Early European History Part 112

SPANISH COLONIAL POLICY

The government of Spain administered its colonial dominions in the spirit of monopoly. As far as possible it excluded French, English, and other foreigners from trading with Spanish America. It also discouraged ship- building, manufacturing, and even the cultivation of the vine and the olive, lest the colonists should compete with home industries. The colonies were regarded only as a workshop for the production of the precious metals and raw materials. This unwise policy very largely accounts for the economic backwardness of Mexico, Peru, and other Spanish- American countries at the present day. Their rich natural resources have as yet scarcely begun to be utilized.

226. ENGLISH AND FRENCH EXPLORATIONS IN AMERICA

THE CABOT VOYAGES, 1497-1498 A.D.

The English based their claim to the right to colonize North America on the discoveries of John Cabot, an Italian mariner in the service of the Tudor king, Henry VII. [31] In 1497 A.D. Cabot sailed from Bristol across the northern Atlantic and made land somewhere between Labrador and Nova Scotia. The following year he seems to have undertaken a second voyage and to have explored the coast of North America nearly as far as Florida.

Cabot, like Columbus, believed he had reached Cathay and the dominions of the Great Khan. Because Cabot found neither gold nor opportunities for profitable trade, his expeditions were considered a failure, and for a long time the English took no further interest in exploring the New World.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CABOT MEMORIAL TOWER Erected at Bristol, England, in memory of John Cabot and his sons. The foundation stone was laid on June 24, 1897 A.D., the four-hundredth anniversary of John Cabot's first sight of the continent of North America.]

CARTIER'S VOYAGES, 1534-1542 A.D.

The discovery by Magellan of a strait leading into the Pacific aroused hope that a similar pa.s.sage, beyond the regions controlled by Spain, might exist in North America. In 1534 A.D. the French king, Francis I, sent Jacques Cartier to look for it. Cartier found the gulf and river which he named after St. Lawrence, and also tried to establish a settlement near where Quebec now stands. The venture was not successful, and the French did not undertake the colonization of Canada till the first decade of the seventeenth century.

THE NORTHWEST Pa.s.sAGE

English sailors also sought a road to India by the so-called Northwest Pa.s.sage. It was soon found to be an impossible route, for during half the year the seas were frozen and during the other half they were filled with icebergs. However, the search for the Northwest Pa.s.sage added much to geographical knowledge. The names Frobisher Bay, Davis Strait, and Baffin Land still preserve the memory of the navigators who first explored the channels leading into the Arctic Ocean.

THE ENGLISH "SEA DOGS"

When the English realized how little profit was to be gained by voyages to the cold and desolate north, they turned southward to warmer waters. Here, of course, they came upon the Spaniards, who had no disposition to share with foreigners the profitable trade of the New World. Though England and Spain were not at war, the English "sea dogs," as they called themselves, did not scruple to ravage the Spanish colonies and to capture the huge, clumsy treasure-ships carrying gold and silver to Spain. The most famous of the "sea dogs," Sir Francis Drake, was the first Englishman to sail round the world (1577-1580 A.D.).

THE RALEIGH COLONIES, 1584-1590 A.D.

Four years after Drake had completed his voyage, another English seaman, Sir Walter Raleigh, sent out an expedition to find a good site for a settlement in North America. The explorers reached the coast of North Carolina and returned with glowing accounts of the country, which was named Virginia, in honor of Elizabeth, the "Virgin Queen." But Raleigh's colonies in Virginia failed miserably, and the English made no further attempt to settle there till the reign of James I, early in the seventeenth century.

227. THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW

EXPANSION OF EUROPE

The New World contained two virgin continents, full of natural resources and capable in a high degree of colonization. The native peoples, comparatively few in number and barbarian in culture, could not offer much resistance to the explorers, missionaries, traders, and colonists from the Old World. The Spanish and Portuguese in the sixteenth century, followed by the French, English, and Dutch in the seventeenth century, repeopled America and brought to it European civilization. Europe expanded into a Greater Europe beyond the ocean.

SHIFTING OF TRADE ROUTES

In the Middle Ages the Mediterranean and the Baltic had been the princ.i.p.al highways of commerce. The discovery of America, followed immediately by the opening of the Cape route to the Indies, shifted commercial activity from these enclosed seas to the Atlantic Ocean. Venice, Genoa, Hamburg, Lubeck, and Bruges gradually gave way, as trading centers, to Lisbon and Cadiz, Bordeaux and Cherbourg, Antwerp and Amsterdam, London and Liverpool. One may say, therefore, that the year 1492 A.D. inaugurated the Atlantic period of European history. The time may come, perhaps even now it is dawning, when the center of gravity of the commercial world will shift still farther westward to the Pacific.

