The European Colonial Empires of the Americas

1492-1800Brett BaileyHistory 140

The Spanish Empire in the Americas

• The Spanish Empire being the largest empire in world history was one of the first global empires. Within its territories it includes Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania between the 15th and late 19th centuries. The Spanish also held several different colonies in Africa until the 20th century. Spain started as a united monarch in 1492 after the reconquista of the Iberian peninsula. Following that current year, Christopher Columbus commanded a Spanish exploratory voyage across the Atlantic Ocean that lead to the discovery of America. His new discovery became the focus of all the explorations of that time.

The Spanish Empire in the Americas

• During this recent Age of Discovery the Spanish began to settle the Caribbean islands and conquistadors soon controlled native empires such as the Aztecs and Incas on mainland America. Soon after these expeditions established territory that stretched from present-day Canada in North America to Tierra del Fuego in South America. The Spanish expedition of the world started by Ferdinand Magellan in 1519, and completed by Juan Sebastian Elcano in 1522, achieved what Columbus had longed for, a westward route to Asia, and brought the Far East to Spain's attention, where it established colonies in Guam, the Philippines and surrounding islands.

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The Spanish Empire in the Americas

• Geography: • This Geographic stretch Began with Columbus's explorations of the late

fifteenth century where Spain took the lead in developing an empire in the New World. The Spanish Empire extended across most of the Americas and into Asia by the sixteenth century. Spain divided up their world into three primary viceroyalties: New Spain, New Castile, and New Granada.

The Spanish Empire in the Americas

• Administration:• The Spanish monarch was the first to

be confronted with the problem of administering large tracts of conquered territory on the other side of the Atlantic ocean. Straight from the beginning, careful measures were taken to control this difficult situation. Ferdinand and Isabella trusted the building of an administration, from as early as Columbus' second voyage in 1493, to their personal chaplain Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca.

The Spanish Empire in the Americas

• Economy: • Spanish empire huge, lasted more than 300 years, went through

many changes So no generalizations could cover all variation. Very Slow communications; rigid rules, often ignored; layers of bureaucracy. Mainstay of economy was silver, more than gold, produced in Peru and Mexico.

The Spanish Empire in the Americas

• Social characteristics:• The society was divided into three

states; nobility, clergy, and commoners. In addition, there were corporate bodies such as military orders, towns, universities with their own legal prerogatives. Nobles exempted from direct taxation. Top social aspiring noble men subverted to privileges and status it conferred. From 1520s, Crown starts selling patents of nobility.

The Portuguese Empire in the Americas

• The Portuguese Empire was very strong amongst the first global empires in history, with territories in South America, Africa, India and South East Asia subject to the sovereignty of Portugal. It was also the longest lived of the modern European colonial empires, spanning almost five centuries, from the discovery of Brazil in 1500 to the handover of Macau in 1999, having existed longer than the Spanish, British, and French Empires.

The Portuguese Empire in the Americas

• Global Portuguese ambitions began in earnest with the explorers that began exploring the coast of Africa in 1419, after having conquered the North African city of Ceuta in 1415. They made use of the latest developments in navigation, cartography and maritime technology such as the caravel, in order that they might find a sea route to the source of the lucrative spice trade.

The Portuguese Empire in the Americas

• Geography:• Portugal occupies the western part of the Iberian Peninsula and is

slightly smaller than Indiana. The Portuguese continent is crossed by three large rivers that rise in Spain, flow into the Atlantic. This divides the country into three geographic areas. The Minho River, part of the northern boundary, cuts through a mountainous area that extends south to the vicinity of the Douro River.

The Portuguese Empire in the Americas

• Administration: • The corrupt King Carlos, who ascended

the throne in 1889, made João Franco the prime minister with dictatorial power in 1906. In 1908, Carlos and his heir were shot dead on the streets of Lisbon. The new king, Manoel II, was driven from the throne in the revolution of 1910, and Portugal became a French-style republic. Traditionally friendly to Britain, Portugal fought in World War I on the Allied side in Africa as well as on the Western Front.

