Brown_C Response and Annotations 1
Weekly Reading Summary and Response
By this point, the Atlantic had firmly been established as a rich and abundant source of
raw materials, exotic luxuries, and labor for the European nations seeking to claim the title of
empire. The territories across the Atlantic became a place for these Europeans powers to claim
economic and political power amongst themselves. Spain and Portugal quickly established their
goal of taming the new world while also Christianizing it. Great Britian and France were more
inclined to determine what economic value these new territories held. The different political,
social, and economic goals and focuses of these empires dramatically shaped the early stages of
development and structuring of how these colonies and territories would operate.
Spain out paced many of the other nations to early discovery. They quickly established
themselves one of the most predominate influences within the region. Much of the Latin and
South American continents came under Spanish control. The Spanish uses a model similar to the
Romans when it came to establishing and structuring control. The Spanish sought to establish a
new world imperium and bring civitas1to a lawless and barbaric land. To do this, it meant
completely dismantling the native culture and restructuring it around Spanish law and most
importantly religion. Two phases occurred to accomplish this. Stage one occurred with the
conquistadors. They used brute force and warfare to squash any possible resistance to future
Spanish rule. Phase two occurred by slowly phasing conquistador rule with a more bureaucratic
one. The Spanish set out establishing audiencias or local administrative executive bodies2. These
bodies oversaw mapping, naming, and restructuring this new territory to model a more Spanish
friendly system. They consolidated smaller communities and villages into larger provinces and
1 (Benjamin, 2009, p. 166)
2 (ibid, p. 172)
Brown_C Response and Annotations 2
cities making it easier to tax as well as control the native populations living within them3. All
these efforts were to make a system that made commerce and political dealings easier not only
within the boarders of the colonies, but with Spain.
The French and the British took a very different approach initially to profiting off the
riches of the Atlantic and this New World. It became clear that they were somewhat late to the
game if you will and would need to muscle their way into these new spheres of influence being
established across the Atlantic. French and British merchants turned to an early stage of pirating
and raiding Spanish and Portuguese ships4. This competition was also fueled by the brewing
internal conflict within the Catholic church. France, Great Britian, and the Dutch soon began to
find themselves dominated by protestants and fueled by the reformation leading to calls to
challenge the long dominant Spanish and Portuguese catholic empires. They needed to chip away
at the Iberian monopoly of influence by waging intentional efforts to destabilize the empire both
at home on the peninsula and across their newly acquired territories and colonies. Combined
with a Spanish economic crisis as well as a deteriorating population due to disease and famine,
the Spanish chokehold on the Atlantic began to wane.
It took until the early 17th century for the British, French, and Dutch to successfully
establish colonies, centered around agriculture5. Unlike the Spanish, the other European nations
were more interested in the economic benefits of the colonies rather than full on cultural
restructuring. In many cases the French, British, and Dutch colonies were simply sanctioned or
approved by the monarch6, not financed like it was with the Spanish. Control of Spanish colonies
and territory was imperative because the crown had paid for the expedition and expected a
3 (ibid, p. 174)
4 (ibid, p. 232)
5 (ibid, p. 236)
6 (ibid, p. 238)
Brown_C Response and Annotations 3
significant return. The British, French, and Dutch monarchs allowed private merchants and
companies to finance their own expedition and exploration missions to the new world. Thus the
crown would still profit (taxing), but not suffer a direct loss.
By the mid 17th century, the Atlantic was a bustling commercial and political landscape.
European nations were invested in the exchange of food products, luxury goods, and labor. This
interconnected system of trade became know as the Columbian Exchange. This triangular trade
route came to define this region through not just the people, but the biology as well.7 The
Columbian Exchange dealt in people, livestock, and food stuffs that were introduced across all
sides of the Atlantic revolutionizing the diet and agriculture at all corners. Disease also traveled
the exchange much to the detriment of the world’s population. Native populations were
decimated by European diseases like smallpox, typhus, measles, the plague, and influenza8 to
name a few. This era of exchange would later characterize the rise of mercantilism but also the
important beginning phase of cultural diffusion across all nation lines.
References
Benjamin, T. (2009). The Atlantic World: Europeans, Africans, Indians, and Their Shared
History 1400-1900. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Games, A., & Rothman, A. (2008). Major Problems in Atlantic History. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth.
Annotations
7 (Games & Rothman, 2008, p. 122)
8 (Benjamin, 2009, p. 174)
Brown_C Response and Annotations 4
Nunn, Nathan, and Nancy Qian. “The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and
Ideas.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 24, no. 2 (2010): 163–88.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25703506.
This article is a detailed description and analysis of not only what the Columbian Exchange was,
but the immense economic influence it had on the Atlantic region since the mid-16th century.
They look at the exchange in a different perspective by looking at the what the impact had on the
Old World rather than the how the New World was effected. This namely address the changes in
good and food stuffs related to the European diet and livestock. The authors focus on the
biological exchange of food as well as diseases and the changes brought as a result of this
growing interconnected region.
Taylor, Alan. American Colonies: The Settling of North America. New York: Penguin Group,
2001.
Taylor’s books give a detailed account of the settling of the North American colonies. He
described the distinct and unique cultural, political, and economic reasons for settlement as well
as the development as the Atlantic region continues to grow and interact. He beings with
discussing the early interactions with the Natives and goes through much of North American
colonial history through the American Revolution and as well as explore larger regional
developments on the continent and the eventual interactions with the Pacific region as well.
Brown_C Response and Annotations 5
Voss, BarbaraIL. “Gender, Race, and Labor in the Archaeology of the Spanish Colonial
Americas.” Current Anthropology 49, no. 5 (2008): 861–93.
https://doi.org/10.1086/591275.
This article discusses the St. Augustine pattern of archaeology emphasizes the important role that
native American and African woman played in shaping the unique and distinct cultural structures
that emerged across colonial Spain. The author reevaluates this method and proposes that the
cohabitation of Spanish men and native or African women contributed to the wider cultural
identity that formed rather than believing it to be contained simply to the household. The article
sheds more light on the role gender and race had on the cultural diffusion happening across the
Caribbean, Latin and South America aka New Spain.
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