

 168THEMES IN WORLD HISTORY

 


THIS chapter will examine some aspects of the encounters

between Europeans and the people of the Americas between
the fifteenth and the seventeenth centuries. Some Europeans
ventured out on unknown oceans in order to find trading routes
to areas where spices and silver were to be obtained. The first
to do this were the Spanish and the Portuguese. They persuaded
the Pope to give them the exclusive right to rule over any new
regions they might locate. Christopher Columbus, an Italian,
sponsored by the rulers of Spain, sailed west in 1492, and
thought that the lands he had reached were ‘the Indies’ (India
and countries east of India about which he had read in the
Travels of Marco Polo).
Later exploration indicated that the ‘Indians’ of the ‘New
World’ actually belonged to different cultural groups and were
not part of Asia. Two types of culture were to be found in the
Americas. There were small subsistence economies in the
Caribbean region and in Brazil. There were also powerful
monarchical systems based on well-developed agriculture and
mining. These, like the Aztecs and Mayas of central America
and the Incas of Peru, also had monumental architecture.
The exploration and later the settlement of South America
were to have disastrous consequences for the native people
and their cultures. It also marked the beginning of the slave
trade, with Europeans selling slaves from Africa to work in
plantations and mines in the Americas.

European conquest of the people of America was accompanied

by the ruthless destruction of their manuscripts and
monuments. It was only in the late nineteenth century that
anthropologists began to study these cultures. Still later,
archaeologists found the ruins of these civilisations. The Inca
city of Machu Picchu was rediscovered in 1911. Recently,
photographs taken from the air have shown traces of many
cities now covered by forest.
By contrast, we know the European side of the encounters
in great detail. The Europeans who went to the Americas kept
log-books and diaries of their journeys. There are records left
by officials and Jesuit missionaries (see Theme 7). Europeans
wrote about their ‘discovery’ of the A mericas, and when
histories of the countries of America were written, these were
in terms of European settlements, with little reference to the
local people.

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 CONFRONTATION OF CULTURES 169

People have been living in North and South America and nearby islands
for thousands of years, and many migrations from Asia and from the
South Sea Islands have taken place over time. South America was (and
still is, in parts) densely forested and mountainous, and the Amazon, the
world’s largest river, flows through miles of dense forest. In Mexico, in
central America, there were densely settled areas of habitation along the
coast and in the plains, while elsewhere villages were scattered over
forested areas.


The Arawakian Lucayos lived on a cluster of hundreds of small islands
in the Caribbean Sea, today known as the Bahamas, and the Greater
Antilles. They had been expelled from the Lesser Antilles by the Caribs,
a fierce tribe. In contrast to them, the Arawaks were a people who
preferred negotiation to conflict. Skilled boat-builders, they sailed the
open sea in dugout canoes (canoes made from hollow tree trunks).
They lived by hunting, fishing and agriculture, growing corn, sweet
potatoes, tubers and cassava.
A central cultural value was the organisation of people to produce  
food collectively and to feed everyone in the community. They were   
organised under clan elders. Polygamy was common. The Arawaks  
were animists. As in many other societies, shamans played an   
important role as healers and intermediaries between this world  
    
and that of the supernatural.

MAP 1: Central
America and the
Caribbean Islands

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 170THEMES IN WORLD H ISTORY

The Arawaks used gold for ornaments, but did not attach the
ACTIVITY 1 value to the metal that the Europeans did. They were quite happy to
exchange gold for glass beads brought by the Europeans, because
Discuss the these seemed so much more beautiful. The art of weaving was highly
differences developed – the hammock was one of their specialities, and one which
between the captured the imagination of the Europeans.
Arawaks and the
The Arawaks were generous and were happy to collaborate with
Spanish. Which
of these
the Spanish in their search for gold. It was when Spanish policy became
differences brutal that they were forced to resist, but this was to have disastrous
would you consequences for them. Within twenty-five years of contact with the
consider most Spanish very little remained of the Arawaks or their way of life.
significant and People called the Tupinamba lived on the east coast of South
why? America, and in villages in the forests (the name ‘Brazil’ is derived
from the brazilwood tree). They could not clear the dense forests for
cultivation as they had no access to iron. But they had a healthy and
plentiful supply of fruits, vegetables and fish, and so did not have to
depend on agriculture. The Europeans who met them envied their
happy freedom, with no king, army or church to regulate their lives.


