The History of the Lands across the Atlantic 1440 1820 - Research Paper Example

The History of the Lands across the Atlantic 1440 – 1820 Introduction This paper examines history in the lands on both sides of the Atlantic between the 1400s and the late 1800s. The paper evaluates history of the European people after the Medieval periods into the period that led to the renaissance in Europe. The paper examines the effects of the trade and other contacts between the people of Europe and Africans as well as the colonization of the Americas. It goes on to look at how nations in the Americas broke away from their European colonialists in the 19th century. European Explorations The Crusades were fought from the 11th Century into the fifteenth century. Around the early 1400s, there were minor tensions between the Europeans and Arabs. These tensions were felt in the Iberian Peninsular and the Maghreb (West) of the Arab world. “Portuguese raids on the northwest coast of Africa and the Canary Islands during the 1440s initiated a profitable slave trade” (Bulliet et al, 2010 p429). In the mid-1400s, the Portuguese were able to sail south of the coast of present-day Morocco and identified lands where they could easily conquer and capture slaves. The Portuguese chronicler, Azarura identifies that there were nearly 1,000 African slaves in Portugal by 1446. He was the head of the royal library. In his account of events in The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea he gave a vivid account of the separation of African slaves from their families during one of such journeys. He said of the Africans: “faces bathed in tears … [while] others stuck their faces with the palms of their hand, throwing themselves upon the ground” However, this kind of activity was not seen as cruelty. Rather, the Portuguese saw it as an opportunity to 'civilize' the Africans and introduce them to Christianity (Bender, 1992 p12). The Portuguese government sponsored explorations of new lands across Africa. This was done through a school of navigators that was funded by the Royal government of Portugal. Also, there were private interests because the Portuguese Crown promised the monopoly and control of new lands discovered by private sailors to the individuals who found them. Some of the notables were Prince Henry the Navigator. The main commodities the Portuguese sailors sought was ivory, gold, spices and slaves. Prince Henry, who was a notable royal and sailor explored the African coastline as far as Senegal and Sierra Leone by 1460 (Bender, 1992 p12). In 1469, Fernando Gomes discovered the island of Sao Tome which is 350 miles away from the African coast. In 1471, the Portuguese landed in Elmina, now part of Ghana. They moved further to the Benin Kingdom which is now a part of Nigeria. As the years went by, they sought to identify a shorter route to India over the sea. This led Bartolomeu Dais to sail as far as the southern tip of Africa. He discovered Cape Town in 1488. Eventually, Vasco Da Gama made it into India between 1497 and 1498. Elsewhere in the Iberian Peninsular, the Spanish kingdom sponsored a theory about the possibility of making it to India by sailing Westward (instead of the south as the Portuguese had done). This proposal was presented by Christopher Columbus. He eventually set sail to 'India' via the west in August 1492 (Bulliet et al, 2010 p430). He mistakenly drifted off the coast and docked in the Caribbeans. He insisted that he had found India and called the inhabitants Indians. Colonization After the new lands were discovered. The monarchs followed up with the promises they gave to the explorers – to grant them monopoly and rights to rule the islands. In return for his discovery, Christopher Columbus was given the island of Hispaniola as his territory to rule. Columbus eventually handed the island to Governor Nicolas de Ovando in 1503. Hispaniola's rule was restructured to reflect the elements of the reconquest of Spain from Moor or North African Arab invaders who ruled parts of Spain. The reconquest involved some kind of blend between militancy and agriculture. Farmers were encouraged to set up military wings that protected their lands from Moorish invasions (Furtado, 1976 p14). Also, the Spanish kingdom was highly centralized and everything was in relation to the monarchy. The system of commercial capitalism was bonded strongly to the Spanish crown (Furtado, 1976, p14). So Governor Ovando institude the Encomienda system in Hispaniola (Figuerado & Argorte-Freyre, 2008 p27). Under this system, the military lords (similar to soldiers who fought for the reconquest in Spain) were given lands on the Caribbean Island. Each of the Spanish military landowners was given up to 300 Native Indian laborers to work under him. The Spanish landowners became like European nobles over the Natives. They were to work in mining, farming and cattle rearing. The harvests were given to the Spaniard landowners who took a large share and gave the Natives just a little. In return for the labor of these natives, the Spaniards military landowners converted the natives to Christianity, taught them the Spanish culture and granted them military protection. This collapsed the social structures of the natives. Many of the natives died from the hard work and the pressures placed upon them by the Encomienda system (Furtado, 1976). With time, the gold on the island of Hispaniola was exhausted. The Spanish military lords reverted to using the labor of the natives to farm and produce raw materials to be sent to Europe. Europe had thriving industries at that time in history. They therefore had the capacity to process the raw materials sent from Hispaniola and sell them in Europe and to the rest of the world. Africans south of the Sahara lived in small tribes and communities scattered across West and Central Africa. There were three conditions that existed in Africa that caused serious security concerns in Africa. 