The European basis for exploration into the Caribbean
Three main factors:
-Ideology
-Technological Development
-Re-conquest
Thesis
Despite European colonialism influencing the Caribbean’s socio-political and economic institutions resulting in a diversified region, nevertheless, the Caribbean played a major role in the industrial development of Europe.
Ideological Factors
1. a: Bullionism:
The concept of bullionism was never far away from the minds of many adventurers & national administrators as they contemplated exploration.
The concept of bullionism was the belief that the wealth of a nation depended on bullion (gold & silver) that it physically held.
It was, therefore, in the best interest of each state to secure as much of the world's bullion as possible because the belief that the amount of bullion in the world was finite.
Ideological Factors - cont
As a consequence each nation was to capture as much bullion as possible.
This meant an irretrievable loss to other nations which would not benefit from the bullion that was acquired
The theory of bullionism held that exploration was deemed necessary to find new lands and untapped reserves of bullion before other competing nations
Mercantilism
Mercantilist theory was an extension of the bullionist theory.
The mercantilists understood the wealth of the world not only in bullion but also in trading activities that resulted in wealth creation.
Mercantilists argue that control of trade & the control of markets, had a large part to play in the creation & sustenance of a nation's wealth.
Mercantilists held the view that to create and sustain wealth, nations must always have a positive balance of trade.
This meant that the volume & value of a nation's exports must always exceed what was imported.
Mercantilist encouraged exports of locally produced goods, less imports of goods and services & developed local substitutes – import substitution.
Mercantilism - cont
Mercantilists, understood economic prosperity in terms of competition between maritime powers and states.
Thus finding of “new” lands meant new opportunities for trade & wealth creation.
Mercantilist needed to secure trade relations with newly found lands first.
Mercantilists argued that their nations were only secure as long as they excluded other nations from engaging in trade with the newly conquered lands
Colonialism
Colonialism emerged from theories of bullionism & mercantilism.
Colonialism implies formal political control, & loss of sovereignty for the territory annexed.
Colonialism necessitated military, intellectual & psychological warfare to ensure that the wealth derived from newly seized territories came only to the colonial power.
Colonialism -
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the Caribbean this usually meant military control over islands in the Caribbean.
When controlled by a colonial power these islands were compelled to trade only with the dominant metropolitan power.
Colonialism also implied changing the social views of the conquered territories.
Colonialism -
The Caribbean region was especially important from a colonialist perspective
It was thought to be the westerly gateway to the riches of the East
Thus, the Caribbean was of high strategic and mercantilist value in terms of the control of the lucrative trades there.
Colonialism -
Behind the voyages of Columbus lay the urge to the East with its fabled stories of gold and spices popularised by the famous travelogues of Marco Polo and the persistent legend of Prester John.
This stimulated the desire to find a westerly route to the East. – Eric Williams
Religion
Many of the voyages of exploration aimed at the conversion to Christianity of peoples found in any newly found lands.
Catholic nations, such as Spain & Portugal, were keen to explore on behalf of their imperial powers, especially after 1492, when Spain completed a war against the Muslim Moors (Infidels) and succeeded in taking back Granada.
Developments in Technology
a: Nautical Developments
During the 15th C 'patrons' of innovation and exploration merged.
These patrons provided encouragement and much needed funding that facilitated the development of tools and ships for exploration.
Prince Henry the Navigator, a son of the King of Portugal, was one such patron who used his wealth and influence to facilitate the expansionist thrust of the period
Nautical Developments
With his wealth and influence Prince Henry established a school through which seamen were trained and advances in nautical technology were made.
With his encouragement and support, developments emerged in ship design that facilitated better seafaring navigation and that gave ships the ability to travel further, faster and safer on the high seas.
Nautical Developments
Larger, more powerful ships were built, such as the Venetian Galleass, which could accommodate up to 1,200 sailors & was generally used as a warship.
During this period, better riggings for sails were developed.