In contrast to the Caribbean and Brazil, there were some highly
organised states in central America. There was a generous surplus of
corn, which provided the basis for the urbanised civilisations of the
Aztecs, Mayas and Incas. The monumental architectural remains of
these cities continue to mesmerise visitors today.

A ball-court marker, 

with inscribed dates,
Maya culture, In the twelfth century, the Aztecs had migrated from the north into
Chiapas, sixth the central valley of Mexico (named after their god Mexitli). They
century. expanded their empire by defeating different tribes, who were forced
to pay tribute.
Aztec society was hierarchical. The nobility included
those who were nobles by birth, priests, and others
who had been awarded the rank. The hereditary
nobility were a small minority who occupied the
senior positions in the government, the army and
the priesthood. The nobles chose from among
them a supreme leader who ruled until his death.
The king was regarded as the representative of
the sun on earth. Warriors, priests and nobles
were the most respected groups, but traders
also enjoyed many privileges and often served the
government as ambassadors and spies. Talented
artisans, physicians and wise teachers wer e
also respected.

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 CONFRONTATION OF CULTURES 171

Since land was limited, the Aztecs undertook reclamations. They   
made chinampas, artificial islands, in Lake Mexico, by weaving huge  
reed-mats and covering them with mud and plants. Between these   
exceptionally fertile islands, canals were constructed on which, in 1325,  
was built the capital city Tenochtitlan. Its palaces and pyramids rose  
dramatically out of the lake. Because the Aztecs were frequently engaged 
in war, the most impressive temples were dedicated to the gods of war
and the sun.
The empire rested on a rural base. People cultivated corn, beans, squash,
pumpkins, manioc root, potatoes and other crops. Land was owned not
by individuals but by clans, which also organised public construction
works. Peasants, like European serfs, were attached to lands owned by
the nobility and cultivated them in exchange for part of the harvest. The
poor would sometimes sell their children as slaves, but this was usually
only for a limited period, and slaves could buy back their freedom.
The Aztecs made sure that all children went to school. Children of
the nobility attended the calmecac and were trained to become military
and religious leaders. All others went to the tepochcalli in their
neighbourhood, where they learned history, myths, religion
and ceremonial songs. Boys received military training
as well as training in agriculture and the trades. Girls
were trained in domestic skills.
In the early sixteenth century, the Aztec empire Maya temple, Tikal,
was showing signs of strain. This was largely to do Guatemala, eighth
century.
with discontent among recently conquered peoples
who were looking for opportunities to break free from
central control.


The Mayan culture of Mexico
developed remarkably between
the eleventh and fourteenth
centuries, but in the sixteenth
century they had less political
power than the Aztecs. Corn
cultivation was central to their
culture, and many religious
ceremonies were centred on
the planting, growing and
harvesting of corn. Efficient
agricultural production generated
surplus, which helped the ruling classes,
priests and chiefs to invest in architecture and
in the development of astronomy and mathematics.
The Mayas devised a pictographic form of writing that
has only been partially deciphered.

