Week 10 - Encounters in the Americas Flashcards
origins of the age of exploration
Existing trade practices
Mythologies and assumptions
Demand for commodities, old and new
European oppositional attitudes to Islam
Competitive mercantilism linked to nation-building and imperialism - preference for exclusivity in trade routes and markets and increasing risk taking for sake of profits
Determining environmental factors su
forces shaping the premodern world
Implantation
Colonisation
Global migration
Enslavement
Extraction
Economic transformation and integration
Revolution
State-building
the world before 1490
Economic, political and cultural interaction but not integration
Hemispheric isolation
East was less well known
East and west were not connected but had some interaction
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before Columbus
A political-economic perspective
1470s-80s Iberians search for new commodities and markets in Africa - slaves, gold, grain, cloak mercantile efforts as crusade
Discovered safe routes to the Canaries and Azores - proof there were more lands, got better at transport and exploration
Implantation of sugar crop in eastern Atlantic islands - template of agricultural expansion
Columbus: man vs myth
Genoese merchant family - born 1451
First known European to sail to Americas - safe and repeatable Atlantic crossing
First voyage:
Aimed at route to the Indes (India, China)
Take years to get sponsorship
Builds on Portuguese exploration of eastern Atlantic
Spanish sponsorship coincides with local political upheaval and expulsion of Jews and Muslims
Surviving accounts coloured by his skills for self-aggrandisement
Europeans encountering the Americas
Exploration and encounter came first
1492 First Spanish funded voyage of Christopher Columbus to Caribbean
Conquest and colonisation followed after 1519
1519 Cortes leads Spanish conquest of Aztec Mexico
1578-80 Drake reaches San Fransisco Bay and claims it for Elizabeth
Rush for the Americas
outcomes
Massive expansion of European economies
State-sponsored mercantilism and profiteering - state and empire building, competition for colonies and profits
Template for European interactions with indigenous peoples globally
Initiation of global economic integration
Mass death and displacement of Indigenous peoples
Mass displacement and enslavement of African people
Asymmetrical encounters
Driven by mercantilist ethos, desire for profit and advancement, exclusive control and extractive intent
Evidence exclusively from European viewpoints - filtered through the outcomes of encounter, how (and to what extent) can we read between the lines?
encounters and language
Account of the antiquities of the Indians:
By Fray Ramon Pane (a missionary)
Commissioned by Columbus to learn language and report on Indigenous people of Haiti
Concerned with their language, political structure and beliefs
Information use form for missionary activity, trade and conquests
Everything is filtered through a European gaze
accounts of intra-European rivalries
True history of the conquest of New Spain 1568
A conquistador
Seeking patronage and rewards form King of Spain
Contesting other reports and reputation and promoting his own role
Aztecs form the backdrop of his adventures
accounts of the impact of colonial encounter
Historie Naturelle des Indes 1586
French langue illustrated account of encounters in the Indies along Drake’s voyages
English, state-sponsored effort - possibly produced by French sailors on the exhibition
Analytical in purpose - sections for plants, animals, peoples and practices; observations always related to potential profit and utility; strategic intelligence of Spanish imperial practices
Observations on life as a slave or Indigenous Caribbean people are incidental - how they fit into the Spanish narrative
Culture already shaped by Spanish presence and control
themes
Beauty and strangeness
Agricultural plenty
Profits to be made
People who are: simple, barbaric or both (noble savage)
Adventure, courage and exploration
A place of self-discovery through struggle
A metaphorical other through which to discuss European problems
Competition among European interests
Conquest of New Spain
- Mention of specific names of indigenous leaders (Teuthlille; Montezuma; Quitlalpitoc) means it may be contemporary with other accounts in these individuals’ lifetimes
- According to the writer, this takes place after the “expedition under Grijalva”
- The gold disc resembling the sun which is presented by Quintalbor & Teuthlille, is described as weighing the equivalent of “20,000 gold pesos”. But the wording “according to the account of those who weighed it…” is used. This suggests the writer was either not directly involved in each of these events, or may be writing after the fact relying on accounts of existing members of the expedition.
