After the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, Europeans began to actively conquer new and unexplored lands. The local population did not always like this, but their opinion was not taken into account. Streams of colonists rushed in search of happiness and a new life.
In the mid-16th century, almost the entire territory belonged to the Spanish Crown. The huge incomes received from trade and lease of land did not allow competitors from other countries to enter the new lands. In this regard, the dominance of the Spaniards was observed in America.
The kings and their retainers, pumping enormous wealth out of the colony, did not pay attention to its needs. Spain's position on the world stage began to gradually weaken. The final blow came in 1588, when the Invincible Armada was destroyed. With the death of the fleet, a crisis arose in the country, from which it was never able to recover.
During this difficult period for Spain, England, as well as France and Holland, began to take first place in world politics.
The emergence of English colonies
By the British - this is the second stage of the conquest of the new continent and the redistribution of property. The first British exploration expedition set out for the new continent and arrived in 1584. The open lands were named Virginia. But two groups of colonists were unable to take root on them, one of which was expelled by the Indians, and the second disappeared without a trace.
The beginning of the 17th century was marked by the entry into action of two private companies in the process of colonization. By order of the king, the northern territories were assigned to the Plymouth Company, and the southern lands to the London Virginia Company. The declared goal was to spread Christianity among the local population, but the true goal was the desire to extract as much gold, copper and silver as possible, in which the Indians were rich.
In 1607, three ships landed on the shore near Chesapeake Bay. Within a month, the colonists erected the walls of the fortification, which later received the name Jamestown. In the history of America, this settlement is idealized, but its existence was not cloudless. Hunger, cold and attacks by Indians led to the death of a huge number of pioneers, out of 500 only 60 remained. In the winter, cases of cannibalism were witnessed.
No precious metals were found, but Virginia became the main supplier of high-quality tobacco. Native Americans in this region they lived peacefully with the colonists and even became related to them.
In 1619, the decision was made to purchase the first group of black slaves, which marked the beginning of a long period of slavery in the country.
If in the 30s of the 17th century in North America two colonies appeared: Massachusetts and New York, then in the 40s there were already five: Maryland, Rolling Island, Connecticut, Delaware and New Hampshire. In 1653, a new settlement, North Carolina, appeared, and 10 years later - South Carolina. New Jersey was founded in the mid-70s. Pennsylvania appeared in 1682, and already in 1732 the last colony, Georgia, was founded.
Colonization of North America by the French
France did not lag behind the British in developing new lands. By the beginning of the 18th century, five large provinces had formed. This time period is considered the heyday of French colonization. Canada, Acadia, Hudson Bay, Novaya Zemlya and Louisiana belonged to the second most powerful world power.
Dutch colonies
Others also did not remain aloof from the race for new territories. European countries. From the east, ships of the Dutch flotilla approached the shores of North America. Already in 1614, new lands appeared on the map under the name New Netherland, and ten years later the first settlers appeared. Their main location was Governor's Island, on which the city of New Amsterdam later grew. In the second half of the 17th century it was placed under the protection of the British crown.
Swedish colonies
The beginning of the Swedish conquest of new lands is considered to be 1638, when two ships set off on an expedition. The long journey and torment along the way were compensated by the discovery of a free coast, where Fort Christina was founded, securing ownership of the territories to Sweden. Wilmington would later take over this location.
The emergence of Russians in North America
The Russian Empire could not remain aloof from the massive campaign of Europeans to uncharted lands. In 1784, a large flotilla landed in the Aleutian Islands. A little more than ten years later, a Russian-American company appears, producing and selling expensive fur. Already at the beginning of the 19th century, the region acquired a capital - Novo-Arkhangelsk, and it itself transferred to the department of the East Siberian General Government. The basis of the colonists were local Aleut tribes.
Only 80 kilometers separated Russian lands from American California. This caused concern on the part of England and America, so in 1824 two Conventions were signed at once, which fixed clear boundaries between Russia and these two powers. In 1841, the southernmost settlement of Fort Ross was sold to wealthy Mexican settlers. For Alaska, the United States had to pay 7 million 200 thousand dollars. Since 1867 this site Russian colonies went to the buyer.
Relations between settlers and Indians
The Indians suffered the most from the colonization of the new continent. tribes of america. With the arrival of more and more new settlers, their usual way of life changes radically. Many colonists believed that they had more rights to use this land and showed obvious aggression. The standard of living of the Indians was much lower than the European one, so no one listened to their opinion, and their lands were indiscriminately taken away. Due to diseases brought by Europeans, constant clashes and real extermination, the number of Indians inexorably declined.
The Iroquois were considered one of the most warlike tribes in North America. They constantly attacked the colonists' settlements. IN peaceful life The Iroquois were farmers and also engaged in hunting and fishing. All settlements of this tribe were surrounded by a high palisade, which created an obstacle to their capture. The Iroquois were called "scalp hunters." It is still not known where the colonists from the second expedition to Virginia went.
The Apache tribes were considered the most cunning and treacherous. They very quickly learned to ride horses when this noble animal was introduced by the Spaniards. The Apaches robbed not only white colonists, but also their relatives, not disdaining the loot
Among the aborigines there were tribes that not only provided assistance to the settlers, but also sought to learn everything new from them. These included Seminole and Cherokee, Creek and Choctaw, and Chickasaw. Among the Indians of these tribes there are many actors, writers, military men, and so on.
Despite the fact that some of the natives of America accepted European culture and adapted to living conditions, this process was very painful. A five dollar reward was paid for the head of a killed Indian, and the resettlement of entire tribes was carried out by force. All these measures led to the partial assimilation of the aborigines and their mass extermination.