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
The largest of the indigenous civilisations in South America was
that of the Quechuas or Incas in Peru. In the twelfth century the
first Inca, Manco Capac, established his capital at Cuzco. Expansion
began under the ninth Inca and at its maximum extent the Inca
empire stretched 3,000 miles from Ecuador to Chile.
The empire was highly centralised, with the king representing
the highest source of authority. Newly conquered tribes were absorbed
effectively; every subject was required to speak Quechua, the language
of the court. Each tribe was ruled independently by a council of elders,
but the tribe as a whole owed its allegiance to the ruler. At the same
time, local rulers were rewarded for their military co-operation. Thus,
like the Aztec empire, the Inca empire resembled a confederacy, with
the Incas in control. There are no precise figures of the population, but
it would seem that it included over a million people.
Like the Aztecs, the Incas too were magnificent builders. They built
MAP 2: South America
roads through mountains from Ecuador to Chile. Their forts were
built of stone slabs that were so perfectly
cut that they did not require mortar. They
used labour -intensive technology to
carve and move stones from nearby
rock falls. Masons shaped the blocks,
using an effective but simple method called
flaking. Many stones weighed more
than 100 metric tons, but they did not
have any wheeled vehicles to transport
these. Labour was organised and very
tightly managed.
The basis of the Inca civilisation was
agriculture. To cope with the infertile soil
conditions, they terraced hillsides and
developed systems of drainage and
irrigation. It has been recently pointed out
that in 1500, cultivation in the Andean
highlands was much greater than what
it is today. The Incas grew corn and
potatoes, and reared llamas for food
and labour.
Their weaving and pottery were of a high
quality. They did not develop a system of
writing. However, there was an accounting
system in place – the quipu, or cords upon
which knots were made to indicate specific
mathematical units. Some scholars now
suggest that the Incas wove a sort of code
into these threads.

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 CONFRONTATION OF CULTURES 173

             The hilltop town of
             Machu Picchu. It
              escaped the notice of
the Spaniards and was
           
therefore not
        
destroyed.

        
     

     
   
   
    
     
       
   
      
      
        
           
 

The organisation of the Inca empire, with its pyramid-like

structure, meant that if the Inca chief was captured, the chain of
command could quickly come apart. This was precisely what
happened when the Spaniards decided to invade their country.
The cultures of the Aztecs and Incas had certain features in
common, and were very different from European culture. Society was
hierarchical, but there was no private ownership of resources by a
few people, as in Europe. Though priests and shamans were accorded
an exalted status, and large temples were built, in which gold was
used ritually, there was no great value placed on gold or silver. This
was also in marked contrast to contemporary European society.
ACTIVITY 2

 Examine a
detailed
The people of South America and the Caribbean got to know of the physical map
existence of European people when the latter began to sail across of South
the Atlantic Sea. The magnetic compass, which helped identify the America. To
cardinal points accurately, had been known since 1380, but only in what extent do
the fifteenth century did people use it when they ventured on voyages you think
into unknown areas. By this time many improvements had been geography
influenced the
made in European sailing ships. Larger ships were built, that could
developments
carry a huge quantity of cargo as well as equipment to defend
of the Inca
themselves if attacked by enemy ships. The circulation of travel empire?
literature and books on cosmography and geography created
widespread interest right through the fifteenth century.

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 174THEMES IN WORLD H ISTORY

  In 1477, Ptolemy’s Geography (written 1,300 years earlier) became
   available in print (see Theme 7) and thus came to be widely read.
   According to Ptolemy, an Egyptian, the regions of the world were
   arranged in terms of latitudes and longitudes. Reading these texts
  gave Europeans some knowledge of the world, which they understood
   to have three continents, namely, Europe, Asia and Africa. Ptolemy
    had suggested that the world was spherical, but he underestimated
  the width of the oceans. Europeans had no idea of the distance they
  would have to travel in the Atlantic before they reached land. Since
 they imagined it would be a short voyage, there were many who
were ready to venture forth recklessly beyond the known seas.
People from the Iberian peninsula – the Portuguese and the
Spanish – were the pioneers in the fifteenth-century voyages of
exploration. For a long time these were called ‘voyages of discovery’.
Later historians, however, argued that these were not the first voyages
that people of the “Old World” made to lands unknown to them.
Arabs, Chinese and Indians had navigated vast stretches of ocean,
and sailors from the Pacific Islands (the Polynesians and
Micronesians) had made major ocean crossings. The Vikings of
Norway had reached North America in the eleventh century.
Why were Spanish and Portuguese rulers in particular so receptive
to the idea of funding a maritime quest? What produced such a
passion for gold and treasure and for glory and titles? One may find
the answers in a combination of three motives: economic, religious
and political.
The European economy went through a decline from the mid-
fourteenth to the mid-fifteenth centuries (see Theme 6). Plague and
wars led to depopulation in many parts of Europe, trade grew slack,
and there was a shortage of gold and silver, used for making European
coins. This situation was in stark contrast to the preceding period
(from the eleventh to the mid-fourteenth centuries) when growing
trade had supported Italian city-states and led to the accumulation
of capital. In the late fourteenth century, long-distance trade declined,
and then became difficult after the Turks conquered Constantinople
in 1453. Italians managed to do business with Turks, but were now
required to pay higher taxes on trade.
The possibility that many more people could be brought into the
fold of Christianity made many devout Christian Europeans ready
to face adventure.
As it happened, the ‘Crusades’ against the Turks (see Theme 4) began
as a religious war, but they increased Europe’s trade with Asia and
created a taste for the products of Asia, especially spices. If trade could
be followed by political control, with European countries establishing
‘colonies’ in regions with a warmer climate, they would benefit further.
When thinking of new regions where gold and spices might be found,
one possibility was West Africa, where Europeans had not traded directly
so far. Portugal, a small country which had gained independence from

