APWH: Chapter 25: New Worlds: the Americas and Oceania
Hacienda
Agriculture and craft production were some of the more prominent occupations in Spanish America. The mining industries provided opportunities for herders, artisans, and cultivators to provide mining towns wit the necessary supplies. The site which housed most of the agricultural and craft production was known as the hacienda. Otherwise known as an estate, these sites produced foodstuffs for their own use as well as for sale in local markets. The products made in the hacienda were mostly of European origin, such as wheat, brakes, and meat. Surrounding these large estates were smaller properties owned by either Spanish migrants or Creoles, who practices subsistence agriculture. The size of these estates would require much needed labor, which would then lead to the creation of labor systems to extract labor from the indigenous, who were the major source of labor.
Captain James Cook
Captain James Cook is known for his travels and thr connection he made between some of the places he visited. Before he went along barely making it through the Great Barrier Reef, and exploring Australia, rarely any Dutch or European seamen vsiited the Eastern Coast. He explored the eastern Australian region in 1770, approaching Australia from the southeast. Cook's exploration and charting of Australia along the coast sparked serious interest in the Europeans, as before they only had brief encounters. During his visit to Australia, Cook dropped anchor for a week at Botany Bay which is near present-day Sydney,and reported, opposing a previous Dutch conclusion, that the region was suitable for settlement. Australia wasn't the only place that Cook had visited. He also had interactions with Hawai'i and Tahiti. While sailing north from Tahiti in search of a northwest passage, Cook landed at the Hawaiian Islands. Cook was abke to recgonize the Hawaiians as being related to the people in Tahiti, which allowed him means of communication. Majority of the time, Cook and his crew got along well with the Hawaiians, however, when Cook returned to Hawai'i in 1779, he lost bis life when a misunderstanding turned into a bitter conflict. Through his interactions and travels, Cook's reports became wel, known and inspired more people to go into the Pacific and soon enough, merchants, planters, and missionaries.
Cash Crops
Cash crops were the crops used for commerce and trade rather than for the farmer's use. Major cash crops in the Americas were tobacco, sugar, rice, indigo, and cotton as well. Tobacco had been used as early as the Maya and Aztec empires. Tobacco was widely popular because of its addictive nature, and medicinal purposes. People glorified tobacco because of its supposed healing powers. The first commercial export of tobacco took place in 1612, and soon because of high demand, exports of tobacco amounted to 3 million pounds. However, by this time, tobacco only being imported for pleasure, since those healing powers never turned up. By the eighteenth century, settlers had also established plantation complexes. for the production of rice, indigo, and cotton which came after. The mass production of these cash crops would then cause the great need for slave labor on plantations. Cash crops also began commercial exports.
Hernan Cortes
Cortes began the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1519, when he led about 450 soldiers on an expedition to Mexico, where they went from Veracruz to Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital at Lake Texcoco. Cortes and his forces seized Motecuzoma II, who had died in 1520 because of a disagreement between Spanish forces and the locals at Tenochtitlan. However, the Aztec drove the conquistadores out of Tenochtitlan, and Motecuzoma's son-in-law and nephew Cuauhtemoc offered to be the leaders. However they were not strong enough for Cortes' forces. Cortes had built a small fleet of ships, and placed Tenochtitlan under siege, and starved them until they surrendered. Cuauhtemoc tried to stand up to Cortes to regain the stolen treasures, but did not escape his execution ordered by Cortes in 1525. While he did have a small force against the Aztecs, who did have the upper hand at some point, Cortes and his army was more advanced, having steel swords, muskets, cannons, and horses. However, sufficient weaponry might not have been the only thing leading him to his victory. With the help of Doña Marina, they were able to form alliances and have secure territory with the locals.
Dutch East India Trading Company (VOC) ***
During the 1600s, the Dutch VOC authorized exploratory voyages, but there wasn't much to encourage exploration. However, it was the Dutch who first recorded the sightings of Australia in 1606. Even though Australia had received a bad review and was named useless by the Dutch mariner Jan Carstenz in 1623, Dutch Mariners continued to visit Australia. Eventually, it was named new Holland due to how much exploration was taking place by the Dutch and their interest in the continent. However, they did not completely explore Australia until James Cook.
