COLUMBUS & CO Flashcards
Takeaway for this?
Columbus is important to European history not for his deeds (which were actually pretty peripheral to the colonial expansion that followed them) but rather for the way his voyages were received by the European public and European government
Did Europeans contact the Americas previously?
1000: Leif Erikson sets foot in Newfoundland
*He is associated with the Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland and Labrador
What was Columbus life like?
Born in Republic of Genoa (Italy) died in Spain
- Ligurian dialect as a first language
Moved to Castille
- read Latin, Castilian, and Portuguese
Started petitioning the Spanish Crown in the 1480s, (to try sail) but the Reconquista was a bigger priority
How many voyages did Columbus embark on?
4 voyages
What is the silk road?
Trade route linking Europe to China
- Especially lucrative Asian trade goods: textiles (hence, silk road), spices, teas, dyes, porcelain, gun powder
*Especially lucrative European trade goods: horses, camels, wine, honey,
Was Under Mongol Control, (then fell and a huge)
Then Ottoman (monopolized the trade) (leads to collapse of great merchant republics) (Europe lost Constantinople -> lost the last part on Mediterranean)
Solution to the Ottomans monopolizing the Silk road? (portugese)
Portuguese solution
*Sailing around Africa to India
- Cape of Good Hope
- Started slave trade
- Proxy wars with Ottomans in Strait of Malakka (malaysia / Indonesia
Solution to the Ottomans monopolizing the Silk road? (Columbus)
Sail west to get east
Miscalculated the distance between Canary Island and Japan.
*Columbus pitched this to King John II of Portugal in the 1480s (Portuguese intellectuals point out Columbus’s faulty math)
*Pitch to the Spanish Crown in 1480s and 90s goes much better, despite scholarly evidence against his mat
Where did Columbus Voyage to? (in his four journeys)
Caribbean, Central America, and South America
What are his Accusation of Cruelty?
Spanish Court received accusations of Columbus’s brutality and incompetence
Columbus and his brothers enacted harsh punishments, including amputations, as a method of governing Hispaniola
*Arrest, return to Spain, and eventual release
What were the Portuguese up to?
1) Expansion into West Africa
- *Establishing trade posts all along the coast in present-day Sierra Leone, Gabon, etc.
*Colonial extraction, including sugarcane production
(Growth of slave trade)
2) Colonization in the Indian Ocean
- Establish first European settlement in Asia in Cochin in 1502 and expand from there
3) 1500 “discovery” of Brazil by Pedro Álvares Cabral
- Named that for Brazil trees
Expansion is resource oriented (sugarcane, unpaid labour, spices, brazilwood, etc.)
What is the Treaty of Tordesillas? and what do other countries and Europe think about it?
Problem: how should Portugal and Spain divvy up the non-European territory they conquer?
- Solution: Pope splits map between Spain and Portugal
Spain: Access to Americas
Portugal: Access to Africa and Brazil
Other countries: “This sucks” (everyone wanted their fair share)
Who was Amerigo Vespucci?
- Sailed for both Portugal and Spain
Published books that he claimed to write (ppl dispute this) to get ppl excited about Americas
Coined the term “New World”
Claimed: 1st explorer to understand Brazil was on a larger continent (figured out it wasn’t Asia)
Named after him
Who is Hernán Cortés?
From Miner nobility (status ok but not great)
Wanted to make a name for his family
NO fighting experience before Mexico
Secretary to guy (Velázquez’s) who Conquers Cuba
- Later = Governor of Mexico
Leverages his experience to make expedition to Mexico
(Velázquez’s) gives permission (but revokes) - Bro goes anyway (this is mutiny)
Founds town of Veracruz
What was the Aztec Empire before Cortés?
The Aztec Empire, ruled by Moctezuma II, relied on military prowess and fear to keep vassals in check
Why did Cortés march on Tenochtitlán?
Moctezuma II (leader) didn’t want to meet with him
Other Indigneous groups who didn’t like Moctezuma II and Aztec ppl helped Cortes
How was Tenochtitlán destroyed?
Bro takes Moctezuma hostage (in revenge for Aztecs killing Spaniards on coast)
Velázquez (old boss) sent another expedition to Mexico & Cortés departed Tenochtitlán to confront
- His lieutenant he left killed an Aztec noble which caused the Aztecs to rebel
Cortés waited for reinforcements from Cuba and began cutting off supplies to Tenochtitlán
Then Moctezuma II’s successor (renamed city Mexico city)
What are the three main ways of Colonial Expansion?
- Sanctioned by Crown (Columbus)
- Semi Sanctioned (Cabral - guy who found Brazil)
- Totally Unsanctioned (Cortes)
Why were people scrambling for Colonization?
Possibility for upward mobility
You claim new territory under crown (even if unsanctioned) then run the land like governor.
What were Spain and Portugal extracting?
Portuguese: sugarcane, unfree labour, spices, brazilwood, etc.
*Spanish: gold, silver, timber, et
What types of free labour were happening?
Portuguese slave trade expands, and they become Europe’s premier slave traffickers
Spain relied on encomienda system: enslavement of non-Christian people
The logic of Spanish and Portuguese colonizers does not really distinguish between extracting wealth and expanding Christianity
*Crusader culture was pushing the Reconquista forward *Brutality is acceptable in the pursuit of these goals
What is the encomienda system?
Spanish labour system that rewarded conquerors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples
What were consequences for Indigenous peoples
Brutal conquests, enslavement, and depopulation due to violence and epidemic disease in the Americas
*Indigenous peoples are not a monolith! Different approaches to colonization (remember Cortes)
What were the consequences for Spain?
Lots of Silver (spent it trying to hold onto land)
What were the consequences for Portugal?
Massive expansion into Africa and the Indian Ocean, becomes Europe’s slave trafficker of choice
What were some problems for countries in Europe trying to rule the Americas
Huge administrative hurdles how do you manage territory that is so far away? How do you collect taxes, administer justice, etc. for a territory that you don’t even have accurate maps of
What did the other countries in Eurpoe do?
Colonial competitors emerge: France, England, the Netherlands, Sweden, etc.
*The Reformation is going to really exacerbate colonial competition