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 CONFRONTATION OF CULTURES 175

Spain since 1139, and which had developed fishing and sailing skills,   
took the lead. Prince Henry of Portugal (called the Navigator) organised  
the coasting of West Africa and attacked Ceuta in 1415. After that,   
more expeditions were organised, and the Portuguese established a  
trading station in Cape Bojador in Africa. Africans were captured  
and enslaved, and gold dust yielded the precious metal.    
In Spain, economic reasons encouraged individuals to become 
knights of the ocean. The memory of the Crusades and the success
of the Reconquista fanned private ambitions and gave rise to contracts
known as capitulaciones. Under these contracts the Spanish ruler
claimed rights of sovereignty over newly conquered territories and
gave rewards to leaders of expeditions in the form of titles and the
right to govern the conquered lands.


Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was a self-taught man who
sought adventure and glory. Believing in prophecies, he was
convinced that his destiny lay in discovering a route to the East (the
‘Indies’) by sailing westwards. He was inspired by reading Imago
Mundi (a work on astronomy and geography) by Cardinal Pierre d’Ailly
written in 1410. He submitted his plans to the Portuguese Crown,
only to have them turned down. He had better luck with the Spanish
authorities who sanctioned a modest expedition that set sail from
the port of Palos on 3 August 1492.
Nothing, however, prepared Columbus and his crew for the long     
Atlantic crossing that they embarked upon, or for the destination    
that awaited them. The fleet was small, consisting of a small nao   
called Santa Maria, and two caravels (small light ships) named Pinta    
and Nina. Columbus himself commanded the Santa Maria along with   
40 capable sailors. The outward journey enjoyed fair trade winds but   
was long. For 33 days, the fleet sailed without sight of anything but   
sea and sky. By this time, the crew became restive and some of them   
demanded that they turn back.
On 12 October 1492, they sighted land; they had reached what
Columbus thought was India, but which was the island of Guanahani
in the Bahamas. (It is said that this name was given by Columbus, who
described the Islands as surrounded by shallow seas, baja mar in Spanish.)
They were welcomed by the Arawaks, who were happy to share their food
and provisions; in fact, their generosity made a deep impression upon
Columbus. As he wrote in his log-book, ‘They are so ingenuous and free
with all they have, that no one would believe it who has not seen of it,
anything they possess, if it be asked of them, they never say no, on the
contrary, they invite you to share it and show as much love as if their
hearts went with it’.
Columbus planted a Spanish flag in Guanahani (which he renamed
San Salvador), held a prayer service and, without consulting the local

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 176THEMES IN WORLD H ISTORY

Europeans meet native

Americans – a
European woodblock
print, sixteenth
century.