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The Portuguese Empire in the Americas

• Economy: • Portugal was admitted to the European

Economic Community (now European Union) on Jan. 1, 1986, and on Feb. 16, Mario Soares became the country's first civilian president in 60 years. Aníbal Cavaço Silva, an advocate of free-market economics and the Social Democratic candidate, had been elected as prime minister in 1985, signaling a more politically stable era. Portugal became a Socialist government that continued to take advantage of rosy economic conditions in 1997, and in 1999, Portugal became a founding member of the European Economic and Monetary Union.

The Portuguese Empire in the Americas

• Social characteristics:• Modern Portuguese are an Iberian ethnic group and their ancestry is very

similar to other western and southern European peoples, particularly from Spain, with whom it shares ancestry and has cultural proximity. It is largely consistent with the geographic position of the western part of the Iberian peninsula, located on the extreme southwest of continental Europe.

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The French Empire in the Americas

• The French colonial empire is the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 1600s to the late 1960s (some see the French control of places such as New Caledonia as a continuation of that colonial empire). In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second largest in the world behind the British Empire.

The French Empire in the Americas

• The French colonial empire extended over 4 million square miles of land at its height in the 1920s and 1930s. Including metropolitan France, the total amount of land under French sovereignty reached the same at the time, which is a small percentage of the Earth's total land area.

The French Empire in the Americas

• Geography:• In the Alps near the Italian and Swiss borders is western Europe's

highest point at Mont Blanc (15,781 ft; 4,810 m). The forest-covered Vosges Mountains are in the northeast, and the Pyrénées are along the Spanish border. Except for extreme northern France, the country may be described as four river basins and a plateau.

The French Empire in the Americas

• Administration: • The Empire of the French[1]

(1804-1814), also known as the Greater French Empire or First French Empire, but more commonly known as the Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I in France. It was the dominant power of much of continental Europe during the early 19th Century.

The French Empire in the Americas

• Economy: • Socialist François Mitterrand attained a stunning victory in the May 10, 1981, presidential election.

The victors immediately move to carry out campaign pledges to nationalize major industries, halt nuclear testing, suspend nuclear powerplant construction, and impose new taxes on the rich. The Socialists' policies during Mitterrand's first two years created a 12% inflation rate, a huge trade deficit, and devaluations of the franc. In March 1986, a center-right coalition led by Jacques Chirac won a slim majority in legislative elections. Chirac became prime minister, initiating a period of “cohabitation” between him and the Socialist president, Mitterrand. Mitterrand's decisive reelection in 1988 led to Chirac being replaced as prime minister by Michel Rocard, a Socialist.

The French Empire in the Americas

• Social characteristics:• Subsequent years of military victories known collectively as the

Napoleonic Wars extended French influence over much of Western Europe and into Poland. At its height in 1812, the French Empire had 130 départements, ruled over 44 million subjects, maintained extensive military presence in Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Duchy of Warsaw, and could count Prussia and Austria as nominal allies.

The English Empire in the Americas

• British colonization of the Americas (including colonization under the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland before the 1707 Acts of Union created the Kingdom of Great Britain) began in the late 16th century, before reaching its peak after colonies were established throughout the Americas, and a protectorate was established over the Kingdom of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The British were one of the most important colonizers of the Americas and their American empire came to rival the Spanish American colonies in military and economic might.

The English Empire in the Americas

• This British conquest caused dramatic upheaval upon the indigenous civilizations in the Americas both directly through British military force and indirectly through cultural disruption and introduced diseases. Though many of the indigenous societies had a developed warrior class, and long history of warfare, they were not able to withstand the technologically superior British force and eventually succumbed. Many of the conquered peoples vanished or were incorporated into the colonial system.

