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The Spanish Main

The Spanish Main. And the Black Legend. Spanish Main. Generally, based on the Spanish-led conquest of the New World: the totality of Spanish colonies, both island and mainland holdings

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The Spanish Main

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  1. The Spanish Main And the Black Legend

  2. Spanish Main • Generally, based on the Spanish-led conquest of the New World: the totality of Spanish colonies, both island and mainland holdings • More specifically, and more commonly used: the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, enclosed by the mainland of the Americas (North, Central, South) • Point of departure for merchandise and silver shipped back to Spain

  3. Exploitation • Silver and mercury mining: do you remember Potosí and Huancavelica? • Using the Inka tributary system, the Spanish Viceroy forced natives to deliver as a tribute a weekly quotas of men to the silver and mercury mines. At the start, it was roughly 4 000 a week each for Potosí and Huancavelica. Mineowners also imported several hundred African slaves each year. It is said that the mines killed 3-8 million people. Although an exaggeration, this gives an idea of the appalling conditions. • Official inspectors tried repeatedly to either close the mines or improve working conditions. Despite their urgings, the Crown turned a blind eye: the need for silver was too great.

  4. Life in the mines “Mercury poisoning was not the sole cause of death [at Huancavelica]. Equally lethal were pneumonia, tuberculosis, silicosis (lesions of the lungs caused by silica dust) and asphyxiation (breathing carbon dioxide in badly ventilated tunnels). In 1640 a royal inspector saw three Indians fall into a pit so filled with carbon dioxide that candles couldn’t burn. Although the pit wasn’t deep, the workers did not get up. Their bodies were not retrieved; descending into the pit was too dangerous. “ (Mann 182) PS. The first ventilation shafts were created 80 years after the first of numerous recommendations by inspectors

  5. Fray Bartolomé de las Casas1484-1566 • Chronicler of the first decades of colonization of the New World • Focus on the atrocities against the indigenous people • Author of: • A Short Account of the Destruction of the West Indies (Brevehistoria de la destrucción de lasIndias) • History of the Indies (Historia de lasIndias) • An advocate for Indian rights, he proposed the use of African slaves; may have become partly responsible for the transatlantic slave trade • His views evolved to a condemnations of slavery of any kind • His accounts were passionate, and numbers have been exaggerated or even invented; excessively abusive practices were a reality, however • Translation to English of his accounts (additionally embellished) were used as justification for anti-Spanish action, and subsequent colonizing enterprises

  6. Black Legend • The term indicates an unfavorable image of the Spanish viewed as cruel, violent and intolerant • This image was constructed primarily by Protestant historians criticizing 16th-century Spain and the anti-Protestant policies of Philip II • The term “black legend” was made popular in the early XX century by Spanish historian JuliánJuderías in his book La LeyendaNegra. The concept and practices predate the term. • Translations of Bartolomé de las Casas contributed hugely to the arguments in favor of casting the Spanish in a negative role. • The Black Legend played an important role in US history: it was kept alive during the Mexican War of 1846, and resurfaced, reaching its peak, during the Spanish-American War of 1898 with a publication of a new edition of The Destruction of The West Indies

  7. Crash Course and More https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E9WU9TGrec ADDITIONALLY (and on a more serious tone): the Library of Congress virtual exhibit on the Cultures and History of the Americas: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/kislak/kislak-exhibit.html# • Columbus’ first voyage • Drakes voyage in early maps • Exquemelin’s first edition

  8. England by 1688 • The last Catholic king of England, James II, has been overthrown • The Glorious Revolution (William and Mary) has taken place • The Nine Year’s War (King William’s War, 1688-97) against the French has started • Jamaica is now English domain, set to become prosperous based on sugar and slavery • The Spanish Main becomes less Spanish

  9. Legacies Politics Trade The rising empire and its triangle of wealth • Protestant, anti-Catholic, Parlamentarian

  10. In Case of Any Doubt…

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