The first English settlement in America arose in 1607 in Virginia and was named Jamestown. The trading post, founded by crew members of three English ships under the command of Captain K. Newport, simultaneously served as a guard post on the way of the Spanish advance to the north of the continent. The first years of Jamestown's existence were a time of endless disasters and hardships: disease, famine and Indian raids took the lives of more than 4 thousand of the first English settlers of America. But already at the end of 1608 the first ship sailed to England, carrying a cargo of timber and iron ore. Just a few years later, Jamestown turned into a prosperous village thanks to the extensive plantations of tobacco, previously cultivated only by the Indians, founded there in 1609, which by 1616 became the main source of income for the residents. Tobacco exports to England, which amounted to 20 thousand pounds sterling in monetary terms in 1618, increased to half a million pounds by 1627, creating the necessary economic conditions for population growth. The influx of colonists was greatly facilitated by the allocation of a 50-acre plot of land to any applicant who had the financial ability to pay a small rent. Already by 1620 the population of the village was approx. 1000 people, and in all of Virginia there were approx. 2 thousand
catcher In the 80s 15th century tobacco exports from the two southern colonies - Virginia and Maryland - increased to 20 million pounds sterling.
Virgin forests, stretching for more than two thousand kilometers along the entire Atlantic coast, abounded in everything necessary for the construction of homes and ships, and the rich nature satisfied the food needs of the colonists. The increasingly frequent visits of European ships to the natural bays of the coast provided them with goods that were not produced in the colonies. The products of their labor were exported to the Old World from these same colonies. But the rapid development of the northeastern lands, and even more so the advance into the interior of the continent, beyond the Appalachian Mountains, was hampered by the lack of roads, impenetrable forests and mountains, as well as the dangerous proximity to Indian tribes that were hostile to the newcomers.
The fragmentation of these tribes and the complete lack of unity in their attacks against the colonists became the main reason for the displacement of the Indians from the lands they occupied and their final defeat. Temporary alliances of some Indian tribes with the French (in the north of the continent) and with the Spaniards (in the south), who were also concerned about the pressure and energy of the British, Scandinavians and Germans advancing from the east coast, did not bring the desired results. The first attempts to conclude peace agreements between individual Indian tribes and the English colonists settling in the New World also proved ineffective.
European immigrants were lured to America by the rich Natural resources a distant continent, which promised quick provision of material wealth, and its remoteness from the European strongholds of religious dogma and political predilections. The exodus of Europeans to New World was financed by private companies and individuals driven primarily by an interest in generating income from the transportation of people and goods. Already in 1606, the London and Plymouth companies were formed in England, which actively
Signing of the Mayflower Compact
began to develop the northeastern coast of America, including the delivery of English colonists to the continent. Numerous immigrants traveled to the New World with families and even entire communities at their own expense. A significant part of the new arrivals were young women, whose appearance the single male population of the colonies greeted with sincere enthusiasm, paying the costs of their “transportation” from Europe at the rate of 120 pounds of tobacco per head.
Huge plots of land, hundreds of thousands of hectares, were allocated by the British crown for full ownership to representatives of the English nobility as a gift or for a nominal fee. The English aristocracy, interested in the development of their new property, advanced large sums for the delivery of compatriots they recruited and their settlement on the received lands. Despite the extreme attractiveness of the conditions existing in the New World for newly arriving colonists, during these years there was a clear lack of human resources, primarily due to the fact that the sea voyage of 5 thousand kilometers covered only a third of the ships and people embarking on the dangerous journey - two a third died along the way. She was not distinguished by hospitality and new land, which greeted the colonists with frosts unusual for Europeans, severe natural conditions and, as a rule, the hostile attitude of the Indian population.
In late August 1619, a Dutch ship arrived in Virginia bringing the first black Africans to America, twenty of whom were immediately purchased by the colonists as servants. Blacks began to turn into lifelong slaves, and in the 60s. XVII century slave status in Virginia and Maryland became hereditary. The slave trade became a permanent element of commercial transactions between East Africa
and the American colonies. African leaders readily traded their people for textiles, household items, gunpowder, and weapons imported from New England and the American South.
In December 1620, an event occurred that went down in American history as the beginning of the purposeful colonization of the continent by the British - the Mayflower ship arrived on the Atlantic coast of Massachusetts with 102 Calvinist Puritans, rejected by the traditional Anglican Church and who later did not find sympathy in Holland. These people, who called themselves pilgrims, considered moving to America the only way to preserve their religion. While still on board a ship crossing the ocean, they entered into an agreement between themselves, called the Mayflower Compact. It reflected in the most general form the ideas of the first American colonists about democracy, self-government and civil liberties. These ideas were developed later in similar agreements reached by the colonists of Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, and in more later documents American history, including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America. Having lost half the members of their community, but surviving on a land they had not yet explored in the harsh conditions of the first American winter and the subsequent crop failure, the colonists set an example for their compatriots and other Europeans who arrived in the New World ready for the hardships that awaited them.
After 1630, at least a dozen small towns arose in Plymouth Colony, the first colony of New England, which later became the Massachusetts Bay Colony, in which newly arriving English Puritans settled. Immigration wave 1630-1643 delivered to New England approx. 20 thousand people, at least 45 thousand more, chose the colonies of the American South or the islands of Central America for their place of residence.
For 75 years after the appearance of the first English colony, Virgie, in 1607 on the territory of modern USA
12 more colonies arose - New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The credit for their founding did not always belong to the subjects of the British crown. In 1624, on the island of Manhattan in Hudson Bay [named after the English captain G. Hudson (Hudson), who discovered it in 1609, who was in the Dutch service], Dutch fur traders founded a province called New Netherland, with the main city of New Amsterdam. The land on which this city was built was purchased in 1626 by a Dutch colonist from the Indians for $24. The Dutch were never able to achieve any significant socio-economic development of their only colony in the New World.
After 1648 and until 1674, England and Holland fought three times, and during these 25 years, in addition to military actions, there was a continuous and fierce economic struggle between them. In 1664, New Amsterdam was captured by the British under the command of the king's brother, the Duke of York, who renamed the city New York. During the Anglo-Dutch War of 1673-1674. The Netherlands managed to restore their power in this territory for a short time, but after the defeat of the Dutch in the war, the British again took possession of it. From then until the end of the American Revolution in 1783 from r. Kennebec to Florida, from New England to the Lower South, the Union Jack flew over the entire northeastern coast of the continent.