Fur Trade
Fur Trade took place in North America, after Europeans started to arrive at North America, originally looking for fish. It began when fishermen at North America traded fur with the locals there. After finding a rich fur-producing area through the Hudson Bay and Strait, they developed a strategy to connect the parts of the North American interior. Royal agents, adventurers, businessmen, and settlers began to connect these parts through forts and trading posts. The indigenous peoples then started to trap animals for the Europeans, and exchanged the pelts for manufactured goods. Hides went to Europed, where they were in high demand. The fur trade, however, wasn't a completely positive thing. As the fur increased in demand, more animals were killed, and as populations decreased and people had nowhere to look for animals, territories were invaded and war was started. The fur trade also led to competition between European states, and the indigenous peoples, for example the Iroquois killing off much of the Huron and gaining and extending their power.
Silver Mining
In the Amercias, silver outweighed gold in both quantity and value, therefore much of the Spanish American, enterprise focused on it. Silver was mostly produced in the regions of northern Mexico, around Zacatecas, and the central Andes, around the Potosí mines. Silver mining provided numerous opportunities for employment for the indigenous population, even though mining was dangerous. Many laborers chose to work at Zacatecas, since their own homes had been ridden with conquest and disease. Overtime, people who left their homes to work in these mines became professionals, learned Spanish, and eventually lost connection with what was once their home. In 1545, a large amount of silver was discovered at the Potosí mine, so the Spanish started began large scale mining there. This then caused a rapid increase in the population of Potosí, and growth would call for more labor. The call for more labor would mean either the creation or adaptation of labor systems. Silver had a global significance, stimulating economies, especially that of the Spanish. Silver traveled all the way through Asian markets. The global circulation of silver would greatly stimulate trade.
Francisco Pizarro
Like Hernan Cortes, Pizarro was looking for gold, and succeeded, even with small forces. Pizarro had led a Spanish expedition from Central America to Peru. He set out in 1530 with 180 soldiers, later joined too form 600. It seemed he arrived at the right time, as he arrived just after a bitter disagreement between two brothers within the Inca ruling house, known as Huascar and Atahualpa. Making it their advantage, Pizarro's forces exploited their differences. By 1533, they had the Inca capital as Cuzco. They had made the Inca ruling elites believe that they would hold a conference, and once they were all together, they seized them, and killed most of them. They spared the Inca ruler until he gave Pizarro gold, and then killed him through strangulation and decapitation. Pizarro and his forces did everything to get gold and other valuable ,stalls from looting gold and silver plaques from temples and public buildings, melting statues for metals, and filching (stealing) jewelry and ornaments from embalmed bodies of the last rulers. Many questioned how Pizarro was able to overcome Inca forces with such a small army. However, the Inca were already facing hatred and opposition, enabling Pizarro's forces to form alliances with the people already there. Also, epidemic disease brought upon the native population decreased their numbers, also helping them over come the natives. This conquest would be first of the Spanish arrivals, and would eventually change the Americas from then on.
Slavery in North America
Slavery in North America took the form of indentured slaves that never gained their freedom. Like settlers in the Iberian colonies, English settlers in North America found use for slaves from Africa. In 1619, a group of slaves arrived from Africa in Virginia, took work along European indentured slaves. While some kept the title of an indentured slave, others gained their freedom or became a permanent slave. By 1661, Virginia law recognized all blacks as slaves, and by 1680, indentured slaves were being replaced with African slaves. By 1750, 120K slaves produced Chesapeake tobacco, and 180K produced Carolina rice. Slave labor was less prominent in the northern regions because they were not as suitable for cultivation as the South. However, this did not stop them from profiting because of slaves. New England merchants traded slaves headed to the West Indies, and the economies of NY and Philadelphia benefited from building the ships in which the slaves were transported. Slaves produced sugar in the West Indies, and this sugar was a key ingredient for the rum produced in New England, therefore then profiting from slaves as well. While the South benefited from the slave labor, the North benefited from the slave trade. Hence, making slaves a crucial part of the North American economy.
