, 'Upper and Lower Guinea' in The Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 3, c.1050-c.1600 edited by Roland Oliver

-A History of Colonial Brazil by Bailey W. Diffle

-Atlantic History: A Critical Appraisal edited by Jack P. Greene and Philip D. Morgan

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. For other World History posts please see here. For other blog posts we have a Facebook page or see me on Twitter @LewisTwiby. 

World History: Age of Exploration

The Waldseemüller Map, made 1507

The above photo is of the famous Waldseemüller Map made in 1513. It is important because in the year 1513 it is possibly the first map to not only show America but also have the name 'America', (named after Amerigo Vespucci), on it. Just twenty years earlier the first Europeans since the Vikings had landed on the American continent. Today we'll be looking at a period of time generally referred to as 'The Age of Exploration' or 'The Age of Discovery' which precipitated Europe's bloody conquest of the world. Today we shall be looking at the voyages of people to see exactly what they discovered if they discovered anything at all. Before we look at the voyages, however, we have to know what areas of the world knew about the rest.

What the World Knew

Marco Polo in China

When we looked at the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean we saw an interconnected world years before the likes of Vasco da Gama, Magellan and Christopher Columbus came onto the scene. The ones who easily knew the most were those in the Islamic world. Spanning both the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans this gave Muslim merchants the ability to trade across both bodies of water. By the 1300s Muslims had even established trading posts in China and mosques were even used as lighthouses for coastal cities occasionally. Perhaps the most well known Muslim traveler was Ibn Battuta who in the first half of the fourteenth-century traveled across all areas where Muslims lived. Over his life he left his home of Morocco traveling to the Arabian peninsula to India to Java to China and to Mali. India too was connected to this trade route. For centuries India had a faint knowledge of Europe with them sending a Buddhist mission to the Roman Empire, although it never reached Rome and only reached Egypt. India was well aware of China and would trade ivory with the Celestial Empire. China had a good knowledge of the world east of the Mediterranean through the Indian Ocean trade. By the time Columbus set off China had visited and reported Africa, Arabia and Anatolia. Europe lagged behind in this respect. Following the Crusades Europe's connection to the world beyond was via the Mediterranean trade controlled by either the Byzantines or Ottomans. In the 1330s, however, Spain and Portugal had already started heading west conquering and colonizing the Azores and Canary Islands. More famously was the travels of Marco Polo. Although there is a chance that Marco Polo never actually visited the court of the Mongols in China regardless it shows Europe's knowledge of China. Whether by visiting or by collating/embellishing records from other travelers Polo managed to somewhat accurately describe the Yuan court. Above is a painting of his visit to China; it also shows how Europeans viewed China before the onset of Orientalism and racism. The Chinese and Chinese cities are depicted in a European style.

One last group we shall look at is those who themselves were colonized. The Mesoamericans had either mapped in detail or had good knowledge of central America. They knew all of this region from the Isthmus of Panama up to northern Mexico, (although not as far as the current Mexican border along the Rio Grande). The Aztec system of government relied on exacting tribute from local kingdoms so naturally they knew Mesoamerica well. In the south the Incas had mapped and recorded the Andes in intimate detail. Incan roads were extremely good so communication along the Andes allowed the mountains to be mapped in detail. However, being in the Andes the Incas knew little of the lands east of the Andes but it is hard to be certain. In the Pacific the Polynesians knew a lot of the Pacific. The Polynesians had some of the best navigators in human history and from the Marshall Islands they had at least some knowledge of huge areas of the Pacific including Hawaii, the Solomon Islands and Fiji. Before we look at the famous explorers we shall first look at China which we briefly spoke of when we talked about the Ming.