Almost half of the viceroyalty of New Spain they founded was located where the states of Texas, California, New Mexico, etc. are located today. The name of the state of Florida is also of Spanish origin - this is how the Spaniards called the lands known to them in the southeast North America. The colony of New Netherland arose in the Hudson River valley; further south, in the Delaware River Valley, is New Sweden. Louisiana, which occupied vast territories in the basin largest river the continent of Mississippi was the possession of France. In the 18th century Russian industrialists began to develop the northwestern part of the continent, modern Alaska. But the most impressive successes in the colonization of North America were achieved by the British.
For immigrants from the British Isles and other European countries overseas, wide material opportunities opened up; they were attracted here by the hope of free labor and personal enrichment. America also attracted people with its religious freedom. Many Englishmen moved to America during the period of revolutionary upheavals in the mid-17th century. Religious sectarians, ruined peasants, and urban poor left for the colonies. All kinds of adventurers and adventure seekers also rushed overseas; criminals referred. The Irish and Scots fled here when life in their homeland became completely unbearable.
The south of North America is washed by waters Gulf of Mexico. Sailing along it, the Spaniards discovered the peninsula Florida, covered with dense forests and swamps. Nowadays it is a famous resort and the launch site of American spaceships. The Spanish reached the mouth of the largest river in North America - Mississippi, flowing into Gulf of Mexico. In Indian, Mississippi means “big river”, “father of waters”. Its waters were muddy, and uprooted trees floated along the river. To the west of Missi-sipi, wetlands gradually gave way to drier steppes - prairies, through which herds of bison roamed, looking like bulls. The prairies extended all the way to the foot Rocky Mountains, stretching from north to south throughout the North American continent. The Rocky Mountains are part of a huge mountainous country of Cor-diller. The Cordillera opens to the Pacific Ocean.
On the Pacific coast the Spaniards discovered California peninsula And Gulf of California. It flows into Colorado River- “red”. The depth of its valley in the Cordillera amazed the Spaniards. Under their feet there was a cliff 1800 m deep, at the bottom of which a river flowed as a barely noticeable silver snake. For three days people walked along the edge of the valley Grand Canyon, we looked for a way down and couldn’t find it.
The northern half of North America was developed by the British and French. In the middle of the 16th century, the French pirate Cartier discovered bay And Saint Lawrence River In Canada. The Indian word “Canada” - settlement - became the name of a huge country. Moving up the St. Lawrence River, the French came to Great Lakes. Among them is the world's largest freshwater lake - Upper. On the Niagara River, flowing between the Great Lakes, a very powerful and beautiful Niagara Falls.
Immigrants from the Netherlands founded the city of New Amsterdam. Nowadays it is called NY and is the largest city United States of America.
At the beginning of the 17th century, the first English colonies appeared on the Atlantic coast of North America - settlements whose inhabitants grew tobacco in the south and grain and vegetables in the north.
Thirteen (13) colonies
Systematic colonization of North America began after the establishment of the Stuart dynasty on the English throne. The first British colony, Jamestown, was founded in 1607 Virginia.Then, as a result of the mass migration of English Puritans overseas, the development of New England.The first Puritan colony in the modern state Massachusetts appeared in 1620. In subsequent years, settlers from Massachusetts, dissatisfied with the religious intolerance that reigned there, founded colonies Connecticut And Rhode Island. After the Glorious Revolution, a colony separated from Massachusetts New Hampshire.
On the lands north of Virginia, granted by Charles I to Lord Baltimore, a colony was founded in 1632 Maryland Dutch and Swedish colonists were the first to appear in the lands located between Virginia and New England, but in 1664 they were captured by the British. New Netherland was renamed a colony NY, and to the south of it a colony arose New Jersey. In 1681, W. Penn received a royal charter for lands north of Maryland. In honor of his father, the famous admiral, the new colony was named Pennsylvania. Throughout the 18th century. isolated himself from her Delaware. In 1663, settlement of the territory south of Virginia began, where colonies later appeared North Carolina And South Carolina. In 1732, King George II allowed the development of lands between South Carolina and Spanish Florida, which were named in his honor Georgia.
Five more British colonies were founded on the territory of modern Canada.
In all colonies there were various shapes representative government, but the majority of the population was deprived of the right to vote.
Colonial economy
The colonies varied greatly in the types of economic activity. In the north, where small-scale farming predominated, household crafts associated with it developed, and foreign trade, shipping and maritime trades were widely developed. The south was dominated by large agricultural plantations, where tobacco, cotton, and rice were grown.
Slavery in the colonies
Growing production required workers. The presence of undeveloped territories to the west of the colonial borders doomed any attempt to turn poor whites into a hired labor force, since there was always the possibility for them to leave for free lands. It was impossible to force the Indians to work for white masters. Those of them who were tried to be made slaves quickly died in captivity, and the merciless war waged by the settlers against the Indians led to the mass extermination of the red-skinned natives of America. The labor problem was solved by the massive import of slaves from Africa, who were called blacks in America. The slave trade became the most important factor in the development of the colonies, especially the southern ones. Already by the end of the 17th century. blacks became the predominant labor force and, in fact, the basis of the plantation economy in the south. Material from the site
Europeans were looking for a passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Englishman Henry Hudson tried to sail along the northern American coast between the mainland and the islands lying to the north. Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The attempt failed, but Hudson discovered a huge Hudson Bay- a real “bag of ice” on which ice floes float even in the summer.
In the spruce and pine forests of Canada, the French and British hunted fur-bearing animals and traded their skins with the Indians. In the middle of the 17th century, the English Hudson's Bay Company arose, which was engaged in the purchase of furs. The company's agents penetrated deep into the continent, bringing information about new rivers, mountains, and lakes. At the end of the 18th century, Alexander Mackenzie and his companions took a trip along the rivers and lakes of northern Canada in boats made of birch bark. They hoped that cold river, later named after Mackenzie, will lead to the Pacific Ocean. The traveler himself called it a “river of disappointment,” realizing that it flows into the Arctic Ocean. Mackenzie went home to Scotland, a country in the north of the British Isles, to study geography. Returning, he climbed up the river valleys and crossed the Rocky Mountains. Having passed through the mountain passes of the Cordillera, Mackenzie began to descend along rivers flowing to the west, and in 1793 he was the first to reach the Pacific coast.
