Chapter 16
Transatlantic Economy, Trade Wars, and
Colonial Rebellion
Overview
Mid-18th c. was a renewal of European warfare:
Austria vs. Prussia over dominance of central Europe
Great Britain vs. France for commercial & colonial supremacy
Outcomes:
Prussia emerges as great power
Great Britain gains world empire
Peace results (Peace of Paris, 1763) led to restructuring of
taxation & finance:
American Revolution
Continental enlightened absolutism
Continuing French financial crisis
Reform of Spanish South American empire
“Old Custom House Quay”
Samuel Scott
European Overseas Empires
Four phases of European contact with the New World:
Discovery, exploration, conquest, settlement—to end of 17th c.
Mercantile empires & great power trade rivalries (GB, France,
Spain); slavery; colonial independence—to 1820s.
• Commercial goals lead to intense rivalry and conflict.
• Leads to creation of large navies, thus naval wars.
• Fundamental element of this phase is Slavery.
• By 18th Century New World Slave population almost entirely
black.
• Finally, emancipation from European control.
European Overseas Empires
19th-c. Empires in Africa & Asia
• Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Algeria
• Trade, national honor, Christian Missionary
enterprise, and military strategy.
Decolonization, mid- to late 20th c.
• Dominate socially, economically, intellectually.
• Essentially destroy existing cultures.
Source of European world domination:
technology (ships & guns)
Mercantile Empires, early 18th c.—
boundaries set by 1713 Treaty of Utrecht
Spain: South America except for Brazil; Florida, Mexico,
California & SW North America; Central America;
Caribbean possessions (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, DR).
Britain: N. Atlantic seaboard, Nova Scotia,
Newfoundland; Caribbean possessions (Bermuda, Jamaica,
Barbados); trading posts on Indian subcontinent
France: St. Lawrence, Ohio, & Mississippi river valleys;
Caribbean possessions (Haiti, Guadalupe, Martinique);
trading posts in India & West Africa
Netherlands: Surinam (S. America); Cape Colony (S.
Africa); trading posts in West Africa, Sri Lanka, & India;
also controlled trade with Java (Indonesia) in SE Pacific
Mercantilist Goals (Characteristics)
1. Bullionism:”Hard Money” Source of wealth.
Export more than you import.
2. Each nation to achieve economic self
sufficiency.
3.
Thriving agriculture to be encouraged.
Less of a need to import food.
Prosperous farmers could provide based of taxation.
Mercantilist Goals (Characteristics)
Sea Power necessary for control of foreign
markets.
Imposition of all internal taxes.
Colonies would provide captive markets
with raw materials.
Trade is a “zero-sum” game.
Must gain at the expense of others
Mercantilist Goals (Characteristics)
A large population was needed to provide a
domestic labor force to people the colonies.
Luxury items should be avoided
They took money out of the economy unnecessarily.
State action was needed to regulate and enforce
all of these economic policies.
State-sponsored trade monopolies
French-British Rivalry
N. American colonial quarrels over St. Lawrence
River valley, upper New England, Ohio River
valley; fishing rights, fur trade, Native American
alliances
Biggest area of rivalry: West Indies—tobacco,
cotton, indigo, coffee, sugar
The commodities were becoming part of everyday
life.
Sugar a staple, rather than a luxury
India: factories, European trading posts.
The Spanish Colonial System
Until mid 1700’s, primary purpose was to mine
metal for Spain in New World.
Colonial Government
The technical link between New World and Spain was
crown of Castile (Queen Isabella)
Castilian monarch effectively nominates viceroys to
serve as chief executives in New World and carry out
law from Council of Indies.
top-down administration, almost no local selfgovernment
Trade Regulation
Only one port authorized for use in
American trade (Cadiz)
Casa de Contratación (House of Trade)
regulated all trade with New World
Functioned to serve Spanish commercial
interests (precious-metal mines)
Flota (Commercial Vessels) system tried to
ensure Spanish economic hegemony.
Colonial Reform under the
Spanish Bourbon Monarchs
Crucial early 18th-c. change: War of the Spanish
Succession (1701–1714) and Treaty of Utrecht replaced
Spanish Habsburgs with Bourbons of France
Philip V (r. 1700–1714) and successors tried to revive
decaying trade monopoly, suppress smuggling.
Charles III (r. 1759–1788): most important imperial
reformer—royal representatives favored over local
councils; improved imperial economy, but introduced
tensions between Spanish from Spain (Peninsulares) and
creoles (Spanish born in America).
This discontent and resentment from creoles would lead to
wars of revolution in the early 19th Century.
Map 16–1
VICEROYALTIES IN
LATIN AMERICA IN
1780 The late
eighteenth-century
viceroyalties in Latin
America display the
effort of the Spanish
Bourbon monarchy to
establish more direct
control of the colonies.
They sought this control
through the introduction
of more royal officials
and by establishing more
governmental districts.
The Silver Mines of Potosí. Worked by conscripted Indian laborers under
extremely harsh conditions, these mines provided Spain with a vast
treasure in silver.
African Presence in Americas
Had always existed in some form in parts of Europe, but
from 16th c., became fundamental to the British & Spanish
imperial economies (plantation economy)
Driven by labor shortage due to disease that killed
hundreds of thousands of natives.
Supplied by internal African warfare: slave markets on
West African coast—not imposed by Europeans, but
preexisting
Began in 16th c. in Spanish America, 17th c. in British
America
West Indies, Brazil, Sugar
Far more slaves imported into West Indies and
Brazil than North America.
Over a century of slave trading preceded
Jamestown in 1619.