INCREASED PRODUCTION OF THE PRECIOUS METALS

The discovery of America revealed to Europeans a new source of the precious metals. The Spaniards soon secured large quant.i.ties of gold by plundering the Indians of Mexico and Peru of their stored-up wealth. After the discovery in 1545 A.D. of the wonderfully rich silver mines of Potosi in Bolivia, the output of silver much exceeded that of gold. It is estimated that by the end of the sixteenth century the American mines had produced at least three times as much gold and silver as had been current in Europe at the beginning of the century.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE ENLARGED MONEY SUPPLY

The Spaniards could not keep this new treasure. Having few industries themselves, they were obliged to send it out, as fast as they received it, in payment for their imports of European goods. Spain acted as a huge sieve through which the gold and silver of America entered all the countries of Europe. Money, now more plentiful, purchased far less than in former times; in other words, the prices of all commodities rose, wages advanced, and manufacturers and traders had additional capital to use in their undertakings. The Middle Ages had suffered from the lack of sufficient money with which to do business; [32] from the beginning of modern times the world has been better supplied with the indispensable medium of exchange.

NEW COMMODITIES IMPORTED

But America was much more than a treasury of the precious metals. Many commodities, hitherto unknown, soon found their way from the New World to the Old. Among these were maize, the potato, which, when cultivated in Europe, became the "bread of the poor," chocolate and cocoa made from the seeds of the cacao tree, Peruvian bark, or quinine, so useful in malarial fevers, cochineal, the dye-woods of Brazil, and the mahogany of the West Indies. America also sent large supplies of cane-sugar, mola.s.ses, fish, whale-oil, and furs. The use of tobacco, which Columbus first observed among the Indians, spread rapidly over Europe and thence extended to the rest of the world. All these new American products became common articles of consumption and so raised the standard of living in European countries.

POLITICAL EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVERIES

To the economic effects of the discoveries must be added their effects on politics. The Atlantic Ocean now formed, not only the commercial, but also the political center of the world. The Atlantic-facing countries, first Portugal and Spain, then Holland, France, and England, became the great powers of Europe. Their trade rivalries and contests for colonial possessions have been potent causes of European wars for the last four hundred years.

EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVERIES ON THOUGHT

The sudden disclosure of oceans, islands, and continents, covering one- third of the globe, worked a revolution in geographical ideas. The earth was found to be far larger than men had supposed it to be, and the imagination was stirred by the thought of other amazing discoveries which might be made. From the sixteenth century to the twentieth the work of exploration has continued, till now few regions of the world yet remain unmapped. At the same time came acquaintance with many strange plants, animals, and peoples, and so scientific knowledge replaced the quaint fancies of the Middle Ages.

EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVERIES UPON RELIGION

The sixteenth century in Europe was the age of that revolt against the Roman Church called the Protestant Reformation. During this period, however, the Church won her victories over the American aborigines. What she lost of territory, wealth, and influence in Europe was more than offset by what she gained in America. Furthermore, the region now occupied by the United States furnished in the seventeenth century an asylum from religious persecution, as was proved when Puritans settled in New England, Roman Catholics in Maryland, and Quakers in Pennsylvania. The vacant s.p.a.ces of America offered plenty of room for all who would worship G.o.d in their own way. Thus the New World became a refuge from the intolerance of the Old.

STUDIES

1. On an outline map indicate those parts of the world known in the time of Columbus (before 1492 A.D.).

2. On an outline map indicate the voyages of discovery of Vasco da Gama, Columbus (first voyage), John Cabot, and Magellan.

3. What particular discoveries were made by Cartier, Drake, Balboa, De Soto, Ponce de Leon, and Coronado?

4. Compare the Cosmas map (page 617) with the map of the world according to Homer (page 76).

5. Compare the Hereford map (page 617) with the map of the world according to Ptolemy (page 132).

6. Why has Marco Polo been called the "Columbus of the East Indies"?

7. "Cape Verde not only juts out into the Atlantic, but stands forth as a promontory in human history." Comment on this statement.

8. How did Vasco da Gama complete the work of Prince Henry the Navigator?

9. Show that Lisbon in the sixteenth century was the commercial successor of Venice.

10. "Had Columbus perished in mid-ocean, it is doubtful whether America would have remained long undiscovered." Comment on this statement.

11. Why did no one suggest that the New World be called after Columbus?

12. Show that Magellan achieved what Columbus planned.

13. Why did Balboa call the Pacific the "South Sea"?

14. Why is Roman law followed in all Spanish-American countries?

15. In what parts of the world is Spanish still the common language?

16. Why did the Germans fail to take part in the work of discovery and colonization?