1. The communities in Africa were scattered into small groups that were often distinct. 2. The wide diversity made it difficult for Africans to set up a unified governance system and structure. This led to so many differences between various individual groups. 3. The concept of slavery already existed in Africa. Settlements In the 1500s, more and more lands were discovered in the Americas. The South American landmass was discovered. This was to be followed by the discovery of North America. This became known as the New World. Most of the European nations began to expand their control over lands in the exact opposite side of the Atlantic. Thus, the northern Europeans sought to gain control over North America whilst Spain controlled Central America. Portugal ended up consolidating its colonies in the South of the New World. The settlements in the New World were modeled on the social and cultural system of the Old Country. These countries maintained control and authority over the colonies. The colonies were to pay taxes to the home country and they were to gain protection and expansion from the home country. The protection from European armies was necessary because some of the Indian tribes were hostile whilst other colonies had tensions with their adjoining European neighbors. This meant that there was the need to maintain some form of security in the New World. The only hope for up-to-the-state military strength was to rely on the home country for support and guidance. This goodwill could be maintained by paying taxes and observing certain structures and systems that linked the new nation in the Americas with the home country. In 1607, Jamestown Virginia became the first permanent British settlement in the New world (Schwartz, 2010 p260). The British model of colonizing the New World was quite different from the Spanish system. The British colonial groups were organized as joint stock companies that was profit oriented. It involved the investment of huge amounts of money meant to bring profits from the revenues to be earned in the New World. In the next 125 years, the British colonies along the coast of North America increased from one to thirteen (Schwartz, 2010 p260). However, the financial pressures upon the North American colonies meant that the Europeans needed to expand their revenues by producing more goods. In Central and Southern Americas, the Europeans from the Iberian Peninsular had a history of capturing slaves from the African continent. They also had experience with the Encomienda system where the native Indians were held as slaves for the benefit of European landowners. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Whilst the European settlements in the New World flourished, Europeans continued to trade actively with the people of Sub-Saharan Africa. The Europeans built forts along the West coast of Africa where they traded with the natives. They exchanged cloths, mirrors, guns and gunpowder and other European manufactured products with the Africans. The Africans gave gold, ivory and spices in return for the manufactured goods from Europe. With time, the European powers built alliances with some local tribes in Africa (Eltis & Richardson, 1997). Some of these local tribes were granted protection by the European traders. These Europeans came to agreements with the local African tribes which gave them the opportunity to move into the castles any time they were attacked by enemy tribes. In other situations, the African tribes were armed by the Europeans. These Africans became powerful in the local region. Other Africans also purchased firearms from rival European powers of European nations that provided protection to enemy tribes. This led to some kind of tensions on the African continent. The tension and distrust sparked up some kind of arms race amongst African tribes. Sued-Badillo (2003 p245) identifies that when the large-scale deaths of Native Indians occurred in the Encomienda system, the Spaniards and Portuguese nurtured an idea of importing slaves from elsewhere to work on the plantations of the Americas. In 1589, Duarte Lopez presented a proposal to the Spanish Crown for the enslavement of Black people in Spanish farms to replace the Native Indians who could not withstand the harsh conditions (Collins, 2011 p55). The reasons cited for this were both economic and religious in nature. The religious idea was to 'save' the lost African souls. In the 1600s, the Spaniards and Portuguese had started importing slaves into their colonies in Central and South America. Eventually, the Anglo-Spanish wars began and the Spaniards lost some crucial islands like the Hispaniola to the French and British. The Northern European and Southern Europeans continued to import African slaves into their colonies in the Americas. The Triangular Trans-Atlantic Trade Northern European ships were funded by banks and other companies. Elsewhere in southern Europe, the ships were funded by the state. The ships set off from Europe with manufactured goods like guns and gunpowder, clothes and other valuable items. These items were shipped from Europe to Africa where they were exchanged for slaves at a low cost. These slaves were shipped to the Americas where they were sold at a profit to European plantation owners. The European plantation owners also provided raw materials like cotton and sugarcane which were purchased at a lower cost. These raw materials were transported back to Europe where they were sold to manufacturing plants at a profit. After docking in