The continent of North America was deserted at the moment when the Lower and Middle were replaced in the eastern hemisphere, and the Eurasian Neanderthal gradually turned into homo sapiens, trying to live in the tribal system.
American soil saw man only at the very end Ice Age, 15 - 30 thousand years ago (From the latest research:).
Man entered America from Asia through a narrow isthmus that once existed on the site of the modern Bering Strait. This is where the history of the exploration of America began. The first people walked south, sometimes interrupting their movement. When Wisconsin glaciation was coming to an end, and the earth was divided by ocean waters into the Western and Eastern Hemispheres (11 thousand years BC), the development of people began who became aborigines. They were called Indians, the indigenous inhabitants of America.
Called the aborigines Indians Christopher Columbus. He was sure that he was standing off the coast of India, and therefore it was a suitable name for the aborigines. This stuck, but the continent began to be called America in honor Amerigo Vespucci, after Columbus's mistake became apparent.
The first people from Asia were hunters and gatherers. Having settled down on the land, they began to engage in agriculture. At the beginning of our era, the territories of Central America, Mexico, and Peru were developed. These were the tribes of the Mayans, Incas (read about), Aztecs.
The European conquerors could not come to terms with the idea that some savages created early class social relations and built entire civilizations.
The first attempts at colonization were made by the Vikings in 1000 AD. According to the sagas, Leif, the son of Eric the Red, landed his detachment near Newfoundland. He discovered the country, calling it Vinland, the land of grapes. But the settlement did not last long, disappearing without a trace.
(clickable) When Columbus discovered America, the most diverse Indian tribes already existed there, standing on different stages social development.
In 1585 Walter Raleigh, favorite of Elizabeth I, founded the first English island colony in North America Roanoke. He called her Virginia, in honor of the Virgin Queen.
The settlers did not want to do hard work and develop new lands. They were more interested in gold. Everyone suffered from gold fever and went even to the ends of the earth in search of the attractive metal.
Lack of provisions, mistreatment of the Indians by the British and the resulting confrontation all put the colony in jeopardy. England could not come to the rescue, since at that moment it was at war with Spain.
A rescue expedition was organized only in 1590, but there were no more settlers there. Famine and confrontation with the Indians depleted Virginia.
The colonization of America was in question, since England was going through hard times (economic difficulties, war with Spain, constant religious strife). After the death of Elizabeth I (1603), the throne was James I Stuart, who had nothing to do with the colony on Roanoke Island. He made peace with Spain, thereby recognizing the enemy's rights to the New World. This was the time of the “lost colony,” as Virginia is called in English historiography.
This state of affairs did not suit the Elizabethan veterans who participated in the wars with Spain. They strove to the New World out of a thirst for enrichment and a desire to rub elbows with the Spaniards. Under their pressure, James I gave his permission to resume the colonization of Virginia.
To make the plan come true, the veterans created joint-stock companies, where they invested their funds and joint efforts. The issue of settling the New World was resolved through the so-called “rebels” and “loafers.” This is what they called people who found themselves homeless or without a means of subsistence during the development of bourgeois relations.
Alperovich Moisey Samuilovich, Slezkin Lev Yuryevich::: Formation of independent states in Latin America (1804-1903)
By the time of the discovery and conquest of America by European colonialists, it was inhabited by numerous Indian tribes and peoples who were at various stages of social and cultural development. Some of them managed to reach high level civilization, others led a very primitive lifestyle.
The oldest known culture on the American continent, the Maya, the center of which was the Yucatan Peninsula, was characterized by the significant development of agriculture, crafts, trade, art, science, and the presence of hieroglyphic writing. While maintaining a number of institutions of the tribal system, the Mayans also developed elements slave society. Their culture had a strong influence on neighboring peoples - Zapotecs, Olmecs, Totonacs, etc.
Central Mexico in the 15th century. found itself under the rule of the Aztecs, who were the successors and heirs of more ancient Indian civilizations. They had developed agriculture, construction equipment reached a high level, and a variety of trade was conducted. The Aztecs created many outstanding monuments of architecture and sculpture, a solar calendar, and had the rudiments of writing. The emergence of property inequality, the emergence of slavery and a number of other signs indicated their gradual transition to a class society.
In the region of the Andean highlands lived the Quechua, Aymara and other peoples, distinguished by their high material and spiritual culture. In the XV - early XVI centuries. a number of tribes in this area subjugated the Incas, who formed a vast state (with its capital in Cusco), where the official language was Quechua.
The Pueblo Indian tribes (Hosti, Zuni, Tanyo, Keres, etc.) who lived in the basin of the Rio Grande del Norte and Colorado rivers, inhabited the basins of the Orinoco and Amazon rivers, the Tupi, Guarani, Caribs, Arawaks, Brazilian Kayapo, inhabitants of the Pampas and the Pacific coast warlike Mapuches (whom European conquerors began to call Araucanians), inhabitants of various regions of modern Peru and Ecuador, Colorado Indians, Jivaro, Saparo, tribes of La Plata (Diaguita, Charrua, Querandi, etc.) "Patagonian Tehuelchi, Indians of Tierra del Fuego - she, Yagan, Chono - were at different stages of the primitive communal system.
At the turn of the XV-XVI centuries. The original process of development of the peoples of America was forcibly interrupted by European conquerors - the conquistadors. Speaking about the historical destinies of the indigenous population American continent, F. Engels pointed out that “the Spanish conquest interrupted any further independent development of them.”
The conquest and colonization of America, which had such fatal consequences for its peoples, were determined by the complex socio-economic processes that were then taking place in European society.