people, proclaimed himself viceroy. He enlisted their cooperation

in pressing forward to the larger islands of Cubanascan (Cuba,
which he thought was Japan!) and Kiskeya (renamed Hispaniola,
today divided between two countries, Haiti and the Dominican
Republic). Gold was not immediately available, but the explorers
had heard that it could be found in Hispaniola, in the mountain
streams in the interior.
But before they could get very far, the expedition was overtaken by
accidents and had to face the hostility of the fierce Carib tribes. The
men clamoured to get back home. The return voyage proved more
difficult as the ships were worm-eaten and the crew tired and homesick.
The entire voyage took 32 weeks. Three more voyages followed, in the
course of which Columbus completed his explorations in the Bahamas
and the Greater Antilles, the South American mainland and its coast.
  
Subsequent voyages revealed that it was not the ‘Indies’ that the
   
Spaniards had found, but a new continent.
   
Columbus’s achievement had been to discover the boundaries of
  
what seemed like infinite seas and to demonstrate that five weeks’ sailing
with the trade wind took one to the other side of the globe. Since places
are often given the names of individuals, it is curious that Columbus is
commemorated only in a small district in the USA and in a country in
north-western South America (Columbia), though he did not reach either
of these areas. The two continents were named after Amerigo Vespucci,
a geographer from Florence who realised how large they might be, and
described them as the ‘New World’. The name ‘America’ was first used
by a German publisher in 1507.

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 CONFRONTATION OF CULTURES 177


ACTIVITY 3
        
What according
        to you were the
 reasons for
        people from
different
      European
countries
      
wanting to take
      the risk of going
on a ‘voyage of
        discovery’?
   
    
    
    
     
     


Spanish expansion was based on a display of military strength with the
use of gunpowder and of horses. The local people were compelled either to
pay tribute or to work in gold and silver mines. The initial discovery was
typically followed by establishing a small settlement, peopled by a few
Spaniards who supervised the labour of the local inhabitants. Local chieftains
were enlisted to explore new lands and, hopefully, more sources of gold.
The greed for gold led to violent incidents provoking local resistance. The
Spanish friar Bartolome de las Casas, the most severe critic of the Spanish
conquerors, observed that the Spanish often tested their swords on the
naked flesh of the Arawaks.
To military repression and forced labour was added the ravages of
disease. The diseases of the Old World, particularly smallpox wreaked
havoc on the Arawaks whose lack of immunity resulted in large-scale
deaths. The local people imagined these diseases were caused by ‘invisible
bullets’ with which the Spaniards attacked them. The extinction of the
Arawaks and all traces of their way of life is a silent reminder of their tragic
encounter with Spaniards.
The expeditions of Columbus were followed by a sustained and successful
exploration of Central and South America. Within half a century, the Spanish
had explored and laid claim to a vast area of the western hemisphere, from
approximately latitudes 40 degrees north to 40 degrees south, without
anyone challenging them.

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 178THEMES IN WORLD H ISTORY

Before this, the Spanish conquered lands of two great empires of the
region. This was largely the work of two individuals: Hernan Cortes
(1488-1547) and Francisco Pizarro (1478-1541). Their explorations were
financed by members of the landed gentry in Spain, officials of municipal
councils and noblemen. Those joining the expeditions supplied their
own equipment in exchange for a share of the booty they expected from
the conquests.


Cortes and his soldiers (called conquistadores) conquered Mexico swiftly
and ruthlessly. In 1519, Cortes set sail from Cuba to Mexico, where he
made friends with the Totonacs, a group who wanted to secede from Aztec
rule. The Aztec king, Montezuma, sent an official to meet him. He was
terrified at the aggressiveness of the Spanish, their gunpowder and their
horses. Montezuma himself was convinced that Cortes was the reincarnation
of an exiled god who had returned to avenge himself.