This resulted in the creation of the new Caravel, with better positioned sails that maximized the trade winds & led to farther voyages into the unknown.
Nautical Developments
The invention of more sophisticated & accurate nautical devices, such as, the quadrant (from about 1456), allowed navigators to more accurately draw maps & locate their positions by use of the compass instead of just the stars.
As the explorers ventured further afield new maps of the world emerged & new ideas about the known world began to dispel ancient beliefs; fallacies & superstitions that had kept Europe relatively confined.
The Reconquest
The rulers of Portugal devoted their energies to expansion and exploration having expelled the Moslems from as early as 1150.
At that time much of Spain was still under Moslem rule.
Spain was not able to enter the fray until after 1492. In that year the crowns of Castile and Aragon were united through the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella
The Reconquest -
As a united force, Spain pushed for the final expulsion of the Moors which took place in 1492.
Spain could now look outwards at expansion.
It is therefore significant that it was in the year of the completion of the reconquista that Christopher Columbus went on his first voyage under the sponsorship of Spain.
The Reconquest -
By then, Portugal had established trade with coastal West Africa which brought much wealth for Portuguese traders.
The Portuguese gained gold, slaves, spices, ivory & pepper.
By 1506, the Portuguese had led the exploration so far on the east coast of Africa that Mozambigue was under their control by 1507 Portugal and later Brazil.
The Reconquest -
Treaty of Tordesillas - 1494
To avoid conflict between Spain & Portugal over the ‘discovered’ lands, Pope Alexander Borgia issued a “papal bull” which divided such lands between Spain & Portugal.
Lands east of an imaginary line located 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands (off the coast of Senegal) were to be given solely to Portugal & west to Spain
Treaty of Tordesillas - Significance
Doctrine of “Effective Occupation” laid the groundwork for continued conflict in the region & the creation of the term “interlopers”.
These conflicts led to various European cultures occupying & thereby influencing Caribbean countries at different times & to differing extents, which has contributed in many ways to our present day diversity.
Spanish Expansionism
Christopher Columbus was the first Spanish explorer to expand the Spanish areas of settlement beyond the Atlantic islands.
Columbus was an experienced seaman & as an Italian had spent time in Portugal & Madeira.
His attempts to get sponsorship for an expedition across the Atlantic from Portugal failed.
Spanish Expansionism
Columbus initiated the tribute system in 1495 to gain: gold, cotton, spices, & cassava.
Spain claimed the right to North & South America.
Spain did not settle the Lesser Antilles because of the Kalinagos & mineral wealth discovered in Mexico & Peru.
The Greater Antilles were settled in the early years of the 16th century however.
Agricultural Change and the Emergence of King Sugar
Sugar planting and the export of sugar (and to a lesser extent its by-product, rum) were the chief mainstays of the Caribbean economy right through to the eighteenth century.
Other agricultural activities also existed prior to, in tandem with, and even apart from sugar production and cultivation in the period
Agricultural Change and the Emergence of King Sugar
The historian Carlyle Batie has shown the importance of other crops, such as tobacco, cotton, indigo, ginger to the early Caribbean economy.
Verene Shepherd, has highlighted the importance of animal pens to the agricultural well-being of the early Caribbean islands since the animals were sources of meat and hides, and also provided mill power for the early colonists.
Agricultural Change and the Emergence of King Sugar
The fertile Caribbean lands provided a source for experiments with many agricultural crops, especially from Europe.
These experiments were intended largely for the domestic market & consisted of subsistence agriculture for the resident Spanish population.
The Spainards introduced a forced system of labour on the native peoples.
The Arrival of the English
The early English “interlopers” established replicas of traditional English society, in which small farmers tilled the land producing cotton and tobacco.
These plantations were relatively small and their staples were never enough for export.
However, experiments with tobacco plantations in Barbados and St. Kitts marked the first real attempts to generate wealth from plantation agriculture.