- We know what kind of resources and artforms the ‘Indians’ had available to them
- The gifts given by the Europeans were described as “trifles” or of little value, showing the inequality of the exchange
- Suggestion that the Europeans are hiding their real intent saying that they had the mere “intention of paying [their] respects to Motecusuma.”
How could this information/lack/bias be advantageous?
* Informs ideas of wealth/value in relation to natural resources and rarity across different cultures and places; juxtaposes Eurocentric concepts of what wealth and rarity is. Encounter and exchange that does not necessarily result in equivalent and mutually beneficial trade.
* Spanish perspective on Montecsuma’s state and the resources, culture, and means of expression.
* Demonstrates that Spanish used Eurocentric language to contort states/peoples they interacted with to the European model (e.g. Porters, Monarch, Emperor, Ambassadors etc.)
o Terms like “Porter” imply multiple responsibilities but also contradictory ideas of hierarchy/social structuring, applying Spanish/European labels and connotations where there’s no connection whatsoever.
* Provides context for Spanish motivation for later forays into Mexico for gold etc.
o The Spanish assume that carved objects resembling birds are “ducks” - we don’t know to what extent these are the assumptions of the author, but if they are ducks of some kind then this provides an ecological anchoring of events by connecting what wildlife was present, valued, and perhaps held importance in Mesoamerica at the time. This could be mapped alongside the presence of certain species in the ecological record, as well as migratory patterns.
memoir of bernal
- Moodle: “a memoir written by one of the conquistadors who accompanied Cortes to Mexico in the early sixteenth century. It was completed around the time of Castillo’s death in 1568, when he was one of the few participants still living.”
- Memoir means that this is extremely biased, an account of an individual’s life and memories of an event (50 years after event), with no limitations requiring them to be truthful.
o In fact, according to the values under which he was writing, he has every reason to embellish and inflate his own importance in events to his favour.
o His intent in writing a memoir defines its contents: it is by its nature built from an agenda of ‘setting the record straight’ or establishing an idea of his importance/accomplishments:
Translator’s preface: “[the author] is most anxious to impress on your mind, namely, that all the merit of the conquest is not due to Cortes alone…”
o The extent to which he would depict indigenous experience is defined by how much importance he personally placed on the indigenous people’s role in his own life story. - Translator’s preface: “The author… was himself one of the Conquistadors… [and] was never rewarded for the great services he had rendered his country… after his death, his memoirs were pillaged by court historians, to raise a literary monument to themselves.”
o His account, therefore, is of a conqueror in the process of conquering, but he is also not celebrated/rewarded by the state sponsoring this conquering. Therefore his bias is unlikely to favour the state itself, even if it favours the act of conquest.
o Therefore, any depiction/representation of indigenous experience of this encounter is through the lens of someone with the explicit goal of conquering and taking control of their resources and land. - Indigenous experience of these events would first and foremost come from surviving narrative and record from within the descendant indigenous communities involved, but the author of the memoir states that he did not speak any of the languages most relevant to described encounter.
o Even if he did, there’s no guarantee that he would translate things correctly/favourably, or that the indigenous people he communicated with would volunteer true and accurate information.
o And, with wildly different linguistic, cultural, and theological contexts and value systems, it’s very unlikely that ideas would be translated appropriately into a European mindset during a culturally conservative time. - Just because del Castillo depicts these events of his life as being important and in proximity to famous moments, that doesn’t mean he actually had a hand in the most impactful events, but is rather characterising his own involvement as more important than it was.
- The Spanish assume that this encounter and exchange represents two states interacting, but there’s no reason to assume that was the indigenous perspective of these events.
- The source is a really good record of the Spanish language at the time, especially as it is written in a more colloquial vernacular