         
           
         
           
         
 
         

    
   
          
   
          
            
   
  
   The Spaniards pressed against the Tlaxcalans, fierce fighters who
  submitted only after a stiff resistance. The Spaniards proceeded to
   massacre them cruelly. Then they marched to Tenochtitlan, which
  they reached on 8 November 1519.
  The invading Spaniards were dumbstruck at the sight of
  
Tenochtitlan. It was five times larger than Madrid and had 100,000
 
    inhabitants, twice the population of Seville, Spain’s largest city.
   Cortes was cordially received by Montezuma. The Aztecs led the
   Spaniards into the heart of the city, where the Emperor showered
  them with gifts. His people were apprehensive, having heard of the
    massacre of the Tlaxcalans. An Aztec account described the situation:
  ‘It was as though Tenochtitlan had given shelter to a monster. The
  
 
people of Tenochtitlan felt as if everyone had eaten stupefying
    mushrooms... as if they had seen something astonishing. Terror
  dominated everyone, as if all the world were being disemboweled...
people fell into a fearful slumber.’

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 CONFRONTATION OF CULTURES 179

The fears of the Aztecs proved to be well founded. Cortes without any
explanation placed the Emperor under house arrest and attempted to
rule in his name. In an attempt to formalise the Emperor’s submission
to Spain, Cortes installed Christian images in the Aztec temple. Above: A European
sketch of Tenochtitlan,
Montezuma, on his part, suggested a compromise and placed both
sixteenth century.
Aztec and Christian images in the temple.
At this point, Cortes had to leave his deputy in charge and hurry Below: The grand
stairway that led to the
back to Cuba. The high-handedness of the Spanish occupation and temples in the centre of
their incessant demands for gold provoked a general uprising. Tenochtitlan, now a
Alvarado ordered a massacre during the Aztec spring festival of ruin in Mexico City.
Huizilpochtli. When Cortes returned
on 25 June 1520, he had on his
hands a full-blown crisis. The
causeways were cut, the bridges
taken away and the net closed. The
Spaniards faced acute shortages of
food and drinking water. Cortes was
forced to retreat.
Around this time, Montezuma died
under mysterious circumstances.
The Aztecs continued to fight the
Spaniards. 600 conquistadores
and many more of their Tlaxcalan
allies were killed in what is known
as the Night of Tears. Cortes was
forced to retreat to Tlaxcala to plan
his strategy against the newly
elected king, Cuatemoc. By then,
the Aztecs were dying from the
dreaded smallpox which had come
with the Europeans. With just 180
soldiers and 30 horses, Cortes
moved into Tenochtitlan as the
Aztecs prepared for their final
stand. The Aztecs thought they
could see omens foretelling that
their end was near, and because
of this the Emperor chose to give
up his life.
The conquest of Mexico had taken
two years. Cortes became Captain-
General of New Spain in Mexico
and was showered with honours
by Charles V. From Mexico, the
Spaniards extended their control
over Guatemala, Nicaragua and
the Honduras.

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 180THEMES IN WORLD H ISTORY


Pizarro, in contrast to Cortes, was uneducated and poor when he
joined the army and found his way to the Caribbean Islands in 1502.
He had heard stories about the Inca kingdom as a land of silver and
gold (El-dor-ado). He made repeated attempts to reach it from the
Pacific. On one of his journeys back home, he was able to meet the
Spanish king and show him beautifully designed gold jars of Inca
workmanship. The king’s greed was aroused, and he promised Pizarro
the governorship of the Inca lands if he conquered it. Pizarro planned
to follow Cortes’ method, but was disconcerted to find that the
situation in the Inca empire was different.
In 1532, Atahualpa secured the throne of the Inca empire after a
civil war. Pizarro arrived on the scene and captured the king
after setting a trap for him. The king offered a roomful of gold as
ransom for his release – the most extravagant ransom recorded in
history – but Pizarro did not honour his promise. He had the king
executed, and his followers went on a looting spree. This was followed
by the occupation of the country. The cruelty of the conquerors
provoked an uprising in 1534 that continued for two years, during
which time thousands died in war and due to epidemics.
In another five years, the Spanish had located the vast silver mines
in Potosi (in Upper Peru, modern Bolivia) and to work these they
made the Inca people into slaves.