The Arrival of the English
These experiments mirrored the attempts of the early American settlers in places such as Virginia and Maryland where the practice involved clearing large tracts of land and employing indentured labour (usually white) to cultivate the crop.
The tobacco experiments in the Caribbean were quite successful initially and reached their peak in the period 1627 to 1640.
The Arrival of the English
The successes of the tobacco were due to the high prices on the world market & large number of immigrants coming to the Caribbean.
By the 17th century, Caribbean tobacco could not compete qualitatively or quantitatively with tobacco in North America.
Thus, tobacco was eventually replaced by sugar as the primary export crop.
The Spanish and Cocoa in Trinidad
While cocoa farming was never widely practiced throughout the Caribbean, a significant cocoa industry thrived in Trinidad & Tobago from around the middle of the 17th century.
The cocoa produced in T& T was of a high price and ths encouraged the Spanish settlers to depend heavily on this crop as the mainstay of the agriculture industry at that time.
The Spanish and Cocoa in Trinidad
This cocoa industry was only to have its glory days for about a hundred years.
However, the industry had been severely affected by disastrous agricultural diseases.
Thus, T&T’s demise in the eighteenth century also paved the way for the establishment here, as elsewhere, of sugar.
The Emergence of 'King' Sugar
It was first in Barbados the English colonists turned their attention from cotton & tobacco to the propagation of sugar cane between 1640 to 1660.
The interest in sugar cane cannot be considered an original or novel idea since sugar cultivation had been around off the Atlantic islands & Brazil for a long time and earlier attempts had been made in the region to introduce the crop
The Emergence of 'King' Sugar
Sugar cane was first brought into the wider Atlantic world (Madeira, the Canaries, Sao Tome) by the early Portuguese & Spanish explorers who had hopes of setting up sugar works to appease the growing demand for sugar in Europe
The Spanish had also set up small sugar works in Hispaniola, Cuba and Jamaica as well.
The Emergence of 'King' Sugar
However this spread of the crop attributed to the Portuguese and Spanish, was overshadowed by its quick rise in Brazil from around the mid-seventeenth century.
In fact, the sugar industry that was eventually established by the English in the Caribbean, owes more to the Brazilian industry than it does to the early Spanish and Portuguese industry.
The Emergence of 'King' Sugar
In Brazil it was demonstrated that sugar had the potential to generate large amounts of revenue.
Sugar cane necessitated plantation agriculture; harvest cycle of many years; permanent capital equipment, & settler colonies.
Sugar cane could finance colonial endeavors as well as a justification for the occupation of more territory"
The Emergence of 'King' Sugar
By the mid-17th century, with the Dutch expulsion from the Brazilian sugar enclave of Pernambuco to Barbados in 1654, the Caribbean was now selected to become the new focal point for this most profitable industry.
Barbados's meteoric rise to prominence as a sugar island was later challenged by Jamaica.
The Emergence of 'King' Sugar
Jamaica, having more fertile sugar acreage than any other British Caribbean territory, became the most promising sugar colony.
Its buccaneering status was altered by 1700 by sugar cultivation.
This was aided by generous land grants of thirty acres of land plus thirty more for each family member, servant & enslaved African brought with them.
Labour Diversity and Demographic Change in Caribbean Society
The Encomienda System:
The encomienda system in the Caribbean was patterned after a similar labor system in Spain.
Under the system in the Caribban, Spanairds who were loyal subjects to the Spanish crown, were granted a parcel of land with the right to exact tribute (usually in the form of labour or crops, or both) from the Indians living on the land
The Encomienda System
The encomienda system in the Caribbean was patterned after a similar labor system in Spain.
Under the system in the Caribban, Spanairds who were loyal subjects to the Spanish crown, were granted a parcel of land with the right to exact tribute (usually in the form of labour or crops, or both) from the Indians living on the land
The Encomienda System
The system offered rights to the Indians in the form of payment & provisions.