The development of industry and trade, the emergence of the bourgeois class, the formation in the depths of feudal system capitalist relations caused at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries. .in countries Western Europe the desire to open new trade routes and seize the untold riches of East and South Asia. For this purpose, a number of expeditions were undertaken, in the organization of which Spain took a major part. the main role Spain in the great discoveries of the XV-XVI centuries. was determined not only by her geographical location, but also by the presence of a large bankrupt nobility, which, after the completion of the reconquista (1492), could not find employment for itself and feverishly looked for sources of enrichment, dreaming of discovering a fabulous “golden country” overseas - Eldorado. “...Gold was the magic word that drove the Spaniards across the Atlantic Ocean to America,” wrote F. Engels, “gold is what the white man first demanded as soon as he set foot on the newly discovered shore.”
At the beginning of August 1492, a flotilla under the command of Christopher Columbus, equipped with funds from the Spanish government, left the port of Palos (in southwestern Spain) in a westerly direction and, after a long voyage in the Atlantic Ocean, on October 12 reached a small island, which the Spaniards gave the name San -Salvador” i.e. “Holy Savior” (the locals called him Guanahani). As a result of the voyages of Columbus and other navigators (the Spaniards Alonso de Ojeda, Vicente Pinzon, Rodrigo de Bastidas, the Portuguese Pedro Alvarez Cabral, etc.) by the beginning of the 16th century. the central part of the Bahamas archipelago, the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Jamaica), most of the Lesser Antilles (from the Virgin Islands to Dominica), Trinidad and a number of small islands in the Caribbean Sea were discovered; The northern and significant parts of the eastern coast of South America and most of the Atlantic coast of Central America were surveyed. Back in 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas was concluded between Spain and Portugal, delimiting the spheres of their colonial expansion.
Numerous adventurers, bankrupt nobles, hired soldiers, criminals, etc., rushed to the newly discovered territories in pursuit of easy money from the Iberian Peninsula. Through deception and violence, they seized the lands of the local population and declared them the possessions of Spain and Portugal. In 1492, Columbus founded on the island of Haiti, which he called Hispaniola (i.e., “little Spain”), the first colony “Navidad” (“Russianism”), and in 1496 he founded the city of Santo Domingo here, which became a springboard for the subsequent conquest of the entire island and the subjugation of its indigenous inhabitants. In 1508-1509 Spanish conquistadors began to capture and colonize Puerto Rico, Jamaica and the Isthmus of Panama, the territory of which they called Golden Castile. In 1511, Diego de Velazquez's detachment landed in Cuba and began its conquest.
Robbering, enslaving and exploiting the Indians, the invaders brutally suppressed any attempt at resistance. They barbarously destroyed and destroyed entire cities and villages, and brutally dealt with their population. An eyewitness to the events, the Dominican monk Bartolome de Las Casas, who personally observed the bloody “wild wars” of the conquistadors, said that they hanged and drowned the Indians, cut them into pieces with swords, burned them alive, roasted them over low heat, poisoned them with dogs, not even sparing the elderly and women and children. “Robbery and robbery are the only goal of Spanish adventurers in America,” K. Marx pointed out.
In search of treasures, the conquerors sought to discover and capture more and more new lands. “Gold,” Columbus wrote to the Spanish royal couple from Jamaica in 1503, “is perfection. Gold creates treasures, and the one who owns it can do whatever he wants, and is even able to bring human souls into heaven."
In 1513, Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama from north to south and reached the Pacific coast, and Juan Ponce de Leon discovered the Florida Peninsula - the first Spanish possession in North America. In 1516, the expedition of Juan Diaz de Solis explored the basin of the Rio de la Plata (“Silver River”). A year later, the Yucatan Peninsula was discovered, and soon the Gulf Coast was explored.
In 1519-1521 Spanish conquistadors led by Hernan Cortes conquered Central Mexico, destroying the ancient Indian culture of the Aztecs here and setting their capital Tenochtitlan to fire. By the end of the 20s of the 16th century. they captured a vast area from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, as well as most of Central America. Subsequently, the Spanish colonialists continued their advance to the south (Yucatan) and north (up to the Colorado and Rio Grande del Norte river basins, California and Texas).
After the invasion of Mexico and Central America, troops of conquistadors poured into the South American continent. Since 1530, the Portuguese began a more or less systematic colonization of Brazil, from where they began to export the valuable species of wood “pau brazil” (from which the name of the country came). In the first half of the 30s of the 16th century. The Spaniards, led by Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro, captured Peru, destroying the Inca civilization that had developed here. They began the conquest of this country with a massacre of unarmed Indians in the city of Cajamarca, the signal for which was given by the priest Valverde. The Inca ruler Atahualpa was treacherously captured and executed. Moving south, Spanish conquerors led by Almagro invaded the country they called Chile in 1535-1537. However, the conquistadors encountered stubborn resistance from the warlike Araucanians and failed. At the same time, Pedro de Mendoza began the colonization of La Plata.
Numerous detachments of European conquerors also rushed to the northern part of South America, where, according to their ideas, the mythical country of Eldorado, rich in gold and other treasures, was located. The German bankers Welser and Echinger also participated in the financing of these expeditions, who received from their debtor, Emperor (and King of Spain) Charles V, the right to colonize the southern coast of the Caribbean, which at that time was called “Tierra Firme”. In search of El Dorado, the Spanish expeditions of Ordaz, Jimenez de Quesada, Benalcazar and detachments of German mercenaries under the command of Ehinger, Speyer, Federman penetrated in the 30s of the 16th century. in the Orinoco and Magdalena river basins. In 1538, Jimenez de Quesada, Federman and Benalcazar, moving respectively from the north, east and south, met on the Cundinamarca plateau, near the city of Bogota.
In the early 40s, Francisco de Orella did not reach the Amazon River and descended along its course to the Atlantic Ocean.
At the same time, the Spaniards, led by Pedro de Valdivia, undertook a new campaign in Chile, but by the beginning of the 50s they were able to capture only the northern and central part of the country. The penetration of Spanish and Portuguese conquerors into the interior of America continued in the second half of the 16th century, and the conquest and colonization of many areas (for example, southern Chile and northern Mexico) dragged on for a much longer period.
