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Early Colonial Period

Early Colonial Period. European colonialism. One factor that unifies the vast diversity of Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Motivation. Trade Portuguese expansion Reconquest. Columbus’ voyages. First Voyage, 1492: 3 ships, 90 men, no women

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Early Colonial Period

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  1. Early Colonial Period

  2. European colonialism • One factor that unifies the vast diversity of Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean.

  3. Motivation • Trade • Portuguese expansion • Reconquest

  4. Columbus’ voyages • First Voyage, 1492: • 3 ships, 90 men, no women • First sighting of land was Bahamas • Spent 9 mos. exploring Cuba & Hispaniola • Returned with gold, foods, Indians

  5. Second Voyage, 1493: • ~17 ships; 1200 men (no women); farmers, mechanics, soldiers, priests, seeds!, horses, sheep, cattle • Intention: to colonize • La Isabella

  6. Third Voyage 1498 • A fiasco • Stuck in Doldrums • Arrived in Trinidad to resupply; discovered mouth of Orinoco • Hispaniola: discontent • Columbus was bad administrator; abusive • Spain sent another leader who arrested Columbus • Sent back to Spain in shackles

  7. Fourth Voyage, 1502: • Explored some of mainland Central America • Ships were wrecked in storms • Stranded in Jamaica for one year • Returned to Spain in 1504

  8. Pre-hispanic Economies • Food production • Immediate consumption • Short-term storage • Barter/exchange economies • Shells, feathers, obsidian, metal, coca, cacao, cotton • Sometimes elaborate (Incas) • Taxes as tribute (labor) • No capital accumulation • Use of natural world for “technological innovation” and manufacturing

  9. Representations of Early colonial geopolitical order 1. Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494 2.Encomienda and mita systems 3. Forced Christianity 4. Colonial Governance: Viceroyalties, audiencias Capitanías 5. Mining and Agriculture 6. Networks of trade and transportation

  10. 1. Treaty of Tordesillas 1494,Pope Alexander VI

  11. 2. Repartimiento/ encomienda / mita • Social/economic institution • Indians granted to encomenderos (Spaniards) • Granted to Spanish lords • Forced to learn Spanish, convert to Catholicism • Encomendero demanded tribute (labor) • Resulted in cultural destruction • Eventually abolished because it turned into virtual slavery

  12. This institution served to create class divide • Lower class: majority • Upper class: wealthy few

  13. 3. Forced Catholicism Pope gave Spanish monarchs great power (reward for driving Moors out, acquiring land and wealth for Church) 1. Royal Patronage: Crown could approve or disapprove of all Clergy appointments to new conquered lands 2. Crown could collect and disperse tithe Spanish Catholic Church in LA was a political institution • Clergy were religious and civil authorities • Clergy were part of aristocracy; had to be white • Reversed in 18th Century

  14. the “religious conquest” (reconquest) • Indoctrinate & baptize indigenous population • Teach Spanish • Destroy native shrines; replace with Virgin Mary and crosses • Language barrier assisted conquest • However, there was a degree of tolerance of old ways as long as people were outwardly converted; allowed folk traditions to flourish in private

  15. Church of Santo Domingo on top of Incan Temple of Sun in Cuzco, sacred city Strategy of building churches on top of Indian sites: symbolic significance Church on pyramid of Tepanapa in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico

  16. Representations of Early colonial geopolitical order 1. Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494 2.Encomienda and mita systems 3. Forced Christianity 4. Colonial Governance: Viceroyalties, audiencias Capitanías 5. Mining and Agriculture 6. Networks of trade and transportation

  17. 4. Colonial Governance Council of the Indies (1524 – 1834) • appointed by the Crown • 6-10 members • Produced legislation • Acted as a “Supreme Court” Political entities imposing control over new territories • Viceroys: ruling powers in Spain and Portugal • Viceroyalties: their territories

  18. New Spain (Mexico City) Peru (Lima) La Plata (Asunción, later Buenos Aires) New Granada (Bogotá) Brazil (Rio de Janeiro)

  19. Audiencias • Courts • Within the viceroyalties • Governed smaller areas

  20. capitanías • Portuguese claims: based on exploration and treaty rights • King divided Brazilian territory into 12 large land grants (capitanías) • Each controlled by a noble proprietor (responsible for development) • Failed system • Most were transferred to Crown in 1549 • Some success in sugar cane production