Slavery in Latin America
Slavery was used in Latin America particularly because of the need and search for labor, and since some escaped labor systems, societies resorted to slaves. Portuguese started importing slaves as early as the 1530s, and began large scale in the 1580s. However, slaves led a harsh life, being as their working condition caused a loss of five to ten percent of the slave population in Brazil. Slaves worked in anything from sugar plantations to the mines that laborer a refused to work in, and in poor conditions. These harsh conditions along with disease caused high death rates among them. Eventually, death rates among slaves was larger than the rate of offspring. Profits of the slave owners increased as they purchased more slaves, and couldn't have cared less of the conditions there slaves worked in, made worse due to the fact that the government didn't intervene in these affairs.
Small Pox
Smallpox was a major disease brought upon the Natives by European arrival. It begun after 1518, when the Spanish arrived at the Carribean region. Smallpox caused serious decline in the Taíno population, making it go from four million in 1492 to a few thousand by the 1540s. This decline aslo caused many aspects of the Taíno to disappear, leaving only the words canoe, hammock, hurricane, barbecue, maize, and tobacco all deriving from their language. This loss of laborers would also leave the Spanish to search for labor. They kidnapped and enslvaed what was left of the Taíno and other societies. This created even more of an exposure to disease, creating more victims. However, besides decreasing their labor supply, the raging of smallpox had a benefit for the Spanish. During Hernan Cortes' conquest of Mexico, the smallpox had weakened Tenochtitlan, allowing them an advantage in their conquest. Nevertheless, smallpox caused the elimination of significant cultures in the Americas, simply through the arrival of the Europeans, the Spanish, specifically.
Encomienda System
The Encomienda System was a coercive labor system used by the Spanish originally developed during the reconquista era. This system rewarded Spanish forces through the labor from the workers and the tribute paid to them by the defeated populations. In this system, natives would work, and the 'encomenderos' (settlers) would look after the well being of the laborers, and had to encourage their conversion to Christianity. However, the encomenderos didn't always play their part, abusing those who worked. From the 1520s to the 1540s, encomenderos didn't focus on the maintenance of their laborers and overworked them, as well as severely punishing them when they did not deliver. People such as the Taino organized rebellions but were suppressed. This led to declines in the population of laborers. Soon, the Spanish were asking for more tribute than labor, the tribute being similar to that paid to Aztec rulers. Afterwards, people begun to move on to other forms of labor, as the encomienda system went out of use.
Engenho
The Engenho (sugar mill) was used mostly in the colonial Brazilian life. Relating to the English word engine, the word referred to the sugar mill itself. However, as time progressed the term was used to describe anything related to the production of sugar. Differing for other cops, sugarcane required a slow process to produce molasses and sugar as a profitable export. This combined agriculture and industrial enterprises. It was one of the most complex business enterprise because of the skill required, depending on heavy labor for the planting and harvesting of the cane, and having to have the knowledge of the sugar making process. Sugar became a major export in Portuguese Brazil. Hence, the producers of this sugar being a privileged class exercising all the power they had, and acting like nobility. This major production of sugar, like the other cash crops, would result in the search for laborers.
Manila Galleon Trade
The Manila Galleon Trade was begun as the Spanish ventured into the Pacific. Ferdinand Magellan and his crew were the first to cross the Pacific Ocean in 1521. Before reaching the Philippines, they encounter only one inhabited island group, known as the Marianas, dominated by Guam. By 1565, the Manila Galleon Trade was started between Acapulco, Mexico, and Manila. The primary goal of this trade was to link New Spain and Asian Markets, so other parts of the pacific were rarely explored. The route to Manila was following the trade Winds from Acapulco to Manila, on a route that took them south of Hawai'i and north of the other Polynesian islands. From Manila to Acapulco, they sailed following the westerlies which took me north of the pacific islands. While the Spanish did visit the pacific islands, they did not establish a regular communication. The only islands that sparked interest within the Spanish were Guam and the northern Mariana Islands. The galleons, (war ships used by the Spanish which later served for trade) Andes regularly at Guam and they snagged in mostly peaceful trade. As the trade went on, the Spanish wanted to solidify the hold on the Mariana islands, so they sent military forces. They controlled the Chamorro population which tried to resist, but there low numbers because of the smallpox which had spread and killed them off. By the seventeenth century , Spanish forces had establishes garrisons throughout the Mariana Islands and out the Chamorro Minot small supervised communities. This trade displayed the efforts of the Spanish to explore the Pacific , even though they might not have shown much interest.
