Negotiations of Empire. Bureaucratic stuff Ghana Books / discussion Brown Bag series H-Atlantic...
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Transcript of Negotiations of Empire. Bureaucratic stuff Ghana Books / discussion Brown Bag series H-Atlantic...
Negotiations of Empire
“in observing America, Europe was in the first instance observing itself.”
Sir John ElliottColumbus was involved in “the
production of wonder.”Stephen Greenblatt
What did conquest mean?
Conquest equals the mastery of American space
Sir John Elliott: Empires of the Atlantic World
1) symbolic possession 2) physical occupation of the land 3) peopling of the land
Order and Hierarchy Tension about proper type of society that
should be established in the New World A) recreation of European societies in the
New World B) these societies to be put under the
control of European empires C) societies that actually developed in
the New World diverged from European practice
John Winthrop: “in all times, some must be rich, some high and eminent in power and dignity; others mean and in subjection”
A Modell of Christian Charity (1629)
Authority and the Periphery
Authority flowed not from the centre out towards the periphery but was constructed out of an ongoing series of negotiations, of reciprocal bargaining, between the centre and colonies
Result: conformity to traditional values of order, hierarchy but a willingness to break out of old values and subvert them
Wallerstein
Origin of "modern world-system" in 16th C Western Europe and the Americas
By 19th C virtually every area on earth was incorporated into the capitalist world-economy.
Not homogeneous in cultural, political, and economic terms
Characterized by fundamental differences in
Civilizational development Accumulation of political power and
capital.
Not mere residues or irregularities that can and will be overcome
A lasting division of the world in core, semi-periphery and periphery an inherent feature of the world-system
Core high level of technological development and manufactures complex products
Periphery raw materials, agricultural products and cheap labor for the expanding agents of the core.
core and periphery are not mutually exclusive and fixed
relative to each other and shifting
zone called 'semi-periphery’ acts as a periphery to the core, and a core to the periphery
Continuing co modification of things, including human labor Natural resources land Labor human relationships
being stripped of their "intrinsic" value and turned into commodities in a market which dictates their exchange value.
Spanish Conquests
Caribbean: model for later developments Crucial features: importance of gold and
mining Urban concentration of Spanish Development of encomienda system –
wealth in people rather than in land Conquest through conversion
Spanish expansion
Conquest spread from Hispaniola in two great arcs: one to Panama and one to Cuba and then Mexico
Conquest of Mexico 1519-21 Conquest of Peru 1532-33
Portuguese Encounters and Conquest
Beginnings of expansion 1415 Ceuta, in present day Morocco
Over fifteenth century, moved to Madeira islands, Cape Verde archipelago, Sao Tome and the Principe islands with forts in Morocco, Senegambia and gulf of Guinea
1487 Bartolomeu Dias crossed into Indian ocean
Portuguese expansion
1497-99 Vasco da Gama’s voyage to India 1500 Portuguese move into Brazil Reasons for going to Brazil -counter French colonization -find gold/silver as the Spanish had done in
Potosi -new sources of income to compensate for
declining returns from India
Portugal: slaves and sugar 1450-1530: shipped 156,000 Africans to Brazil, Atlantic islands and Spanish empire
Growth of sugar in late 16th
-1570: 60 engenhos (sugar mills) in Brazil
-1585: 120 engenhos -1612: 192 engenhos
“Without Angola, no
slaves; without slaves; no
sugar, without sugar, no Brazil.”
British Conquest
Jamestown Pirates Gold Tobacco
New England Religious persecution
FranceGeographic Diversity
Major areas of French Atlantic: Marseille, Nantes, Bordeaux and Paris French slaving posts from Senegambia to
Benin, especially Fort Saint Louis and Gorée New France plus Acadia and Terre-Neuve
(Newfoundland) Loisiana Caribbean-Saint Domingue, Martinique,
Guadaloupe and Cayenne
Population
French comparatively small in comparison to British in Americas
-70,000 went to Quebec; 7,000 to other parts of Canada
-300,000 to French Caribbean African: 1,118,000 to French Caribbean
including 800,000 to Saint Domingue
Why did so few French go to the Americas?
High chance of death Limited numbers fleeing religious
persecution Expanding economy in France Movement of peoples governed by the
policies of the French crown and highly centralised French colonial bureaucracy – the Marine
How much control did the French have over their empire?Strengths
Theoretically great tied into a largely
mercantilist set of policies and governed by a connected set of legal codes including the Code Noir
“policing the conduct of slaves,”
Network of admiralty courts and a set of legal traditions called the Coutume de Paris
Weaknesses French interior only
nominally under its control North America less control
than an “intercultural alliance” and “situation of interdependence”
“intercultural alliances” carried out by Jesuits missionaries and fur traders
not bureaucrats or soldiers
Differences between empires
Spain – neither a consolidated or a very well integrated state
Portugal – long a unified kingdom with centralising monarchs, John II and Manuel I
England – diverse set of ethnicities and a model of understatization
France – built upon the principle of incorporation. Large standing officialdom with a large standing army
Maintaining Rule – Spanish America
Spain was the European nation with the most effective control over their colonies
Discovery of silver and gold Spanish empire in America a medieval
construct – Edmundo O’Gorman: “Spanish colonisation is animated by a medieval spirit; whatever it contains that is modern is a blemish in it”
Maintaining Rule – British empire
More control in the peripheries Colonists’ insistence on enjoyment of all
English laws as English subjects Importance of negotiation and
government by consent Aim of government: emulation of French
and especially Spanish modes of colonial government