Trading Empires

1. Trading Empires 1450 - 1750

2. Empires: Dutch • Dutch East India Company – “universal carriers” In 1660, employed 12,000 people and had 257 ships. Sought monopolies and large profits. • North America (fur trade along the Hudson river, New Amsterdam) • Caribbean islands for plantation settlements • Cape Town South Africa – way station • Southeast Asia – spice trade (nutmeg in Banda islands, cloves in Melaka and pepper in Banten)

3. Empires: Spain • Columbus’ voyage • Arrival of Cortez in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru • Took over existing tributary empires: labor (mita), silver, gold, and foodstuffs • Demographic impact: disease, death, and mestizos

4. Spain

5. Empires: Portugal • Search for Maritime route to Asia • Advanced naval technology: caravels, carracks, astrolabe and compass • Established fortresses along the Gold Coast – sugar plantations and African slave labor • Indian Ocean trade and Da Gama: Malindi, Sofala and Kilwa, Calicut and Goa, and later Macao • Atlantic trade with conquest of Brazil – sugar plantation

6. Brazil: Plantation colony • Portuguese due to Treaty of Tordesillas 1494 • African slave labor used to support the plantation complex (sugar) • Largest producer of sugar in world first half of 17th C.

7. Empires: African • Characteristics of: • Stateless societies - organized around kinship • Forms of government • Kongo (Congo) – Diving Right • Songhay (Niger/Mali) – Emperor of conquered territories (no local rule) • Oyo & Benin (Nigeria) – Independent city-states • Ashanti (Ghana/Ivory Coast) – Union of states. Gold-trading and transitioned to slave-trading • Some large centralized states – increased unity came from linguistic base – Bantu, Christianity and Islam, as well as indigenous beliefs • Trade – markets, international commerce, taxed trade of unprocessed goods.

8. Gender and Empire • How might colonial conquests influence gender roles?

9. Demographic and Environmental Changes • Predict what the consequences of increased integration and empire building be on population? On the environment? Think long and short term.

10. Land Based Empire vs. Sea Based Empires C Ben Needle Kell High School Marietta, GA Ben.needle@cobbk12.org

11. Self-defense extremely important Examples? Ottoman, Russian, Mughal, Ming Relatively Large Expensive Focused on agricultureand notindustry Many were located in arid & uninhabitable area Involved in forced labor no longer in WE Power was centralized Between 1500 and 1800 had the largest administrative and economic systems because they were more of a threat to each other Few strategic concerns Examples? Spain, Portugal, England Relatively Small Self-sufficient Settled in profitable areas Involved in forced labor Increasingly brutal Power “divided” amongst lands Benefited from private investors or joint-stock companies Land Based Sea Based

12. Labor Systems 1450 – 1750

13. Types of Labor • What are the two main types of labor systems? • Paid and Unpaid • When were paid systems used? • Indentured servants/Debt Peonage • Who were these indentured servants? • Europeans who came over during the first wave of imperialism. • Debt Peonage (enforced servitude) • Debtor provides service until their debt is paid off • Basis of tenant farming and sharecropping in post-Civil War south. • Kept former slaves tied to land • Common in 19th and 20th Century Latin America • What was the second labor force of imperialism? • Indigenous people

14. Indigenous Labor in the New World • What were encomiendas and the mita system? • Land granted to Spanish Conquistadors in Latin America • This land included the Indian Laborers living there • Forced labor system replacing indentured servants with Indian slaves • Based off of the Incan labor system • What were Potosi and Huancavelica? • Largest silver mine and source of mercury • What was the similarity between Viceroyalities and Capitancies? • V = Spanish representative of the king • C = Portuguese representatives of the king (Brazil) • Why were Europeans “forced” to turn slave labor in the New World? • Indigenous people were dying and the emergence of plantations demanded far more labor

15. The Emergence of Slave Labor • Why was there little need for slave labor in the Northern American colonies? • Crops requiring large numbers of laborers were grown in the south • What crops require large amounts of labor? • Rice, tobacco, sugarcane, cotton • As the New World colonies increasingly turned to plantation crops, the need for slave labor skyrocketed

16. Involved approximately 20 million Africans (survived) Triangular Trade West Coast of Africa  Caribbean/Latin America/ North America  Europe 13 – 20% died during the trip Reasons for British Institutionalization of slavery Need for cheap, abundant labor Viewed Africans as less human Natives and European indentured servants worked for only a specific amount of time Other reasons slavery was so successful Seemingly limitless supply Natural increase allowed for population maintenance 1660s(VA) – 300 1756 – 120,000 Thousands were brought in daily at one point The Slave Trade

17. Effects of the Slave Trade • Areas of Africa depopulated • Took youngest and healthiest • Social organization disrupted • Local culture suffered (arts and trade) • Dependent on European goods • African empires lost prominence as power/trade shifted to the coast • Desire for wealth/guns perpetuated the slave trade • View of Africans as an inferior race led to poor race relations today

18. Questions to Consider • What effects would the slave trade have upon Africa in the future? • What effects did the slave trade have upon the New World?