Zheng He and the Ming

The giraffe taken by Zheng He

The first person who we shall look at is Zheng He. Starting in 1405 and ending in 1433 Zheng He went on a series of seven voyages during the reign of the Yongle emperor. These voyages went all across the Indian Ocean to Indonesia to Arabia to India to even East Africa using the largest fleet in human history until the First World War. Chinese sources have a habit of embellishing figures but in the 1960s the Ming shipyards were discovered outside of Nanjing confirming the immense size of the Ming ships. The first voyage even had a crew of 27,000. Why though did the Ming go on these voyages? Julia Lovell has put forward several theories of which two seem to be the real reason: power projection and to confirm the Yongle emperor's power domestically. Although the voyages sometimes had 30,000 soldiers on them and often intervened in local affairs like in a Sumatran civil war, but they never set out to conquer other lands. Similarly although they carried Chinese goods and goods from other lands trade was never their main goal. A long trend in Chinese history was for China to view itself as the main power in the world, (which for much of its history was accurate), and expected other states to deliver tribute to China. These voyages were part of this. Lovell, Rana Mitter and Craig Clunas have suggested that the Ming may have been aware of the growing power of the Timurid Empire in the west. These voyages were clearly done to project Chinese power. The massive fleets carrying thousands of Chinese soldiers and goods were to show this power. On one voyage they even kidnapped a Sri Lankan king who refused to acknowledge Chinese supremacy. The voyages were also done to project the power of the Yongle emperor. He had come to power by ousting his nephew so naturally he wanted to legitimize his rule. By bullying smaller states and bringing back luxury goods to give to the elite this was a good way to become legitimate. The voyages brought back animals and the one from Africa brought back a giraffe. This is important as giraffes resemble the qilin, a mythical unicorn like animal from Chinese mythology, which was said to only appear during the rule of righteous emperors. Naturally this was a huge propaganda boost for the Yongle emperor. It is important to note that after Yongle died the voyages barely lasted ten years after his death.

Who led these voyages? A eunuch called Zheng He led these voyages and his story reflects how these voyages worked. His father was a Muslim in the service of the Mongol court and Zheng was captured aged ten by the new rising Ming dynasty who made him a eunuch. Yongle was close to the eunuchs and came to power through them so he got his friend to lead the voyages. Zheng being a Muslim had connections to the Arabian peninsula so as a result the first voyage was to Arabia. As we have already seen the Islamic world had mapped out many areas which Zheng had followed. The Chinese fleets kept to the coast, just like other merchants, and never visited any areas which had not previously been recorded. Despite some recent claims Zheng never reached America as China had no records of the Americas. He never went east from Nanjing, only west. Can we call this period of time the Age of Discovery or Exploration if one of the greatest explorers never explored somewhere new or undiscovered?

Iberian Voyages

A statue of Bartolomeu Dias

The Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal) was in perfect position to start exploring and conquering the areas outside of Europe. We shall save the actual conquest of Asia, Africa and America for a future post as it deserves a post for itself. Long before the conquistadors set out to conquer and enslave in Mesoamerica and the Andes, before the mass enslavement of Africans to be sent to the Americas, and before the genocide of Native Americans Iberia had started to explore and colonize in the Atlantic. In 1415 Prince Henry of Portugal would capture the city of Ceuta in Morocco and he would become known as Henry the Navigator. Inspired by the legend of a Christian king called Prester John whose kingdom was supposedly somewhere in Africa he was seen as the patron of Portuguese navigation. He believed that the best way to tap into the Saharan gold and slave trade, (as well as finding Prester John's kingdom), was for sea exploration. With the new compass, possibly imported from China which Zheng He was using to navigate the Indian Ocean at the same time, he organised over fifty voyages supported by map-makers, astronomers, and mathematicians. The Azores, Madeira, and São Tomé were soon colonized by Portugal. Spain was late compared to Portugal in exploration. For many years what is now Spain was divided between three main kingdoms: Castile, Aragon and Grenada. Grenada was a Muslim state and in 1469 the two Christian kingdoms formed a dynastic union when Isabella of Castile married Ferdinand of Aragon. In 1492 their combined forces conquered Grenada and with a continued crusading zeal decided to channel this into navigation.

