What was the basis of the mercantilist theory of economics? What was the relationship between the colonial economies and those of the homelands? Describe this relationship.

Lecture Outline 14: Development of the Transatlantic Economy

In this section you will find: 1) Chapter Overview 2) Major Concepts 3) Terms You Should Know the Significance 4) Map Activity (Concept of Place) 5) Concept of Time (Relationships in Time)

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1. Chapter Overview

The main focus is to discuss European contacts with the Americas from voyages of discovery in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries to the consolidation of mercantile empires in the seventeenth century and the development and administration of the Atlantic slave trade. Since the Renaissance, European contacts with the rest of the world have gone through four distinct stages: 1) Discovery, exploration, initial conquest, and settlement of the New World (to 1700); 2) Colonial trade rivalry among Spain, France, and Britain (ca. 1700- 1820); 3) European imperialism in Africa and Asia (19th century) and 4) Decolonization of peoples previously under European rule (20th century).

The European powers administered their 18th century empires in accordance with the theory of mercantilism. The colonies were to provide markets and natural resources for the industries of the mother country. In turn, the latter was to furnish military security and the instruments of government. To protect its investment from competitors, each home country tried to keep a tight monopoly on trade with its colonies. Another important aspect is the organization and administration of the Spanish Empire, with special emphasis on the conquest of the Aztecs and the Incas.

The Spanish conquest of the West Indies, Mexico, and the South American continent opened that vast region to the Roman Catholic faith. Religion, in fact, played a central role in the conquest of the New World. The mission of conversion justified military conquest and the extension of political control and dominance. As a result, the Roman Catholic Church in the New World was always a conservative force working to protect the political power and prestige of the Spanish authorities. Still, religious conversion represented an attempt to destroy a part of Native American culture, and some priests deplored the harsh conditions imposed on native peoples. The most outspoken clerical critic of the Spanish conquerors was Bartolomé de Las Casas (1477- 1566), a Dominican who contended that conquest was not necessary for conversion. One result of his criticism was the emergence of the Black Legend, which characterized Spanish treatment of Native Americans as unprincipled and inhumane.

Competition for foreign markets was intense among Britain, France, and Spain. In North America, their colonists quarreled endlessly over the territory, fishing rights, fur trade,, and relationships with the Indians. Above all, they clashed over the West Indies, the lucrative producers of coffee, tobacco and especially sugar and ready purchasers of African slaves. The nature of slavery in the Americas, the plantation economy, and the transatlantic slave trade that linked Europe, Africa, and the European colonies in South America, the Caribbean, and North America are other important events as well. Recent scholarship estimates that at a minimum Africa lost some thirteen million people to the Atlantic trade alone in addition to another five million exported to the oriental trade. The African slaves who were transported to the Americas were converted to Christianity. They became largely separated from African religious outlooks, though some

African practices survived in muted forms. This conversion represented another example of the crushing of a set of non-European cultural values in the context of the New World economies and social structures.

European settlers in the Americas were generally prejudiced against black Africans, thinking them to be savage or less than civilized. Although racial thinking in regard to slavery became more important in the nineteenth century, the fact that slaves were differentiated from the rest of the population by race, as well as by their status as chattel property, was fundamental to the system.

Very interesting is to discuss the history and process of slaving in Africa and the oriental and occidental slave trade. Between 1640 and 1690, the number of slaves sold to European traders doubled, increasing the growing participation of Africans in the expanding trade. These developments accelerated in the eighteenth century as the demands of expanding plantation economies fueled the trade. However, as European and American nations began to outlaw slaving in the early nineteenth century, occidental demand slowed and prices sank. Although the oriental trade continued, indigenous African slavery began a real decline only at the end of the nineteenth century in part because of the dominance of European colonial regimes and in part because of internal changes.

2. Major Concepts

Mercantilism: The early modern European empires of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries existed primarily to enrich trade. To the extent that any formal theory lay behind the conduct of these empires, it was mercantilism. Economic writers of the time believed that a nation had to gain a favorable balance of gold and silver bullion. Colonies existed to provide markets and natural resources for the industries of the home countries. In turn, the home country furnished military security and political administration. The home country and its colonies were to trade exclusively with each other through a restrictive and complex system of tariffs and navigation laws. National monopoly was the ruling principle. Mercantilist ideas often did not mesh with the economic realities of the colonies. Colonial demands for relative economic independence often clashed with the welfare of the mother country and were met with even greater restrictions and punitive action. For all these reasons, the eighteenth century became the golden age of smugglers.