  21. 5. Mining and AgricultureGold and Silver • Columbus returned to Spain with GOLD • To prove lands were worth exploration • Gold and silver mines in central Andes • Native American labor • 1500 – 1800:Colonial Era economy • Spanish colonies produced 90,000 tons silver • 80% total world production • Mexico (Zacatecas, Guanajuato) • Bolivia (Potosí)

  22. Heavy human toll • Very hard labor • Not acclimatized to high altitudes • Mercury poisoning • After 1550 in patio process (silver extraction process)

  23. Gold,Silver Wealth did not reach mass of population • Visible in churches, palaces, monasteries in Spain and Portugal, and the Americas “the Spaniards owned the cow but others drank the milk”: Crown was deeply in debt and it owed its silver to German, Genoese, Flemish and Spanish bankers. Mid-17th Century, silver was more than 99% of mineral wealth exported from Spanish Americas

  24. Gold • Brazil • (Minas Gerais) gold-production center early 1700s • Produced 65% of gold from Latin America • Also raised cattle • Provided meat for Portuguese ships on way to East Indies • Colombia • Important gold producer

  25. Agriculture • Indians and Mestizos practiced subsistence • Indigenous crops & methods • Commercial agriculture (selling commodities for markets) • Stimulated by ports, towns, mines • Directed by Spain • Used many introduced Old World plants and animals • Little went to Spain • Except sugar, hides, dyes

  26. Mining and Agriculture linked economically, geographically • Main market for commercial farming and livestock was mines • Tallow (candles), wine and brandy, meat, mules, hides • As mines developed in Mexico… • Bajío of Guanajuato and Valley of Guadalajara became wheat and cattle areas

  27. Sugar Cane • An Old World plant • introduced into Americas by Spanish and Portuguese • Initially, Portuguese colonial economy based on sugar • Monocultures on large coastal tracts or lowlands • Needed water • Needed forest for fuel • Large labor force of slaves

  28. Atlantic Slave trade through time • 80% of slaves went to sugar-growing areas

  29. Haciendas / Estancias • Large estates used in produc- tion of materials (ag, livestock, rope, sugar, lumber) • Plantations • Connected rural economies to urban centers Compact group of buildings • House • Worker huts • Chapel • Corrals • granaries • Produced for local market, not overseas trade • Henequen in northern Yucatán • By late 1700s, dominant form of rural settlement

  30. Hacienda in Yucatan still in operation

  31. Estancia • Similar system but term is usually used in South America to refer to ranches

  32. Latifundios • Large landholdings owned by elite Latin families • Prestige • Private land could be acquired by a merced (royal grant) • Large (5000 acres) or small

  33. 6. Network of Urban Centersbased on mining

  34. Cheapest way to move goods: • Ocean, coasts, rivers • Overland travel very expensive, slow • 40 mile overland journey across Panama : 4 days • Sugar: low value • Sugar plantation within 15 miles of coast in order to be profitable • Silver: • High value of goods outweighed high cost of overland transport • Potosí to Lima: 4 months by mule

  35. Principal colonial routes and ports (late 18th Century)

  36. Colonial transportation in Middle America

  37. Mercantile System Iberian royalty in charge of trade with Latin America Quinto Real (Royal Fifth): 1/5 (20%) tax on all metals mined in colonies Colonies could not trade directly with one another or with other countries; gold & silver had to be shipped to Spain so Spanish could then charge taxes

  38. Flotas • Vessels loaded with gold and silver • Heavily guarded • Traveled in groups (flotas) • Coastal cities built huge fortresses • Campeche City, Mexico • Havanna, Cuba • San Juan, Puerto Rico • Veracruz, Mexico

  39. Trade Routes • In part dependent on ocean and atmospheric circulation • North Atlantic trade • Flotas leaving Spain, Portugal sailed SW to Canary Islands, west to Caribbean • Returning flotas: Gulf Stream to western Europe

  40. Colonialism • Began Latin America’s dependence on a world economy with Northern powers (North Atlantic) • Seeds of many future problems: • Regional economies based on supplying Spain and Portugal’s demands • Slavery fostered social injustice • Local skills not developed • Did not have resources to build economies and states

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