Before we look at the main actors we'll look at a Portuguese navigator named Bartolomeu Dias. The above photo is a statue of Dias in South Africa. Some of you may be wondering why a Portuguese navigator is being honored with a statue in South Africa. The reason is in 1488 Dias rounded the tip of South Africa. In 1453 the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople so now Christian Europe's connection to the eastern markets were controlled by Muslims instead of Christians. Zealous Portugal and Spain were outraged at having to trade with Muslims but they still wanted access to the lucrative spice market. Portugal wanting access to the Indian markets so sent Dias to get access to India via southern Africa. Although Henry the Navigator had died by this time his life goal was continued by Dias; one of his mission goals was to find Prester John's kingdom. Dias originally named where he traversed the 'Cape of Storms' but a later king renamed it Cape of Good Hope as it was Portugal's access to the Indian Ocean.

Columbus

Christopher Columbus

Of all the people in history Christopher Columbus is one of the most controversial. We shall discuss his post-exploration career (and his legacy) in a future post and why there should not be a Christopher Columbus Day. Columbus represented everything that Europe was at the time. Born in Genoa he had been a merchant trading along the west coast of Africa and all across the Mediterranean. He had access to the compass which the Portuguese had used to colonize the Atlantic islands and across the Cape. Thanks to the letterpress made by Gutenberg in 1436 detailed maps and records became readily available for him to pour over. Despite what the media often says Columbus was fully aware that the planet was round, (since the time of the Greeks humanity had known that the Earth wasn't flat). Based on Ptolemy and the Imago Mundi, taken from Muslim scholars, he overestimated Asia's size so he thought he could find an alternate route to the Indies by sailing west instead of going around the Cape. Originally Columbus tried to get Portugal to invest his expedition, not Spain, and despite the media portrayal Isabella did not believe in him. Isabella of Spain is often portrayed in a sexist light where Columbus woes her into believing his plan and then convincing Ferdinand. In reality she turned him down and when Columbus was leaving Cordoba Ferdinand had the navigator summoned back where he offered to fund his expedition in 1492. Filled with crusading zeal Spain wished to find an alternate route to the Indian Ocean and find Christians so they could continue crusading in northern Africa. On October 12, 1492 Columbus landed in the New World. He landed on an island in the Bahamas which he called San Salvador. 

On San Salvador he was greeted by the local Arawak people who were peaceful. The Arawaks had lots of gold and Columbus took some captive to demand where their gold jewelry came from. He even boasted in his writings that he could have conquered them with fifty men and govern them as he pleased. This would start a precedent for the subjugation of the Americas by Europeans leading to genocide, slavery, and ethnic cleansing. He left the Caribbean with enslaved people and gold arriving in Lisbon in March 1493. He wrote:

Thirty-three days after my departure from Cadiz I reached the Indian sea, where I discovered many islands, thickly peopled. Of which I took possession without resistance in the name of our most illustrious Monarchs, by public proclamation and with unfurled banners. To the first of these islands, which is called by the Indians Guanahani, I gave the name of the blessed Savior, relying upon whose protection I had reached this as well as the other islands.

His words spread rapidly through Europe via the printing press so copies soon emerged in Barcelona, Paris, Antwerp, Rome and Basel. Edmundo O'Gorman has described the 'invention of America' coming from Columbus' journey. Columbus never learnt the local language and imposed his own ideas on the islands which he encountered. He expected to find cannibals, Amazons, and mountains of gold, found none and then said that the locals always told him of another island which had them. He never once thought that he had discovered a new continent but instead had landed in the Indies. Today we still refer to it as the West Indies and his name for the locals, indios (Indians), is still used occasionally. Columbus' description of the local peoples reflects how Europeans would later describe Native Americans on the mainland, Indians, Africans, and other colonized peoples. He highly praised them at times but then would heavily disparage their culture. The best way to show this is by using an excerpt from his letter which he wrote upon his return:

They are naturally timid and fearful. As soon as they see they are safe, however, they are very simple and honest, and exceedingly liberal with all they have...the women seem to work more than the men. I could not clearly understand whether the people possess any private property...I did not find, as some of us had expected, any cannibals among them, but on the contrary men of great deference and kindness.