However, the vast and rich lands of the New World were also claimed by other European powers - England, France and Holland, who unsuccessfully tried to seize various territories in South and Central America, as well as a number of islands in the West Indies. For this purpose, they used pirates - filibusters and buccaneers, who robbed mainly Spanish ships and the American colonies of Spain. In 1578, the English pirate Francis Drake reached the coast of South America in the La Plata area and passed through the Strait of Magellan to Pacific Ocean. Seeing a threat to one's own colonial possessions, the Spanish government equipped and sent a huge squadron to the shores of England. However, this “Invincible Armada” was defeated in 1588, and Spain lost its naval power. Soon another English pirate, Walter Raleigh, landed on the northern coast of South America, trying to discover the fabulous El Dorado in the Orinoco Basin. Raids on Spanish possessions in America were carried out in the 16th-17th centuries. the English Hawkins, Cavendish, Henry Morgan (the latter completely plundered Panama in 1671), the Dutch Joris Spielbergen, Schouten and other pirates.
The Portuguese colony of Brazil was also subjected to in the 16th-17th centuries. attacks by French and English pirates, especially after its inclusion in the Spanish colonial empire in connection with the transfer of the Portuguese crown to the King of Spain (1581 -1640). Holland, which during this period was at war with Spain, managed to capture part of Brazil (Pernambuco), and hold it for a quarter of a century (1630-1654).
However, the fierce struggle of the two largest powers - England and France - for world primacy, their mutual rivalry, caused, in particular, by the desire to seize the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in America, objectively contributed to the preservation of most of them in the hands of weaker Spain and Portugal. Despite all attempts by rivals to deprive the Spaniards and Portuguese of their colonial monopoly, South and Central America, with the exception of the small territory of Guiana, divided between England, France and Holland, as well as the Mosquito Coast (on the east coast of Nicaragua) and Belize (southeast Yucatan) , which were the object of English colonization until the beginning of the 19th century. .continued to remain in the possession of Spain and Portugal.
Only in the West Indies, during which during the 16th - 18th centuries. England, France, Holland and Spain fought fiercely (with many islands repeatedly passing from one power to another), the positions of the Spanish colonialists were significantly weakened. By the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. they only managed to retain Cuba, Puerto Rico and the eastern half of Haiti (Santo Domingo). According to the Treaty of Ryswick of 1697, Spain had to cede the western half of this island to France, which founded a colony here, which in French began to be called Saint-Domingue (in traditional Russian transcription - San Domingo). The French also captured (back in 1635) Guadeloupe and Martinique.
Jamaica, most of the Lesser Antilles (St. Kitts, Nevis, Antigua, Montserrat, St. Vincent, Barbados, Grenada, etc.), the Bahamas and Bermuda archipelagos were in the 17th century. captured by England. Its rights to many islands belonging to the Lesser Antilles group (St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Dominica, St. Vincent, Grenada) were finally secured by the Treaty of Versailles in 1783. In 1797, the British captured the Spanish island of Trinidad, located near northeastern coast of Venezuela, and at the beginning of the 19th century. (1814) achieved official recognition of their claims to the small island of Tobago, which had actually been in their hands since 1580 (with some interruptions).
The islands of Curacao, Aruba, Bonaire and others came under Dutch rule, and the largest of the Virgin Islands (Saint Croix, St. Thomas and St. John), initially captured by Spain, and then the object of a fierce struggle between England, France and the Netherlands, 30-50s of the 18th century. were bought by Denmark.
The discovery and colonization of the American continent by Europeans, where pre-feudal relations previously reigned supreme, objectively contributed to the development of the feudal system there. At the same time, these events had enormous world-historical significance for accelerating the process of development of capitalism in Europe and drawing the vast territories of America into its orbit. “The discovery of America and the sea route around Africa,” K. Marx and F. Engels pointed out, “created a new field of activity for the rising bourgeoisie. The East Indian and Chinese markets, the colonization of America, exchange with the colonies, the increase in the number of means of exchange and goods in general gave a hitherto unheard of impetus to trade, navigation, industry and thereby caused the rapid development of the revolutionary element in the disintegrating feudal society.” The discovery of America, according to Marx and Engels, prepared the way for the creation of a world market, which “caused a colossal development of trade, navigation and means of land communication.”
However, the conquistadors were inspired, as W. Z. Foster noted, “by no means ideas social progress; their only goal was to capture everything they could for themselves and for their class.” At the same time, during the conquest, they mercilessly destroyed the ancient civilizations created by the indigenous population of America, and the Indians themselves were enslaved or exterminated. Thus, having captured vast spaces of the New World, the conquerors barbarously destroyed the forms of economic life, social structure, and original culture that had reached a high level of development among some peoples.
In an effort to consolidate their dominance over the captured territories of America, European colonialists created appropriate administrative and socio-economic systems here.
From the Spanish possessions in North and Central America, the Viceroyalty of New Spain was created in 1535 with its capital in Mexico City. Its composition by the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century. included the entire modern territory of Mexico (with the exception of Chiapas) and the southern part of the current United States (the states of Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, part of Colorado and Wyoming). The northern boundary of the viceroyalty was not precisely established until 1819 due to territorial disputes between Spain, England, the United States and Russia. Spain's colonies in South America, with the exception of its Caribbean coast (Venezuela), and the southeastern part of Central America (Panama) formed the Viceroyalty of Peru in 1542, whose capital was Lima.
Some areas, nominally under the authority of the viceroy, were actually independent political-administrative units governed by captains general, who were directly subordinate to the Madrid government. Thus, most of Central America (with the exception of Yucatan, Tabasco, Panama) was occupied by the Captaincy General of Guatemala. Spanish possessions in the West Indies and on the Caribbean coast "up to the second half of the XVIII V. constituted the captaincy general of Santo Domingo. Part of the Viceroyalty of Peru until the 30s of the 18th century. included the captaincy general of New Granada (with its capital in Bogota).