The English Empire in the Americas

• Geography: • Empire covering, at its height in the 1920s, about a sixth of the landmass of the

Earth, all of its lands recognizing the United Kingdom (UK) as their leader. It consisted of the Empire of India, four self-governing countries known as dominions, and dozens of colonies and territories. The Empire was a source of great pride to the British, who believed that it was an institution for civilizing the world, and for many years Empire Day (24 May) saw celebration throughout the UK.

The English Empire in the Americas

• Administration: • The story of the British Empire began in

1497 when the Italian seafarer John Cabot sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in the service of King Henry VII of England and reached Newfoundland. In 1583 the explorer Sir Humphrey Gilbert took possession of Newfoundland for Elizabeth I. By this time the Portuguese and Spanish had divided between them a considerable part of the Earth's land surface. England was already a formidable power at sea, but its seafarers were mainly freebooters engaged in trade, piracy, and slavery

The English Empire in the Americas

• Economy:• Several Domestic industries of this time flourished, with many workers

pursuing dual occupations on a seasonal basis in industry and agriculture. English society contained a flourishing and more extensive middling sector than any other western country, including the Dutch Republic. This provided a strong platform for commerce with, and settlement in, far-flung territories.

• The long 18th century was the period in which Britain rose to a dominant position among European trading empires...'

The English Empire in the Americas

• Social characteristics:• Troops from the colonies included white colonists, or their descendants, and colonized peoples. Cultural

misunderstandings were regular. The superior attitudes adopted by some of the aristocratic British officers towards the colonial troops under their command caused resentment, and bitterness rose at their perceived recklessness when using colonial forces. During the fruitless Gallipoli campaign the death rate among the Anzac troops (combined Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) exceeded a third.

The Dutch Empire in the Americas

• The Dutch Empire consisted of the overseas territories controlled by the Netherlands from the 17th to the 20th century. The Dutch followed Portugal and Spain in establishing an overseas colonial empire, aided by their skills in shipping and trade and the surge of nationalism accompanying the struggle for independence from Spain.

The Dutch Empire in the Americas

• Right next to the English, the Dutch initially built up colonial possessions on the basis of indirect state capitalist corporate colonialism, via the Dutch East and West India Companies. Dutch exploratory voyages such as those led by Willem Barents, Henry Hudson and Abel Tasman revealed to Europeans vast new territories.

The Dutch Empire in the Americas

• Geography:• The coastal provinces of Holland and Zeeland had for a long time prior to Spanish rule

been important hubs of the European maritime trade network. Their geographical location provided convenient access to the markets of France, Germany, England and the Baltic. The war with Spain led many financiers and traders to emigrate from Antwerp, capital of Flanders and then one of Europe's most important commercial centers, to Dutch cities, particularly Amsterdam, which became Europe's foremost centre for shipping, banking, and insurance.

The Dutch Empire in the Americas

• Administration:• Dutch commercial power stagnated in

the 18th century, and was eclipsed by the British Empire. In the primarily colonial Fourth Anglo-Dutch War of 1780-1784, the Dutch suffered devastating losses. The Dutch state was obliged to take over the WIC’s debts and possessions; the latter were taken by the English once again during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. The VOC was similarly baled out by nationalization in 1799, but once again it was academic, because the English had taken over the Dutch East Indies in their wars against the French, with the exception of a small Dutch presence on Java.

The Dutch Empire in the Americas

• Economy: • The Dutch Empire began as an extension of existing trading activities and as an additional

element of economic warfare against the overlord Spain in the Dutch Revolt, when Dutch merchant-venturers went out to plunder Spanish fleets and take over Spanish markets abroad. The crucial year was probably 1585, when Dutch ships were banned from the harbours of the Spanish Empire and Portuguese Empire. The year before that the main rival of the trading northern Dutch, the great port of Antwerp, had fallen to the Spanish. This removed the local mercantile competition.

The Dutch Empire in the Americas

• Social characteristics:• Despite the Dutch presence in Indonesia for almost three hundred and

fifty years, the Dutch language has no official status and the small minority that can speak the language fluently are either educated members of the oldest generation, or employed in the legal profession, as some legal codes are still only available in Dutch.

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