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Paper Abstract: Expansion of Western Europe across the Atlantic Ocean during 15th-17th Centuries. Impact of voyages of discovery, conquests and settlement up the indigenous peoples and cultures. Transforming the economies and societies. Views of the principal European seafaring powers. Portuguese explorations. Implications and effects of Columbus' discovery of the Americas. Spanish conquests. Paper Introduction: ORIGINS OF THE ATLANTIC WORLD This essay examines the factors which led to the expansion of Western Europe through and across the Atlantic Ocean during the 15th through early 17th centuries, the nature of the new 'world' thus created and the impact of European voyages of discovery, conquests and settlement upon the indigenous peoples and cultures involved and in transforming the economies, societies and outlook of the principal European seafaring powers. Preconditions for Atlantic Expansion Medieval Mindset. Europeans at the beginning of the 15th century had a very limited and highly distorted view of regions beyond the Continent itself and the Near East from which the major Western religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam sprang. According to Phillips, the Atlantic Ocean was regarded as a "sea Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. In the early 15thcentury, Spain replaced Portugal as the preeminent colonial power inMesoamerica. Norman:University of Oklahoma Press, translated by R. Much of Spain's treasurefrom the New World ended up in the coffers of Dutch and English bankers asthe shipments of bullion produced hyperinflation in Spain which grewindebted to its commercial rivals during the course of many colonial andcontinental wars. Proud and defiant local elites such as the Mexica and the Incas inPeru as well as most of the native populations of the Caribbean weredecimated and in some cases wiped out. 13-43). Greenblatt, S. The desire to spread Catholicism wasa major impulse behind the Spanish voyages of discovery, but less soinitially among the Portuguese elite which practiced religious tolerationand thereby made welcome Muslim and Jewish scholars expelled by Spain inthe late 15th century (Seed, p. The English and Dutch learned from and improved uponIberian nautical science and shipbuilding techniques. Ius et factum: Text and experience in the writings ofBartolome de Las Casas. 46). Greenblatt (Ed.). In J. A new sky and new stars: Arabic and Hebrew science,Portuguese seamanship and the discovery of America. I, 25-63. John Winthrop (1988-1649), the English Puritangovernor of the Massachusetts colony, said "it is the revealed will of Godthat the gospell should be preached to all nations" (Mancall, p. Motivations. In Mexico,he said that "indigenous politics tipped the balance against the Mexica"and in favor of Hernan Cortes' small but well-armed and organized forces(Victors, p. (1995). Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press. (Ed.). Origins of the Atlantic World, 145 -165 . Seed, P. America and the rewriting of world history. From the 12thcentury onwards, major breakthroughs occurred there in maritime technology.These included the arts of celestial navigation, the development of themagnetic compass, the astrolabe and the quadrant, the use of Arab lateensails and newly designed vessels, such as the caravel, which togetherenabled Portuguese sea captains to overcome the resistance created by thecurrents and winds off the African coast to further southern and westernexploration. European observers, such as many sympathetic priests andmissionaries, decried the excesses and abuses of the conquistadores andcolonial officials in New Spain, but despite periodic governmental effortsat reform, little was done to alleviate the suffering of the Amerindians.They were regarded by the Spanish as inferior species of humanity, who atbest could be uplifted, forcefully if necessary, to enjoy the benefits ofEuropean civilization and their souls saved. Howard.----------------------- 1 Fifteenth century Portuguese rulers sponsored andlargely financed trans-Atlantic voyages of discovery for a variety ofreasons. 217). Europe learned ofChina from the 13 century accounts of Marco Polo. Berkeley: University of California Press. By the 148 s this experience was disseminated at schools ofnavigation in Spain and Portugal and codified in the Portuguese regimento,a set of navigation rules and known techniques. Pupo-Walker, E. Seed (Ed.),Ceremonies of possession in Europe's conquest of the New World (pp. (Ed.). London:Methuen. 35). B. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Putting the Americas on the map (Geography andthe colonization of space). 24). It figured more prominently amongthe objectives of English promoters of westward expansion, who viewed it asa partial solution to overpopulation, poverty, crime and religious dissentat home (Mancall, pp. Victors and vanquished Spanish andNahua views of the conquest of Mexico. . Todorov said"Columbus did not succeed in his human communications because he is notinterested in them [Amerindians]" whom he approached with "a mixture ofauthoritarianism and condescension" (p. 26 ). The conquest of the tradewinds opened up not only coastalAfrica and the Indian Ocean to exploration and trade, but also theAmericas. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press. The Atlantic Worldwas little more than the projection outside Europe of dynamic forces oftechnological advance, religious fanaticism, and personal and nationalaggrandizing tendencies which produced great economic advances and theeventual hegemony of the West. 33-51).Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Phillips, S. They reflected European ethnocentrism and the then current viewof Amerindians as savages to be conquered, assimilated or destroyed to theextent they came in the way of European lust for conquest and loot.Schwartz (2 ) described the Spanish victory over the Mexica in Mexico inthe 152 s as "a history of courage, treachery and cultural shock" (Victors,p. Burke said that"America long remained on the margin of world history as viewed byEuropeans" (p. Classical conquerors such asAlexander the Great had come into contact with India. 23-63). Schwartzpointed out that the Mexica and the Incas came to resist fiercely theirconquerors, and that the outcome was not necessarily inevitable. In P. 32). Nevertheless, it served as a powerful impetus to the ensuingcommercial revolution and the ultimate advance of European understanding ofthe larger universe, both of space and ideas which was left to futuregenerations to explore. The lure of profits from the West African gold fields, the slavetrade and the spice and other treasures of Asia were causative factors, aswas the desire by Catholic Iberia to bypass the Ottoman blockage of theland routes to the riches of the East. 137). In S. Translated byF. Ceremonies of possession in Europe's conquest of theNew World. According to Hulme, thePortuguese believed Africans were "governed by irrational self-interestbased on impulse rather than calculation," their idolatory and cannibalismcited as evidence of their cultural inferiority" (p. Relations between indigenous peoples and their European overlordsvaried, but although the methods of the some colonistswere more harsh than others, the general pattern was one of subjugation,enslavement and exploitation. Atlantic World: Images and Impacts Columbus' discovery of the Americas was accidental in the sense thathe and many other explorers were seeking a new route to the fabled richesof Cathay. 13-42). Amerindians were no match for Europeanfirepower. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. The English approach to Amerindians in North America was more benignin the methods employed but the eventual effect was much the same, massextinction and deprivation of traditional lands and bases of sustenance,which was largely accomplished through trickery and outright cheating.Mancall (1995) said the English believed that "it was their right tocolonize lands inhabited by peoples who were living apparently withoutcivilization" (p. Trade boomed and had importantconsequences for the European colonial powers. Thornton, J. They emphasize the distorted natureof European attitudes toward these peoples and cultures and offer insightsinto them which had been neglected by previous history. 44). 33). Highly selective and distorted accounts weretransmitted back home, which were largely designed to gain funds and royalsupport for further colonization and divert attention from atrocities andcorruption. From the standpoint of most Africans andAmerindians who experienced the brutal shock of conquest and subjugationunder colonial rule, the effects were disastrous for many centuries tocome. The common perception of the Amerindians as inferior beings wasproduced by a combination of fear, greed and religious creeds. (1992). The conquest of America: The quest of the other. Columbus and the cannibals. Colonial Latin American Review, Vol. Burke said Amerindians wereperceived as new versions of earlier European and nomadic barbarians beyondthe pail of civilization (p. Conclusion Contemporary historians have offered revisionist views of theEuropean trans-Atlantic expansion, conquest and colonization of Africansand Amerindians and the radical transformation of indigenous cultures andtraditions which occurred in its wake. Africa and Africans in the making of the AtlanticWorld. Christian Europe was disdainful toward non-Europeans.The massacres and looting of the Crusades were justified as the inevitableconsequences of holy and just wars to recover the Promised Land fromheathens and infidels. Thornton (Ed.), Africaand Africans in the making of the Atlantic World (pp. . .where once we saw warriors and wise men" (Schwartz, Victors, p. 213). (1993). Preconditions for Atlantic Expansion Medieval Mindset. (2 ). Mignolo, W. Rare indeed was the in depthunderstanding of various Indian tribes in southern Texas and northernMexico which the young Spanish aristocrat Cabeza de Vaca gained during thecourse of the eight years he was forced to spend among them after theexpedition to Florida of which he was a part yielded just four survivorswho landed shipwrecked on Galveston Island where he was both befriended andenslaved by local Indians. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press. 2-3). Martin's Press. In S. Envisioning America English plans forthe colonization of North America. Schwartz, S. TheIndians were to be uprooted and converted for their own good and in thename of religion. v). 