A gold statuette of a
woman, Peru. This

was found in a tomb The Portuguese occupation of Brazil occurred by accident. In 1500, a
which the Spanish
missed, and therefore
grand procession of ships set out from Portugal for India, headed by
was not melted down. Pedro Alvares Cabral. To avoid stormy seas, he made a wide loop around
West Africa, and found to his surprise that he had reached the coast of
present-day Brazil. As it happened, this eastern part of South America
was within the section assigned on the map to Portugal by the Pope, so
they regarded it as indisputably theirs.
The Portuguese were more eager to increase their trade with western
India than with Brazil, which did not promise any gold. But there was
one natural resource there which they exploited: timber. The brazilwood
tree, after which the Europeans named the region, produced a beautiful
red dye. The natives readily agreed to cut the trees and carry the logs to
the ships in exchange for iron knives and saws, which they regarded as
marvels. (’For one sickle, knife or comb [they] would bring loads of
hens, monkeys, parrots, honey, wax, cotton thread and whatever else
these poor people had’.)
‘Why do you people, French and Portuguese, come from so far away
to seek wood? Don’t you have wood in your country?’ a native asked a
French priest. At the end of their discussion, he said ‘I can see that you
are great madmen. You cross the sea and suffer great inconvenience

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 CONFRONTATION OF CUL TURES 181

and work so hard to accumulate riches for your children. Is the land that
nourished you not sufficient to feed them too? We have fathers, mothers ACTIVITY 4
and children whom we love. But we are certain that after our death the
land that nourished us will also feed them. We therefore rest without Analyse the
further cares.’ effects of contact
This trade in timber led to fierce battles between Portuguese and French with the
Europeans on
traders. The Portuguese won because they decided to ‘settle’ in/colonise
the native people
the coast. In 1534, the king of Portugal divided the coast of Brazil into of South
fourteen hereditary ‘captaincies’. To the Portuguese who wanted to live America.
there he gave landownership rights, and the right to make the local people Describe their
into slaves. Many Portuguese settlers were veterans of the wars in Goa, in reactions to the
India, and were brutal to the local people. settlers and the
In the 1540s, the Portuguese began to grow sugarcane on large Jesuits.
plantations and built mills to extract sugar, which was then sold in Europe.
In this very hot and humid climate they depended on the natives to work
the sugar mills. When the natives refused to do this exhausting
and dreary work, the mill-owners resorted to kidnapping them to work
as slaves.
The natives kept retreating into the forests to escape the ‘slavers’ and, as
time went on, there were hardly any native villages on the coast; instead,
there were large, well-laid-out European towns. Plantation owners were
then forced to turn to another source for slaves: West Africa. This
was a contrast to the Spanish colonies. A large part of the population in the
Aztec and Inca empires had been used to labouring in mines and fields, so
the Spanish did not need to formally enslave them or to look elsewhere
for slaves.
In 1549, a formal government under the Portuguese king was
established, with the capital in Bahia/Salvador. From this time,
Jesuits started to go out to Brazil. European settlers disliked them    
because they argued for humane interaction with the natives,     
ventured into the forests to live in villages, and sought to teach    
them Christianity as a joyous religion. Above all, the Jesuits strongly  
criticised slavery.    


  
What had begun as uncertain voyages came to have lasting
  
consequences for Europe, the Americas and Africa.
  
From the fifteenth century, European maritime projects produced
  
knowledge of continuous sea passages from ocean to ocean. Before
 
this, most of these passages had been unknown to Europeans.
  
Some were not known to anyone. No ship had penetrated the
  
Caribbean or the Americas. The South Atlantic was wholly

unexplored; no sea-going ship had ever entered its waters, much
less crossed it, or sailed from it to the Pacific or the Indian Ocean. In    
the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, all these feats    
were accomplished.