By early 1700’s 20,000 new Africans a year
arrived in the West Indies as slaves.
Slave trade grew in 18th c. because of low fertility
rate and high mortality rate of established slaves—
difficult to create stable self-reproducing
population
This eighteenth-century print shows bound African captives being forced to a
slaving port. It was largely African middlemen who captured slaves in the interior
and marched them to the coast.
North Wind Picture Archives
Map 16–2 THE SLAVE TRADE, 1400–1860 Slavery is an ancient institution and complex
slave-trading routes were in existence in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia for centuries, but
it was the need to supply labor for the plantations of the Americas that led to the greatest
movement of peoples across the face of the earth.
Sugar was both raised and processed on plantations such as this one in Brazil.
© Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS
Slavery and the Transatlantic
Economy
Slave trade dominance:
16th Century: Portuguese and Spanish
17th Century: Dutch
18th Century: English and French
“Triangular Trade”
Guns to Africa---exchanged for slaves---taken to West
Indies---they were traded for sugar and other products--which were then shipped to Europe.
New England to West Indies
18th Century political turmoil in Africa (Kongo),
increases supply of slaves.
The Middle Passage
The Experience of Slavery
Estimated 9 million Africans or more brought to Americas
over 4 centuries. The largest forced intercontinental
migration in history.
More black slaves came to New World than did free
European settlers.
Bad conditions crossing, disease, death.
“Seasoned” slaves worth more than those newly arrived.
“Seasoning”: Process where slaves understood they were
no longer free.
New names, new work skills, learning local European language.
New slaves are “apprentices” to older slaves
The Experience of Slavery
Maintenance of ethnic bonds in the New World—African
language, religion
Plantation life:
Varied from colony to colony.
Limited protection
Owners fear of revolt, thus slave laws that favor master.
Corporal punishment
Did not recognizes slave marriages
Legally children of slaves were slaves, owned also by owner.
Some slaves mixed Christianity with African religions
Corporal Punishment
The Experience of Slavery
One of factors that continued slavery was racist
ideology.
Africans considered “savages” by Europeans,
Christians and Muslims.
Image of blackness evokes negative connotation
by many European cultures.
Slaves on the plantations of the American South were the chattel property of their
masters, and their lives were grim. Some artists sought to disguise this harsh reality by
depicting the lighter moments of slave society as in this scene of slaves dancing.
Getty Images Inc.—Hulton Archive Photos
The Slave Ship Brookes This print records the main decks of the 320-ton slave ship
Brookes.
Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
Middle passage - Amistad
Mid-Eighteenth-Century Wars
Mid 18th Century instability leads to prolonged
warfare by major states.
Assumption is that war could further national
interests.
Professional armies that rarely affected civilian
population.
Two fundamental areas of fighting:
Overseas Empires
Central and eastern Europe.
Mid-Eighteenth-Century Wars
War of Jenkins’ Ear (1739)
English-Spanish competition in West Indies
Spain maintains coastal patrols which boarded and
searched English vessels to look for contraband.
1731: Boarding operation by Spanish on English vessel
which resulted in the “removal” of English captain
Robert Jenkins’ ear.
Ear preserved in jar of brandy…….yummy.
Not an issue until 1738 when Jenkins reports of
Spanish atrocities.
British declared war on Spain in 1739
Minor war was opening encounter to European warfare
up to 1815
War of the Austrian Succession
(1740–1748)
Frederick II of Prussia
Seizes Austrian
province of Silesia
Undoes Pragmatic
Sanction and upsets
balance of power.
War of the Austrian Succession
(1740–1748)
central & eastern Europe
Prussia invades (Habsburg) Silesia; France &
Spain back Prussia, England backs Austria.
Mistake by France. Backing a new German state
would later endanger France. Also going against
Austria, Britain gets involved by ensuring that
these areas remained Austria/British friendly.
French military/economics divided.
War of the Austrian Succession
(1740–1748)
Maria Theresa maintains Hapsburg empire
as a major political power
Ended with Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in
1748
Prussia retained Silesia, Spain renewed Treaty
of Utrecht with Britain so they could import
slaves from Spanish colonies
The “Diplomatic Revolution” of
1756
France and Britain clash in New England.
Prelude to French and Indian War (1756)
Great Britain (George II) joined forces with
Germany, because they felt the French
might attack due to issues in north America.
Convention of Westminster (Jan 1756)
France and Austria agreed to defensive
alliance
Seven Years’ War (1756–1763)
England now backs Prussia, France backs
Austria; colonial theater: Britain trounces
France in N. America
Treaty of Paris made Britain into a world
power, through World War II
Europe and the American
Revolution
Resistance to the Imperial Search for
Revenue
caused by problems of revenue collection
common to all powers after Seven Years’ War
British tried to tax colonies to pay for war
Colonies responded that they wouldn’t be taxed
without representation
The Crisis and Independence
Colonies resisted several measures designed
to raise money, including Intolerable Acts
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense aroused
revolutionary sentiments
Continental Congress declared Declaration
of Independence
American Political Ideas
Influence of English ideas & events in
America
Revolution of 1688
Writings of John Locke
Events in Great Britain
John Wilkes affair
Arrested after criticizing treaty with France in print
Elected several times to Parliament but king would not
sit him
influence of American ideas & events in Britain
Appeal to popular opinion
Broadly rejected monarchy, social hierarchies
Yorkshire movement demanded changes in
parliamentary elections
Broader Impact of American
Revolution
Demonstrated to Europe possibility of
government without kings
Idea of preserving traditional liberties
Reject social status