Europe, the ships started the journey altogether by acquiring manufactured goods from Europe. These goods were sent to Africa where they were exchanged for slaves. The slaves were sent to Europe where they were sold to plantation owners. The plantations supplied raw materials that were sent to Europe to be processed for the entire cycle to be repeated by the ships in their trip to the three continents across the Atlantic. Figure of the Triangular Trade The triangular trade had implications for different interest groups. The European bankers and governments sought to expand their financial position. They sought to gain from their investments into ships and also their investments in the colonies. The shipowners sought of expanding their financial positions as best as possible. The European governments also gained a lot of money through the taxes that these ships paid. The goods and guns that were sent into Africa promoted the livelihood of tribes that were allied to the European countries. These goods brought in better lives to some of these Africans. However, the guns also provided tension and friction between the African tribes. They increased hostilities against each other. This kind of distrust and hatred led to many tribal wars. These wars resulted in the capture of more slaves to feed the slave markets that the Europeans sought to attain. This gave the European slave traders more slaves to export to the New World. The number of slave ships increased considerably between 1600 and 1800 when the slave trade was allowed. Elsewhere in the Americas, the European ships brought a lot of things to the colonies. The ships brought manufactured goods and tools that helped the colonialists to expand their agricultural and mining activities in the New World. The ships also brought manufactured products that made life more meaningful and comfortable for the people living in the colonies. More importantly, the ships brought with them slaves who were used to till the lands and provide harvest and products for the American plantation owners. Resistance of the Colonies The colonies were viewed as the part of the European nation. The Europeans living in the Americas were required to adhere to the laws of their home nations. This meant that the laws enacted in the home nation was applicable in the New World. After years of harsh laws and taxes, the British colonialists of North American began protesting. First of all, the distance between the European nations and the colonies was so wide, it became clear that the rules were no more applicable to them. Secondly, the Europeans made laws after taking into consideration European factors only. In North America, the colonies saw the requirement to increase taxes to fight Britain's war with France as something that was not their concern. They therefore questioned the increases in taxes to fight such wars. The colonialists began to demand independence through series of protests and resistance. They questioned certain values like liberty and freedom and how colonization limited those fundamental human rights. This led to wars and attacks on British colonial interests. In 1775, wars broke between the continental forces against the British government representatives. The Patriots as they became known as eventually defeated the British army and America became independent in 1776. After 1776, America built a federal state that sought to cause the organization of states in a union that sought to preserve the fundamental principles of different states or former colonies. In the first part of the 1800s, the United States of America focused on building its industrial structures. This made the nation self-sufficient. Elsewhere in the Americas, states began to improve their industrial capacity. This led to the creation of more economically independent nations. Eventually, most nations in Central and South America became independent of their European governments. Conclusion The European naval explorations began with an exploration of Africa which led to an early stint with the purchase of African slaves. This was followed by an unstructured discovery of lands across the Atlantic. The Spaniards used a system of Encomienda which led to the enslavement of native Indians in the Americas in their home nation. The failure of this process led to the demand of African slaves. The trade of manufactured goods from Europe in return for African slaves and the sale of these African slaves to American plantations. The raw materials from the Americas were sent back to Europe and this formed the Triangular Trade over the Atlantic. The development of nations in the Americas led to the demand for independence which caused the American nations to declare separate independent states. In the early 1800s, most of the independent American nations focused on industrialization. In this period, the importation of slaves to the New World was abolished. References Azarura Gomes Eanes (1450) Chronica do Doscobrimento a Conquist da Guine Lisbon. Bender, G. J. (1992) Angola Under the Portuguese Los Angeles: University of California Press. Bulliet, R. Crossley P. K., Headrick, D., Hirsch, S., Johnson, L & Northup, D. (2010) The Earth & Its Peoples: A Global History Mason, OH: Cengage Publishing Collins, R. O (2011) Central & Southern African History Markus-Weiner Publishing. Eltis, D & Richardson, D. (1997) Routes to Slavery London: Frank Cass Publishing. Figueredo, D. H & Argote-Freyre, F. (2008) A Brief History of the Caribbean Infobase Publishing. Furtado, C. (1976) Economic Development of Latin America Cambridge University Press. Schwartz, J. (2010) Master the GED 2010 Peterson Publishing. Sued-Badillo, J. (2003) General History of the Caribbeans Vol 5 New York: UNESCO Read More