Why did Europeans Leave Europe?
- Crusades (11th-12th century)
- Changes for western European life: Trade
- Trade and access to the source of products is controlled by:
Asian middleman who controlled overland trade routes to the eastern Mediterranean. Alexandria and Constantinople.
Italian merchants and city states. Genoa and Venice.
Italian city states prospered and grew in power.
- Crusades helped in a limited manner to bring on the Renaissance and strengthen the power of monarchs and the development of nation states.
Renaissance (14th-17th century)
- Increased interest in secular world and encouraged a questioning of the power structure of the status quo.
- An interest in the physical world. Geography. European knowledge was limited to the world around them and the coastal areas of Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia. Nautical knowledge and expertise increased dramatically. By the 15th century, educated Europeans accepted the belief, held by the ancient Greeks, that the world was round.
Rise of Absolute Monarchs and Nation States
- Near the end of the Middle Ages, monarchs began to extend their power and authority over local lords and became absolute rulers.
- Royal power is strengthened by:
The Crusades- Europeans left Europe, were killed, creating a power vacuum.
Rising merchant class which supported the monarchy and its attempt to unify and stabilize nation states.
Rising nationalism which embraced the monarchy as representing both the national identity and the people themselves.
- By the end of the 15th century: England, France, Portugal, Spain.
Voyages of Discovery and Exploration
- Nation states were wealthy enough to fund these ventures
- Absolute Monarchs sought colonial empires
- Merchant and middle class wanted trade and commerce which increased prosperity.
- Mercantilism
Economic policy asserting that power is directly related to economic dominance of both regions and vast areas of the globe. Economic superiority will lead to geopolitical dominance primarily because both power and influence can be funded to a dominant level. Possession and control of colonies by European nation states would allow the presence of a nation’s influence globally through the colonies themselves. Raw materials for import could be fabricated into finished goods which, in turn, be marked back to both the colony itself and other locals. Originally, mercantilism was directly associated with the discovery and possession of gold, which was a limited commodity but highly
valued.
Commercial Revolution
By the late 15th century, Europe was reflecting the impact of:
-Overseas exploration and colonization
-Expansion of world trade
-Shift of global trade routes from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic
Together, these changes are a major impetus to the Commercial Revolution
Colonization 16th to mid-18th centuries
Specific Motivations
Portugal sought an all water rout around Africa to the East.
- 1488 Bartholomew Diaz reached Cape of Good Hope
- 1498 Vasco de Gama rounded the cape and reached India
- Cargo generated a 6000% profit.
Spain engaged Christopher Columbus from Genoa on the Italian Peninsula. He planned on reaching the Far East by sailing west. After two months he landed in the Caribbean. He thought he was in the Indies off the coast of Asia.
Portugal- Line of Demarcation
Spain
Motives:
- Claim territory
- Obtain Gold and Silver
- Sugar
- Conversion of the native peoples
Who were they?
Government officials, soldiers, noblemen, merchants, missionaries. Persons of standing/stature.
By 1600, 200,000 Spanish colonists. Introduced a feudal economic system of land holding. Unfree/coerced labor was used. No self-government was permitted by the king of Spain.
Influence started to decline after 1588 and the defeat of the Armada.
France
Motives:
1-Desire for empire.
2-Fishing off Newfoundland
3-Trade for furs with native peoples
4-Conversion the native peoples
Who were they?
Traders and allies of the royal court. Exclusively Catholic. Never more than 80,000 white settlers. No interest in farming. No expectation of discovering gold. No self-government.
Influence fades after the French and Indian War (1754-1763).
Dutch
A private corporation, the Dutch West Indian Company, funded and founded the colony of New Netherland in 1621.
Obtain Manhattan Island, Upper Hudson valley and parts of Long Island.
Who were they?
Most were not Dutch. Never more than 10,000. Holland was prosperous and few migrated. Largely a commercial venture. Women could own property and enter into contracts. Settlement encouraged by offering a patroonship, large tract of
land, to anyone paying for the passage of 50 tenants. By 1660 the colony spoke 18 different languages.
In 1664 the colony was surrendered to the English.
England
Ten colonies along the Atlantic coast of North America and three seized as New Netherland.
Who were they? What was the motivation of those who left England for North America? Why did the English population support colonization?
- Escape persecution; Catholics, Quakers, Puritans.
Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) made the Church of England the official church of the English people. Began the process of “colonization” by authorizing private raiding parties to harass Spanish shipping along the central east coast of North America. These “temporary” settlements were to form the foundation for future permanent colonization. Puritans, along with Catholics and Quakers, were the source of a significant challenge to the legitimacy and authority to both the sovereignty of the monarchy as well as the authority and legitimacy of the Church of England.
- Escape Political Turmoil. English Civil War (1642-1651), beheading of Charles I (1649), Puritan Military Dictatorship (1649-1658), restoration of Stuarts (1660), final overthrow of Stuart rule by Glorious Revolution (1688-1689)
- Enclosure Acts, 16th and 17th Century. Lords fenced in land for use as pasture and drove out tenants. Landless tenants went to cities. Unemployment and debt. Chaos and disorder. Colonies provided an alternative.
- Social Chaos. Jobless, wandering, unattached free white males flood the cities and growing early industrial central centers of England. Often involved in social chaos and without visible means of self-support, these men without families posed a potential political and economic challenge to stability. This pool of untapped labor was to become a source of profit in the colonial expansion of 17th century England.
What were the motivations of the English government?
1-World Power, Economic Prosperity and Social Stability– Victory over Spain in 1588 made England a global superpower. Equating colonial power with world power, colonies were considered an essential element to geo-political dominance in Europe. Mercantilism was viewed as a necessary policy because England had little agricultural advantage. Additionally, as an island nation, England needed to rely on a rising commercially oriented base in which domestic production and manufacturing of goods provided the economic stimulus for domestic prosperity and national wealth. Colonization on a global scale became a high priority. The North American colonies became part of a wider effort in which colonies would assure raw materials for English manufacturers, trade for English merchants, and revenues for the English treasury.
Clash of Culture and Values
-Europeans bring with them their own conceptions of prosperity and development. (“manipulation” of the environment and ecosystem)
-Influenced greatly by the issue of scarcity, they had evolved a conceptualization and practice of how and why they as humans could best manipulate the environment to their own benefit.
-Agricultural revolution (time vs. task)
-limited land for agriculture
-famine, disease, starvation and limits on population density
–Development of natural resources is an unquestioned priority
-Pressures on the indigenous population (especially disease) would
eventually lead to the near destruction of Native American
civilizations.
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