Along with the formation of viceroyalties and captaincy generals, during the Spanish conquest, special administrative and judicial boards, the so-called audiences, were established in the largest colonial centers, with advisory functions. The territory under the jurisdiction of each audience constituted a specific administrative unit, and its boundaries in some cases coincided with the boundaries of the corresponding captaincy general. The first audience - Santo Domingo - was created in 1511. Subsequently, to early XVII c., in New Spain, audiences of Mexico City and Guadalajara were established, in Central America - Guatemala, in Peru - Lima, Quito, Charcas (covering the La Plata basin and Upper Peru), Panama, Bogota, Santiago (Chile).
It should be noted that although the governor of Chile (who was also the head of the audience) was subordinate and accountable to the Peruvian viceroy, due to the remoteness and military importance of this colony, its administration enjoyed much greater political independence than, for example, the authorities of the audiences of Charcas or Quito. In fact, she dealt directly with the royal government in Madrid, although in certain economic and some other matters she depended on Peru.
In the 18th century The administrative and political structure of Spain's American colonies (mainly its possessions in South America and the West Indies) underwent significant changes.
New Granada was transformed into a viceroyalty in 1739. It included territories that were under the jurisdiction of the audiences of Panama and Quito. After Seven Years' War 1756-1763, during which the Cuban capital Havana was occupied by the British, Spain had to cede Florida to England in exchange for Havana. But the Spaniards then received the French colony of Western Louisiana with New Orleans. Following this, in 1764, Cuba was transformed into a captaincy general, which also included Louisiana. In 1776, another new viceroyalty was created - Rio de la Plata, which included the former territory of the audience of Charcas: Buenos Aires and other provinces of modern Argentina, Paraguay, Upper Peru (present-day Bolivia), "Eastern Coast" ( "Banda Oriental"), as the territory of Uruguay, located on the eastern bank of the Uruguay River, was called at that time. Venezuela (with its capital in Caracas) was transformed into an independent captaincy general in 1777. The following year, the status of captaincy general was granted to Chile, whose dependence on Peru now assumed an even more fictitious character than before.
By the end of the 18th century. There was a significant weakening of Spain's position in the Caribbean. True, Florida was returned to her under the Treaty of Versailles, but in 1795 (according to the Treaty of Basel), the Madrid government was forced to cede Santo Domingo to France (i.e., the eastern half of Haiti), and in 1801 return it to France. Louisiana. In this regard, the center of Spanish rule in the West Indies moved to Cuba, where the audience from Santo Domingo was transferred. The governors of Florida and Puerto Rico were subordinate to the captain general and the audience of Cuba, although legally these colonies were considered to be directly dependent on the mother country.
The system of governance of Spain's American colonies was modeled after the Spanish feudal monarchy. The highest authority in each colony was exercised by the viceroy or captain general. The governors of individual provinces were subordinate to him. The cities and rural districts into which the provinces were divided were governed by corregidores and senior alcaldes, subordinate to the governors. They, in turn, were subordinate to hereditary elders (caciques), and later elected elders of Indian villages. In the 80s of the XVIII century. In Spanish America, an administrative division into commissaries was introduced. In New Spain, 12 commissaries were created, in Peru and La Plata - 8 each, in Chile - 2, etc.
Viceroys and captains-general enjoyed broad rights. They appointed provincial governors, corregidors and senior alcaldes, issued orders concerning various aspects of colonial life, and were in charge of the treasury and all armed forces. The viceroys were also royal viceroys in church affairs: since the Spanish monarch had the right of patronage in relation to the church in the American colonies, the viceroy on his behalf appointed priests from among the candidates submitted by the bishops.
The audiences that existed in a number of colonial centers performed mainly judicial functions. But they were also entrusted with monitoring the activities of the administrative apparatus. However, the audiences were only advisory bodies, the decisions of which were not binding on the viceroys and captains general.
Brutal colonial oppression led to a further decline in the Indian population Latin America, which was greatly facilitated by frequent epidemics of smallpox, typhoid and other diseases brought by the conquerors. The catastrophic labor situation thus created and the sharp reduction in the number of taxpayers very seriously affected the interests of the colonialists. In this regard, at the beginning of the 18th century. The question arose of eliminating the institution of encomienda, which by this time, as a result of the spread of peonage, had largely lost its former significance. The royal government hoped to get new workers and taxpayers at its disposal in this way. As for the Spanish American landowners, most of them, due to the dispossession of the peasantry and the development of the peonage system, were no longer interested in preserving the encomiendas. The liquidation of the latter was also due to the growing resistance of the Indians, which led in the second half of the 17th century. to numerous uprisings.
Decrees of 1718-1720 The institution of encomienda in the American colonies of Spain was formally abolished. However, in fact, it was preserved in some places in a hidden form or even legally for many years. In some provinces of New Spain (Yucatan, Tabasco), encomiendas were officially abolished only in 1785, and in Chile - only in 1791. There is evidence of the existence of encomiendas in the second half of the 18th century. and in other areas, particularly La Plata and New Granada.
With the abolition of encomiendas, large landowners retained not only their estates - “haciendas” and “estancias”, but in fact also power over the Indians. In most cases, they seized all or part of the lands of Indian communities, as a result of which landless and land-poor peasants, deprived of freedom of movement, were forced to continue working on the estates as peons. The Indians who somehow escaped this fate fell under the authority of the corregidores and other officials. They had to pay a capitation tax and serve labor service.
Along with the landowners and the royal government, the oppressor of the Indians was the Catholic Church, in whose hands were vast territories. Enslaved Indians were attached to the vast possessions of the Jesuit and other spiritual missions (of which there were especially many in Paraguay) and were subjected to severe oppression. The church also received huge income from the collection of tithes, payments for services, all kinds of usurious transactions, “voluntary” donations from the population, etc.