The early stages of colonialism and imperialism that would characterize later world history can be seen here. As described by Antonio Gramsci we see a cross-cultural encounter that starts to clash. Columbus regards the Arawaks as being 'men of great deference' but seems perplexed by the lack of private property as what happened in Europe. As we shall see in later posts this begrudging respect would soon be supplemented by scorn. Columbus himself would become known for his appalling treatment of the indigenous peoples.

Vasco da Gama and early Portuguese conquest

Da Gama in India

Portugal wanted to dominate the spice trade. Portugal lacked resources so was heavily reliant on trade and the proto-capitalist world was heavily reliant on trade. In 1497 Manuel I sponsored a fleet of four ships armed with cannons under Vasco da Gama to find two things: gold and Christians. Around ninety years after Henry the Navigator first captured Ceuta the Portuguese were still hunting for Prester John hoping to recruit him in a crusade in north Africa. Using technology and astronomical charts made by Henry the Navigator da Gama sailed around the Cape (Europe soon realized that they hadn't found a new route to the Indian Ocean). While in the Indian Ocean da Gama found mariners who knew the seas well. On his initial voyage he bombarded Calicut but was still heavily rewarded by Manuel I who gave him the title 'Admiral of the Indian Ocean'. The king sent da Gama back to enforce Portuguese interests where he destroyed an Indian fleet and captured Calicut where they used their cannons to break in. He returned to Portugal carrying huge amounts of spices, gold and jewels. With Portugal's gains in West Africa early colonialism greatly expanded Portuguese wealth. Portugal then founded a 'trading post empire'. It would take until the 1700s and 1800s for Europe to properly to establish itself in Asia and Africa so at this early stage they would instead take coastal cities which could easily be held using their cannons. Most famously in 1515 they captured Goa. This allowed Portugal to directly tap into the Indian markets with 40,300 tonnes of shipping going to Asia in return for 26,300 tonnes between 1497 and 1510. We soon see a clash of cultures. Indian states had always been land powers being disinterested in the sea. Their sovereignty ended at the coast in their mind. This differed to the Mediterranean where states battled for supremacy. When Portugal established themselves in India they engaged in basically piracy attacking any Indian ship not carrying a licence called a cartaz. Few could afford a cartaz however so this was used by the Portuguese, (and by later Europeans including the Dutch, French and British), to exercise power. Here we see the origins of European world hegemony.

Conclusion

Can we really call this an Age of Exploration? Zheng He and Vasco da Gama used already established routes to travel along, and even then they were interested in breaking into (or breaking) markets which they already knew. Columbus, despite 'discovering' America, had wanted to also break into this market and only failed thanks to him overestimating Asia's size and underestimating the size of the oceans. Even then we cannot say that he explored or discovered anything. Millions of people lived in the Americas. Below we have a map of the areas which was actually discovered (i.e. where no humans had actually been):

Places actually Discovered

In this period we also see the trends which will go on to characterize European imperialism. Portugal in India managed to create an edge for itself by using brief technological advantages to then impose European ideas. This clash of ideas would give Europeans an excuse to dominate the local peoples. Meanwhile, in the Americas Columbus showed an Orientalist view on the indigenous peoples. Centuries later Thomas Jefferson would lament the fate of Native Americans but would blame them for not accepting European culture and religion. We see the same in the Indies. In a future post we shall explore this further. For the next two posts, however, we will focus on the Aztecs and Incas. We shall look at these two unique cultures before they were broken by European greed and power. Thank you for reading and I have used these sources:

-Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789 by Merry Wiesner-Hanks

-The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500-1700 by Sanjay Subrahmanyam

-The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism by Joyce Appleby

-The Times Complete History of the World edited by Richard Overy

-Atlantic History: A Critical Appraisal edited by Jack P. Greene and Philip D. Morgan

-'The Ming Voyages', BBC In Our Time

-Laura Benton, 'Legal Spaces of Empire: Piracy and the Origins of Ocean Regionalism', Comparative Studies in Society and History, 2005

-Crash Course World History

For other World History posts please see here