112). They also represented a tragic and barbaricchapter in world history. Hulme, Colonialencounters Europe and the native Caribbean, 1492-1797 (pp. Boston: St. The discovery by Christopher Columbus in1492 of the New World (the Americas) was made possible by earlier 15thcentury advances in nautical science and the officially sanctioned step-by-step exploration of outlying Atlantic islands, West Africa and later thesub-Saharan African southwestern coast. C. Todorov, T. . M. Portuguese explorations. Thornton, J. Europeans at the beginning of the 15th century hada very limited and highly distorted view of regions beyond the Continentitself and the Near East from which the major Western religions, Judaism,Christianity and Islam sprang.According to Phillips, the Atlantic Ocean was regarded as a "sea ofdarkness;" and the known world, as depicted by geographers from the time ofPtolemaic Egypt, lay north of the Equator and was surrounded by one worldocean of uncertain dimensions (p. Hiscriticisms of Spanish rule were rewarded by the Council of the Indies bybeing forced into exile from Spain. Lopez-Morillas. Mancall (1995) said "the meeting of Europeansand Native Americans had unimaginable and irreversible consequences,especially for the Indians" (p. The conquest of the Americas provideda convenient outlet for the energies of Spain's young and largelydisinherited sons following the completion of the reconquista. D. For theSpanish, settlement of the New World was incidental to the conquest,looting and conversion of Amerindians. Eventually, the British used their financial power and navalmight to chase the Dutch and French out of most of North America and afterthe defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, British power in the Atlanticregion increased while Spain's gradually declined. 36). O.Kupperman (Ed.), America in European Consciousness, 1493-175 (pp. (Ed.). However, even if Cortes' small legions had beendefeated, the ultimate result would probably have been the seen since theEuropeans represented a force which could not be denied for long. Smallwood, S. San Diego: Packet Publishing. As a Mexica poem written after the surrender of the Mexica to Corteslamented, "nothing but flowers and songs of sorrow are left in Mexico . Montezuma and other Mexica leaders fell prey to their ownbeliefs in the myth of ancient gods returning to claim their throne, whichthe coming of the Spanish appeared at first to personify. Birth of an Atlantic World. Berkeley: University of California Press. B.Schwartz (Ed.), Implicit understandings (pp. 184). Seed, P. (Ed.). Schwartz, S. The Atlantic arena of the early 17th century constituted not simply a'world,' but many different worlds which varied greatly by time, place andcircumstances. Europeans sawthemselves as at the center of the universe, but they regarded the East asa place of fabulous riches, "tales of marvels," and "wondrous races of men"(Phillips, p. In P. 1 -148). .practices of his own" (Pagden, p. The SpanishDominican friar, Bartolome de Las Casas, exposed the atrocities of theSpanish conquest, but he himself viewed the Amerindians from anethnocentric perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 86). In K. Schwartz said that in Bernal Diaz'account of the conquest of Mexico "little appears of the continuation ofindigenous traditions and beliefs or the oppression of the colonial regime"(Victors, p. Nevertheless, it had enormous implications and effects.According to Smallwood, the opening up of a previously unknown continententailed "the profound upheaval in European understanding of the physicalnature of the world" which "was accompanied by an equally profoundtransformation and understanding of mankind itself" (p. 135). New world encounters (pp.85-1 ). Hulme, P. Unlike almost all other colonials, Cabeza deVaca was forced to recognize the realities before his eyes. In the Iberian Peninsula, Jewishand Muslim astronomers and mathematicians kept alive and improved uponancient classical Eastern wisdom concerning navigation. Alvar Nunez de Vaca Castaways. (Ed.). (Ed.). Pagden, A. After he madehis way back into colonial territory, he said in his Relacion that "we hadmany and great altercations with the Christians, because they wanted tomake slaves of the Indians we brought" (Pupo-Walker, 1993, p. (2 1, Spring). Mancall, P. 9). With the discovery of gold and silver and the raw materials andagricultural potential of the New World, a massive transfer of wealth fromthe Americas to Europe took place which was accompanied by the decimationof local populations due to violence, diseases of European origin, massivesuffering and enslavement not only of Amerindians but also of Africanslaves who were brought to the Americas in large numbers to provide neededlabor to exploit those resources. Implicit understandings. Knowledge ofthe native peoples which came under the sway of the conquistadores and thebureaucrats, missionaries and merchants which followed them was relativelyrestricted and slow to permeate the European consciousness. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press. References Burke, P. Boston: Bedford Press. . The outer world of the European Middle Ages. New world encounters. Mignolo (1994) said "the outermost corners of theworld were supposed to be inhabited by . When he discovered that they abstained from sexbefore digging for gold, he gave the practice Catholic blessing, thereby"translating varieties of expression from an alien world with the . ORIGINS OF THE ATLANTIC WORLD This essay examines the factors which led to the expansion of WesternEurope through and across the Atlantic Ocean during the 15th through early17th centuries, the nature of the new 'world' thus created and the impactof European voyages of discovery, conquests and settlement upon theindigenous peoples and cultures involved and in transforming the economies,societies and outlook of the principal European seafaring powers. B. [outlandish] creatures orferocious barbarians" (p. 5). 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