Chapter 17: THe Diversity of American Colonial Societies

Columbian exchange:

Definition: The 2- way exchange between the Americas and the Old World.

From Europe to America:

• Pastoral animals: Before the Europeans came, the only domestic animal was the llama and they were only used for light transportation, milk, and wool. However, when the cows and horses are introduced, it practically became a revolution. Cows provide large food surpluses, milk, and farming labor. Sheep provide wool. Horses change hunting and transportation forever. However, these animals damage the environment significantly.
• Crops: Supported new animals from Europe. New staples to Amerindian diet. Contributed to environmental damage when crops steal nutrients from native plants.
• Diseases: The Americas had absolutely no exposure to the outside world, so when the Spanish came with their diseases, they weren’t immune to them. They died really quickly and in large numbers.
• Technology: Ever heard of iron? Gunpowder? Mines? The Amerindians didn’t, but now they do.

From America to Europe

• Silver: When the Spanish arrived, the first thing they noticed was the enormous amount of gold and silver. Especially silver. It added wealth to Europe’s economy.
• Tomatoes, squash, corn…ect: This is what supported the peasants when they were too poor to eat what they farm. These added supplements to Europe’s diet.
• Cool Stuff: Got countries in Asia to want it, after all, they’re all the way by the east, so they have no way to reach America, so they’ve got to buy it from the Europeans.

Spanish and Portuguese Control

These two empires planned on establishing identical systems in the New World. In 1542, the Council of Indies was established to control all activity in colonies residing in the Americas. However, they had limit power because of geography. So the colonies gained relative freedom and became New Spain (Mexico) and Peru.

The colonies are split into viceroyalties. Each of then had judicial and administrative districts. Portugal got the viceroyalty of what is today Brazil. Spain got southwest U.S., Mexico, Peru, Chiles, northern South America, and La Plata.

Then came the Catholic Conversions... jerks. The Catholic Church sent missionaries to convert the native population. Rather than fully absorbing the religion, it mixed with their own that appeared to Europeans as still inferior (think voodooism). Those who didn’t convert were abused heavily. However, a few people like Bartolome de las Casas, a priest, recognized how severely the indigenous population has been treated and was, at the time, the most influential defender. Soon, the Catholic Church gave up and turns to the towns and becomes the richest institution.

Economy

As mentioned above, there was a lot of silver and gold with Potosi being the largest silver deposit. Spain and Portugal spent a lot of efforts trying to dig them out. Mining eventually took a heavy toll in its surrounding land, for to obtain silver, it has to go through smelting which needs a lot of coal burning too. Method #2 was mixing mercury to get the silver.

I want to point out that mercury played a significant role in history by killing Qin Shi Emperor when he snuff one too many snorts of it. It is so poisonous, China can’t open tomb today cannot be opened for fear of killing villages around it.

Now imagine a lot more. Yeah. Sickness befalls the environment and villages.

Portugal also found the high profits sugar plantations brought them, which brings to our next topic…

Labor (Why so cruel?)

With sugar and tobacco plantations, a lot of unskilled labor is needed. So the Spanish and Portuguese took no time to put the indigenous people to work. The concept of encomienda is introduced – the distribution of goods for Amerindians for Europeans. They also used a twisted version of mita, a tax paid in crops. Still, Africans are preferred over Amerindians. Why? Because Amerindians are sick and weak. Course you choose the strong, immune guys from Africa!

Ethnic Division

The population is mostly divided into whites, Africans, and Amerindians, the majority are slaves. Sometimes, Europeans take in African/Amerindian wives which lead to mixed offspring. Soon, nicknames are given to each of them.

Creoles: Whiteys

Mestizos: White + Amerindians

Mulattos: White + Africans

Castas: mixed ethnicity

To utterly no offence to all races: It’s just that after a while, this makes me think of painting palette where you see green between yellow and blue.

Mixed descendants were often, and all were treated the same as Amerindians and Africans. This led to many rebellions and uprisings. This group of society left a large impact on social status in society.

The French and English Settlements

In the Beginning:

Seeing the success of the Spanish and Portuguese, the English and French move in after a century. Their motivation is money, thus slavery was a necessity. However, these colonies weren’t as organized and sophisticated as the Spanish because there wasn’t a lot of money supporting it, thanks to wars raging in Europe. But there was more of a variety of social structure, culture, and politics.

The English Colonies failed mostly. Sir Humphrey Gilbert is considered to be the first to colonize. Attempts to settle Newfoundland and Roanoke failed. Then, England renewed its efforts to colonize America in the 17^th century. Hoping to make a profit, they used Irish and Scottish immigrants as settlers from newly colonized Ireland.

The South:

The Virginia Company decided to start a colony. Jamestown was settled in hopes of making a quick profit, but dissolved due to poor management, the loss of 80% of its settlers, Indian attacks, disease (it’s a swamp… with mosquitoes… and malaria…) and they were dependent on the help of the local indigenous people. They made no profit. S-s-s-s-sucka…

But despite, that the settlers decided to spread out in Virginia. They established plantations and farms and grew tobacco, trading furs, and lumber. These plantations grew wealthy, as sugar and tobacco are cash crops. But because they were so spread out, no large cities were traded with or formed.

To run these plantations, the farmers used slave labor and indentured servants. Indentured servants are people who are in debt for their voyage to the New World, and pay it off by giving service to an individual for a certain number of years. Slaves top servants.

As the colonies expanded, the House of Burgesses is formed. Fur trade becomes a bigger deal, and the environment gets more ripped up. The indigenous population became reliant on European products like guns, textiles, and metals. And seeing that the rise of trade, plantation owners increases their quota thus needed more slaves. Slavery, however, and mistreatment comes as a package deal. Seeing the abuse they’re getting, slaves revolts rise, and seeing the revolts, plantation owners suppress their slaves even more. Frankly, just be nice.

North:

The New England area is colonized by pilgrims and puritans. Pilgrims are people who want to break from the Church of England. The Puritans, people who don’t want to separate from the church but gives effort to change its policies to those of Calvinists. After, seeing no prevail and massive discrimination, they move the Americas and establish the colony of Plymouth in Massachusetts. They create a rise in population in the colonies, but because they’re the same group of people, it was less diverse.

Massachusetts wasn’t suitable for farming and depended on lumber trade. This caused the area to be more industrialized, thus the lack of need for slaves.