The Spaniards ignored the requirements & the system became a one-way flow of naked exploitation
The native people were compelled to pay heavy tributes that often took the form of goods & services such as foodstuffs, cloth & labour in plantations & mines.
Resulting in the decimation of the Indians.
The White English Indentured Labourers
English settlements in the Caribbean beganin the 1620s with the breaking of the Spanish monopoly in the Lesser Antilles.
This was followed by similar incursions into the Leewards between 1680 to 1700 and the capture of the prize island of Jamaica in 1655.
With a growing territorial stake in the Caribbean, English colonization was a natural development
The White English Indentured Labourers
The threat of attack & conflict with the native Indians, the English needed residents to recreate a new civilization.
This stage of development has been termed the “frontier Stage” by historians.
The idea of “frontier” thus conveys the concept of a wild & uncharted territory from a European perspective), but also the idea of the meeting of cultures in which only one group would flourish.
The White English Indentured Labourers
The labour requirements were met by young white male bonded servants seeking a better life in the Caribbean.
These indentured servants came under contract & were expected to work for a stipulated number of years, after which time they would be freed of their contracts.
Not surprisingly, few females came out to the Caribbean. For eg, in Barbados in 1635, less than one percent were female
The White English Indentured Labourers
This gender imbalance was reflective of the general perception of frontier society as rough &that women would not be able to survive the harsh conditions.
In the latter part of the 17th century, when the frontier had developed somewhat, more females began coming to the region
By 1680 about twenty percent of the indentured servants were females.
The White English Indentured Labourers
They weeded tobacco & provision fields, & were also responsible for the harvesting & packing of crops.
The females also were often relegated to housework,.
Realizing that they had the indentured servants for a limited time, the owners extracted as much work as possible & also providing the minimum amount of food & support for the indentured servants.
The White English Indentured Labourers
As a result the servants were usually underfed and overworked.
The mortality rate amongst the indentured workers was very high due to disease, deficient diet & overwork
White indentured servants had very little rights & were subject to a number of restrictions.
However, if a free man married a female servant he had to pay her owner twice the market value for her freedom.
The White English Indentured Labourers
If a free man got an indentured servant pregnant he had to provide her owner with another servant for lost labor & must provide for the upkeep of the child.
If the father of the indentured woman’s child was also a servant he had to serve her owner for three years more than his own indenture
No servant (male or female) could marry without the owner's permission.
The White English Indentured Labourers
The landowners were allowed to whip their indentured servants & in some cases commit them to death
This exploitation was largely because they belonged to the poor peasant population of England, Scotland & Ireland,& many had been accustomed to living in city slums.
Some were prostitutes or convicts & had been sent to the Caribbean straight out of jail and had no means of redress.
Enslaved Africans
In 1518 the first enslaved Africans, called ladino because they had lived in Spain & spoke the Castillian language, were introduced to the Caribbean to help mitigate the labour shortage.
This relatively small African presence continued throughout the phase of English colonization and it was not strange to see people of both European and African descent working in the tobacco fields.
Enslaved Africans
This duality of labour came to an end however with the establishment of sugar as the primary plantation crop in the Caribbean.
Successful sugar cultivation required large amounts of labour.
African labour was deemed best suited due to its low cost and because it allowed for an easily distinguishable servile class.
Enslaved Africans
African labor was not a new idea & from 1540s, Las Casas suggested this form of labor.
Central to this idea was the belief that the Africans were ideally suited for the inhumane work of the estates.
The subsequent legalization of the trade in 1549 resulted in enslaved labour – 1834.
Enslaved Africans
Thus, sugar cane with its West African workforce by 1670, came to link the new world & the old in a triangle of wealth, sweat & blood that comprised England, Africa, the North American colonies & the sugar colonies of the Caribbean.
Although persons felt that this industry was morally wrong, nothing was done to remove it until its profitability was brought into question in the late eighteenth century
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