The European World, 1500-1700
European Overseas
Expansion in the Age of
the Renaissance
Naomi Pullin
naomi.wood@warwick.ac.uk
Ivory tankard,
Ausburg, Germany, 1662-1696
Tobacco pipe case,
Holland, 1680-1700
Porcelain coffee pot,
London, 1760-1765
Porcelain sugar bowl,
France, 1761
Spice-stand
Spain, 1540
Focus of this lecture
1. Origins and history of European empire from C14th in Asia and Africa
2. The discovery of America and rise of
Spanish and British empires
3. Rival versions of empire and decline of
Spain in C17th
1. Origins and history of
European Empire
Origins of European empires
• Empire not early modern innovation – part of
long-term process beginning in C14th
Major cause = commercial expansion
• Driven by merchants searching for new markets in
Middle East
• Linked to rise of Italian city-states of Venice and
Genoa in late-C14th and early-C15th and to
Portugal
Challenge of Ottoman Empire
• Threatens Mediterranean overseas expansion
• Trade routes disrupted by Corsairs (Turkish
pirates).
Drives Portuguese to search for new markets:
1487 – Bartholomeu Dias sailed round Cape of Good
Hope (opens sea route to African subcontinent)
1498 – Vasco da Gama reached Malabar Coast (centre
of Indian spice markets)
BUT not lone ventures - merchants claimed to
represent their nations.
Trade and empire: Portugal
• 1505: soldier Francisco de Almeida promised title of
Viceroy of India by Manuel I of Portugal
• 1510: Portuguese forge permanent settlement in Goa
C16th Joint stock companies
• Formed by merchant
shareholders
• Granted monopoly
powers to represent
nation in certain parts of
the world – exclusive
right to trade
1600 – 215 merchants form East India Company
in England; 1630 – 1,318 members
John Evelyn, Navigation and
Commerce (1674)
‘whosoever commands the ocean
commands the trade of the world,
whosoever commands the trade of the
world commands the riches of the world,
and whosoever is master of that
commands the world itself’
Commercial expansion in East
fragile
• Tend to occupy outposts and small pockets of land
• Migration limited
Rebellions against Europeans:
1602 – Portuguese driven out of Bahrain
1640 – Portuguese lose Mangalore, India
1684 – English driven out of Tangier by Moroccans
1686 – English lose Indian possessions following war
with Moghul Empire
2. The discovery of America and rise
of Spanish and British empires
The rise of Spain
1469 – Aragon and Castile united through marriage
of Ferdinand and Isabella
1492 - Fall of Granada leads to fulfilment of
Reconquista (Reconquest of Spain)
• Christianises Spain > expulsion of Jews and
Muslims – creates ‘Crusader’ ideology
1493 – Bulls of Donation
• Issued by Pope Alexander VI to Ferdinand and
Isabella
• Ideology of a ‘Christian Empire’ - enables them to
take foreign lands in the name of the Church. To
bring gospel to native populations.
1521 – Fall of Aztec empire
1535 – Fall of Incan Empire
• Spanish control 25 million new subjects by 1550
• 1559 - 802 priests in Spain and 160 religious houses
Mexican codex map (1571)
From BBC Radio 4 ‘History of the World in 100 Objects’
Spanish bullion
• Gold and silver bullion from South American mines
sustains Spanish empire
• Potosi (Bolivia) – becomes largest mining town in
the world. By 1600 has population of 120,000
(akin to London and Paris)
• Spanish annual revenue increase:
1504 – 847,000 ducats
1600 – 13 million ducats
Robert Johnson (1609)
‘How strange a thing it is that all the States
of Europe have been asleep so long that for
a hundred years and more, the ... riches of
the East and West should run ... but into one
coffer’
Walter Raleigh (1600): ‘It is his Indian Gold that endangereth and disturbeth all the
Nations of Europe’.
English / British Empire
Anti-Spanish ideology:
• Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies (1583)
– accused Spain of ‘scorching slavery’ and
‘contracting blood and guilt’ by taking natives’ lands
and forcing them into mines.
• Criticise Bulls of Donation – Pope does not have
authority to give away kingdoms
Protestant ideology:
• English Protestants see America as part of God’s
plan. Discovered on eve of Reformation.
• Aimed to save Indians from horrors of Spanish
conquest.
Seal of the Massachusetts Bay Company, 1629
‘Come over and help us’.
English overseas expansion
a
• Begins with private initiative
• English monarchs have little capital to invest in
overseas expansion
Royal Exchange founded 1568: hub of trade and ideas
English expansion in America
1580s – voyages led by Humphrey Gilbert to settle on
Newfoundland Coast (Roanoke)
1607 – Royal Charter granted to London Company
(Virginia Company) > settlement at Jamestown, Virginia
1620 – Mayflower leaves Plymouth to found colony in
New England. Led by Puritan preacher John Winthrop.
1624 – Barbados falls to English rule.
• 400,000 Englishmen settle in America in C17th
• 1685 - commodities worth £900,000 shipped from
English colonies
3. Rival versions of empire and
decline of Spain in C17th
Spanish model of empire
Close political centralisation:
• Divided into kingdoms (viceroyalties) governed by
viceroys in name of king. Court of Madrid oversaw
governance.
• Council of Indies established at Spanish Court.
Deep religious ideology
• Bulls of Donation > strong ethos of voluntary
conversion of Natives to Catholicism.
English model of empire
Highly decentralised:
• Proprietary grants – give rights
to specific individuals and
companies to run the colonies
• E.g. 1632 - Cecil Calvert (Lord
Baltimore) of Maryland – can
grant titles and lands; oversee
construction; raise revenue and
license religious worship
• John Elliott: British Empire = ‘a
patchwork quilt of creeds and
cults’ .
Cecil Calvert, 2nd Lord
Baltimore (1605-1675)
English model of empire
• Crown aims to control commerce, rather than
governance of colonies
• Navigation Acts (from 1651) – restrict use of
foreign ships for trade between colonies and
Britain.
• English Empire governed by Board of Trade;
Spanish by Council of the Indies.
Empire - ideological questions
1. Religion:
• Spanish claim religious basis for imperial
authority > 1493 ‘Bulls of Donation’
• English don’t use Protestantism as an official
ideology – religion reflected in political and
economic goals.
• Protestantism a religion of the ‘word’ – to convert
Indians = huge cultural and linguistic undertaking
• Most colonies focus on claim to land, rather than
peoples.
Empire – Ideological questions
2. Integration of the Natives
Spanish empire:
• rests on incorporation of native peoples in politics
and religion > slavery and intermarriage.
English empire:
• focus within its own communities & exclude
Native populations
• John Winthrop: ‘if we leave them sufficient for
their use we may lawfully take the rest, there
being more than enough for them and us’.
The decline of Spain
• Influx of bullion leads to inflation and debasement
of Spanish coinage
• Bullion = 80% of Spanish export from Americas.
> no wider colonial infrastructure
> no domestic industry within those colonies
dedicated to mining silver and gold
• Bullion used to buy imported goods. Not absorbed
into domestic Spanish industry.
William Paterson: ‘the Indies have rather conquered
Spain than Spain had conquered the Indies’.
Conclusions?
• Age of Empire part of long process beginning
in C15th.
• Often initiated by private commercial
interest, not by kings.
• No single homogenous idea of empire – e.g.
Spain and England
• Expansion of European power linked to
expressions of national identity.
> how were ‘ordinary Europeans’ affected
by overseas expansion?