Thus, by the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. the majority of the Indian population of Latin America, deprived of personal freedom and often land, found themselves in virtual feudal dependence on their exploiters. However, in some inaccessible areas, remote from the main centers of colonization, independent tribes remained who did not recognize the power of the invaders and showed stubborn resistance to them. These free Indians, who stubbornly avoided contact with the colonialists, mostly retained the former primitive communal system, traditional way of life, their own language and culture. Only in the XIX-XX centuries. most of them were conquered, and their lands were expropriated.
In certain areas of America there also existed a free peasantry: “llaneros” - on the plains (llanos) of Venezuela and New Granada, “gauchos” - in southern Brazil and La Plata. In Mexico there were small farm-type land holdings - “ranches”.
Despite the extermination of most of the Indians, a number of indigenous people survived in many countries of the American continent. The bulk of the Indian population were exploited, enslaved peasants who suffered under the yoke of landowners, royal officials and the Catholic Church, as well as workers in mines, manufactories and craft workshops, loaders, domestic servants, etc.
Negroes imported from Africa worked primarily on plantations of sugar cane, coffee, tobacco and other tropical crops, as well as in the mining industry, in factories, etc. Most of them were slaves, but those few who were nominally considered free, in their own way in fact, they were almost no different from slaves. Although during the XVI-XVIII centuries. Many millions of African slaves were imported into Latin America due to high mortality caused by overwork, unusual climate and disease; their numbers in most colonies by the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. was small. However, in Brazil it exceeded at the end of the 18th century. 1.3 million people with a total population of 2 to 3 million. The population of African origin also predominated on the islands of the West Indies and was quite numerous in New Granada, Venezuela and some other areas.
Along with Indians and blacks in Latin America, from the very beginning of its colonization, a group of people of European origin appeared and began to grow. The privileged elite of colonial society were natives of the metropolis - the Spaniards (who in America were contemptuously called “gachupins” or “chapetons”) and the Portuguese. These were predominantly representatives of the noble nobility, as well as wealthy merchants in whose hands colonial trade was in control. They occupied almost all the highest administrative, military and church positions. Among them were large landowners and mine owners. The natives of the metropolis were proud of their origins and considered themselves a superior race in comparison not only with Indians and blacks, but even with the descendants of their compatriots - the Creoles - who were born in America.
The term “Creole” is very arbitrary and imprecise. Creoles in America were the “purebred” descendants of Europeans born here. However, in fact, most of them had, to one degree or another, an admixture of Indian or Negro blood. Most of the landowners came from among the Creoles. They also joined the ranks of the colonial intelligentsia and the lower clergy, and occupied minor positions in the administrative apparatus and the army. Relatively few of them were engaged in commercial and industrial activities, but they owned most of the mines and manufactories. Among the Creole population there were also small landowners, artisans, owners of small businesses, etc.
Possessing nominally equal rights with natives of the metropolis, Creoles were in fact subjected to discrimination and were appointed to senior positions only as an exception. In turn, they treated the Indians and “coloreds” in general with contempt, treating them as representatives of an inferior race. They were proud of the supposed purity of their blood, although many of them had absolutely no reason for this.
During colonization, a process of mixing of Europeans, Indians, and blacks took place. Therefore, the population of Latin America at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. its ethnic composition was extremely heterogeneous. In addition to Indians, blacks and colonists of European origin, there was a very large group that arose from a mixture of various ethnic elements: whites and Indians (Indo-European mestizos), whites and blacks (mulattoes), Indians and blacks (sambo).
The mestizo population was deprived of civil rights: mestizos and mulattoes could not hold bureaucratic and officer positions, participate in municipal elections, etc. Representatives of this large group of the population were engaged in crafts, retail trade, free professions, served as managers, clerks, and overseers for wealthy landowners. They constituted the majority among small landowners. Some of them, by the end of the colonial period, began to penetrate the ranks of the lower clergy. Some of the mestizos turned into peons, workers in factories and mines, soldiers, and constituted a declassed element of the cities.
In contrast to the mixture of various ethnic elements that was taking place, the colonialists sought to isolate and contrast with each other the natives of the metropolis, Creoles, Indians, blacks and mestizos. They divided the entire population of the colonies into groups based on race. However, in fact, belonging to one or another category was often determined not so much by ethnic characteristics as by social factors. Thus, many wealthy people who were mestizos in the anthropological sense were officially considered Creoles, and the children of Indian and white women who lived in Indian villages were often considered by the authorities as Indians.
Tribes belonging to language groups Caribs and Arawaks also made up the population of the West Indies.
The estuary (widened mouth) formed by the Parana and Uruguay rivers is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean.
K. Marxi F. Engels, Works, vol. 21, p. 31.
Ibid., p. 408.
This was one of the Bahamas, according to most historians and geographers, the one that was later called Fr. Watling, and recently renamed again to San Salvador.
Later, the entire Spanish colony in Haiti and even the island itself began to be called this.
Archives of Marx and Engels, vol. VII, p. 100.
Travels of Christopher Columbus. Diaries, letters, documents, M.,. 1961, p. 461.
From the Spanish "el dorado" - "gilded". The idea of Eldorado arose among European conquerors, apparently on the basis of greatly exaggerated information about some rituals common among the Chibcha Indian tribes inhabiting the north-west of South America, who, when electing a supreme leader, covered his body with gold and brought gold and emeralds as gifts to their deities .
That is, “solid land”, in contrast to the islands of the West Indies. In a more limited sense, this term was later used to designate the part of the Isthmus of Panama adjacent to the South American mainland, which made up the territories of the provinces of Daria, Panama and Veraguas.
The last attempt of this kind was made in the 70s of the 18th century. Spaniard Rodriguez.
About the fate of Santo Domingo at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. see page 16 and chap. 3.
K. Marxi F. Engels, Works, vol. 4, p. 425.
W. Z. Foster, Essay political history America, Ed. foreign lit., 1953, p. 46.
This city was built on the site of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, destroyed and burned by the Spaniards.
K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, vol. 23, p. 179.
Gachupins (Spanish) - “people with spurs”, Chapetones (Spanish) - literally “newcomers”, “newcomers”.