The African Slave Trade: Slavery is one of the oldest of human institutions and virtually every pre-modern state in history depended on it to some extent. The African slave trade must be seen as part of the larger commercial system of Atlantic trade between Europe, Africa, and European colonies in North and South America and the Caribbean. The system was directed to exploitation of the New World and thus the slave trade grew not from racist principles (although they were used as justification), but from colonial economic needs. The major sources for slaves were the Kongo-Angola region and the Guinea coast. Africa lost well over twelve million persons through the Atlantic trade. Taken as a whole, the slave trade varied in extent quite sharply from period to period, with its peak in the eighteenth century and its demise in the nineteenth. The effects of the slave trade on Africa are not easy to assess. It appears that slavery was a result, not a cause, of regional instability and change; increased warfare meant increased prisoners to be enslaved and sold off. Finally, the slave trade produced Africa s major diaspora, which was also one of the major migrations of global history. From a contemporary American perspective, it was an important element in the formation of our modern society.

Early Spanish Conquests: The conquests of Mexico and Peru stand among the most dramatic and brutal stories in modern world history. One civilization armed with advanced weapons subdued, in a remarkably brief time, two powerful peoples. But beyond the bloodshed, these conquests marked a fundamental turning point of world civilizations. Never again in the Americas would Native American peoples and their values have any significant impact or influence.

The Transatlantic Economy and the World: The contact between the native peoples of the American

continents and the European explorers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries transformed world history. America s native peoples encountered Europeans intent on conquest, exploitation, and religious conversion. Because of their technological superiority in weaponry and the impact of disease, Europeans were able to achieve a rapid conquest. In both North and South America, economies of exploitation were established that relied on native labor to feed extensive plantation systems. Slaves were imported from Africa, drawing Europeans, Africans, and Americans together in a vast worldwide web of production based on slave labor. The Atlantic slave trade s impact on the history of the Americas and of the United States in particular continues to be felt in the development of laws and societal concerns such as racism.

3. Terms You Should Know the Significance

Mercantilism golden age of smugglers Hernan Cortes Francisco Pizarro Bartholome de Las Casas Black Legend Quinto Economienda Repartimiento Hacienda Peninsulares Creoles 4. Map Activity (Concept of Place)

No assignment for this week.

5. Concept of Time (Relationships in Time)

The contact between the native peoples of the American continents and the European explorers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries transformed world history. In the Americas, the native peoples had established a wide variety of civilizations. Some of their most remarkable architectural monuments and cities were constructed during the centuries when European civilizations were reeling from the collapse of Roman power. Until the European explorations, the civilizations of the Americas and Eurasia and Africa had had no significant contact with each other.

Within half a century of the landing of Columbus, millions of America s native peoples had encountered Europeans intent on conquest, exploitation, and religious conversion. Because of their advanced weapons, navies, and the new diseases they brought with them, as well as internal divisions among the Native Americans, the Europeans achieved a rapid conquest.

The Transatlantic Economy: In both North and South America, economies of exploitation were established. In Latin America, various institutions were developed to extract native labor. From the mid-Atlantic English colonies through the Caribbean and into Brazil, slave-labor plantation systems were established. The slaves were forcibly imported from Africa and sold in America to plantation owners. The economies and peoples of Europe, Africa, and the Americas were thus drawn into a vast worldwide web of production based on slave labor.

Slavery: The impact of slavery in the Americas was not limited to the life of the black slaves. Whites in the New World numbered about 12 million in 1820, compared to some six million blacks. However, only about

two million whites had migrated there, compared to some 11 million or more Africans forcibly imported as slaves. Such numbers reveal the effects of brutal slave conditions and the high mortality and low birthrates of slave populations.

None of these statistics, however, enables us to assess the role that slavery has played in the Americas or, in particular, the United States. The United States actually received only a bit more than a quarter as many slaves as did Brazil alone or the British and French Caribbean regions together, yet the consequences of the forced migration of just over a half million Africans remain massive. Consider just the American Civil War and the endurance of racism and inequality or, more positively, the African contribution to American industrial development, language, music, literature, and artistic culture. The Atlantic slave trade s impact continues to be felt at both ends of the original trade.