Mit'a System
The Mit'a System was a system of draft labor first used by the Inca then used by the Spanish. This system recruited workers for difficult and dangerous chore that free or voluntary laborers refused to do. Under this system, the Spanish could require that each village send one-seventh of its male population to work for four months at mines in Potosí. These draft laborers received payment for their work but their wages were very low, and their conditions of work, harsh. Since those who worked in the mines had very difficult and life threatening tasks, like working with Mercury, many men tried to escape the system by fleeing to distant villages and other cities to hide. Death rates were also high within this area of employment. Even though draft laborers represented a small portion of the workforce at Potosí, they represented a large amount of the indigenous population, as well as influencing settlement patterns with people trying to flee the system.
Treaty of Tordesillas
The Treaty of Tordesillas was an agreement between Spain and Portugal, regarding their presence in other regions. In 1494, Spain and Portugal agreed that they would divide the world along an imaginary north-south line 370 leagues west of the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands. Spain could claim any land west of that line, as long as it was not already under Christian rule, and and Portugal followed the same rules east of that line. Portugal then gained territory along the northeastern part of South America, whereas the Spanish gained the remainder of the Western Hemisphere.
Mestizos
The mestizos were a major result of cultural diffusion between the Europeans and Natives. European territories in the Americas became multicultural societies where peoples of varied ancestry lived together under European dominance. Migration patterns led to societies being ethnically mixed as well. Many migrations were mostly men, so because of the small amount of women, European men began forming relationships with the indigenous women, creating the mestizo ("mixed") society. Mestizos were of Spanish and Native parentage. Some Spanish migrants married among themselves and recreated a European style society, more in Peru than Mexico. Those of native and Portuguese parentage were known as mestizos as well. Those of Portuguese and African parentage were known as zambos, while those of native and African parentage were known as muttaloes. However, the integration between these heritages would soon create social classes. Nevertheless, this cultural integration showed progress between European and Native relations.
Rebellions to Spanish Rule
There was a large amount if resistance to Spanish rule. Resistance took the forms of rebellion, half hearted work, and retreating into the mountains where the Spanish could not extend power. In 1680, native groups in Northern Mexico, modern day the state of New Mexico, planned an uprising known as the Pueblo revolt. They were lead by a native Shaman named Popé, and they attacked missions, killed priests and colonists, and drove Spanish settlers away from that area for twelve years. In Peru, 1780, a force of sixty thousand native peoples revolted in the name of Tupac Ammaru, the last of the inca rulers. This rebellion lasted two years before the Spanish could suppress it, with many of its participants dying. Instead of violence, some turned to law and administration for help. For example, in 1615, Felipe G. P. De Ayala, a native of Peru, wrote a 1,200 page letter complaining and asking for protection against aggressive colonists.
Tupac Amaru
Tupac Amaru was the last of the Inca rulers, whom the Spanish conquistadores had beheaded in 1572. In 1780, a rebellion has been made in his name by the native peoples in Peru. They had done in his name to represent the significance of their culture, and who their real leaders had been, and the rebellion itself was to stop the Spanish from their cruelties.
Viceroys
Viceroys were part of the Spanish colonial administration. They were the king's representatives in the Americas, and they had a considerable amount of power. To make sure that they did not gain enough power to build their own place, Spanish kings put them under the review of audiencias, which were courts staffed by university-educated lawyers. Viceroys could be severely punished if they did not fulfill their duties or received bad reviews form the audiencias. They also found ways to sneak around the orders thy were given, by procrastinating. While it was some form of administration in the Americas during the 1500s, it was very much effective, as sometimes areas fell under the complete administration of the audiencias. Difficulties in both transportation and communication also limited the ability of the viceroys to administer effectively, and orders or information sent between the Americas and Spain took long to arrive. Nevertheless, this administration allowed the kings in Spain to govern even wen they weren't in the Americas.