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 182THEMES IN WORLD H ISTORY

For Europe, the ‘discovery’ of the Americas had consequences for

others besides the initial voyagers. The influx of gold and silver helped
further expansion of international trade and industrialisation. Between
1560 and 1600, a hundred ships each year carried silver from South
American mines to Spain. But it was not Spain
and Portugal that benefited. They did not invest
their huge income in further trade, or in
building up a merchant navy. Instead, it was
the countries bordering the Atlantic,
particularly England, France, Belgium and
Holland, that took advantage of the
‘discoveries’. Their merchants formed joint-
stock companies and sent out trading
expeditions, established colonies and
introduced Europeans to the products of the
New World, including tobacco, potatoes, cane-
sugar, cacao and rubber.
Europe also became familiar with new crops
from America, notably potatoes and chillies.
These were then taken by Europeans to other
countries like India.
For the native people of the Americas, the
immediate consequences were the physical
decimation of local populations, the destruction
of their way of life and their enslavement in
mines, plantations and mills.
Estimates indicate that pre-conquest Mexico
had a population of between 30 and 37.5 million,
the Andean region a similar number while
Sketch of a typical Central America had between 10 and 13 million.
Spanish township in The natives on the eve of the arrival of the Europeans totalled 70 million. A
South America. century and a half later, they had reduced to 3.5 million. Warfare and
disease were primarily responsible for this.
The sudden destruction of the two major civilisations – those of the
Aztecs and the Incas – in America highlights the contrasts between the
  two cultures in combat. Both with the Aztecs and the Incas, the nature of
  warfare played a crucial role in terrorising local inhabitants psychologically
   and physically. The contest also revealed a fundamental difference in
    values. The Spanish avarice for gold and silver was incomprehensible to
   the natives.
  The enslavement of the population was a sharp reminder of the
  brutality of the encounter. Slavery was not a new idea, but the South
  American experience was new in that it accompanied the emerging
  capitalist system of production. Working conditions were horrific,
  but the Spanish regarded the exploitation as essential to their
    economic gain.


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 CONFRONTATION OF CULTURES 183

            
          
           
          
   

In 1601, Philip II of Spain publicly banned forced labour, but

made arrangements by a secret decree for its continuation. Things came
to a head with the law of 1609, which gave full freedom to the local people,
Christian and non-Christian alike. The European settlers were enraged,
and within two years they had forced the king to revoke this law and to
permit enslavement once again.
As new economic activities began – cattle farming on lands cleared of
forests, and mining after the discovery of gold in 1700 – the demand for
cheap labour continued. It was clear that the local people would resist
enslavement. The alternative was to turn to Africa. Between the 1550s and
1880s (when slavery was abolished in Brazil) over 3,600,000 African slaves
were imported into Brazil. This was almost half the total number of African
MAP 3: Africa,
slaves imported into the Americas. In 1750, there were individuals who
indicating regions
owned as many as a thousand slaves. from where slaves
From the early debates in the 1780son abolishing slavery, there were were captured
those who argued that slavery existed
in Africa prior to the entry of the
Europeans, indeed slaves formed the
bulk of the labour-force in the states
being for med in Africa from
the fifteenth century. They also
pointed out that European traders
were helped by Africans who helped
capture young men and women to be
sold as slaves, in return for crops
imported from South America
(maize, manioc and cassava, which
became their staple foods). In his
autobiography (1789), the freed
slave Olaudah Equiano replied to
these arguments by saying that
slaves in Africa were treated as part
of the family. In the 1940s, in his
book Capitalism and Slavery, Eric
Williams was one of the first modern
historians to initiate a reassessment
of the suffering experienced by
African slaves.

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184THEMES IN WORLD H ISTORY


In the early nineteenth century, European settlers in the South
American colonies were to rebel against Spain and Portugal and
become independent countries, just as in 1776 the thirteen North
American colonies rebelled against Britain and formed the United
States of America.
South America today is also called ‘Latin America’. This is because
Spanish and Portuguese, two of the main languages of the continent,
are part of the Latin family of languages. The inhabitants are mostly
native European (called Creole), European, and African by origin.
Most of them are Catholics. Their culture has many elements of
native traditions mixed with European ones.



          

        
   
            
     
          
    


            
       
           
  

2022-23