The Natives in North America

In this post we are going to analyse the situation of the natives in the British colonies of North America. We can say that the real English colonization of North America started in the 17^th century, and that they wanted to create several colonies.

To perform this colonization they decided to create two companies: the London Company and the Plymouth Company. as the king of the crown has no means to implement the real colonization of this lands, the king gave to this companies the power and the permission to govern and organize this lands (legislative , make money…) they were the real and almost only power in this places. Both companies were guaranteed by a similar structure.

In the places where they were alone, they had the monopoly of the colonization, but in the places where they met, they had to compete with the other company. The aim of the crown was to create competition for colonization faster, stopping the Spaniards from the south and the French from Quebec.

The first real British city was Jamestown, which was created in 1607.

The first company to receive the monopoly was the London Company, so the Plymouth Company had the experience of the first one, and they were more cautious. In 1635 both companies bankrupted, and the monopoly returned to the Crown.

About the way in which the British settlers acted with Native Americans, we must say that the majority of settlers had fled from religious intolerance in his country, as were mostly religious minorities. That is why they had a aware of chosen people that he was entitled to expand, as the government had given them that hope to promote colonization. At one time, the colonists had established a number of dealings with the Indians, deals which have been breached, so now the Indians showed rejection towards them. Before the refusal, the British colonists started the invasion of Indian lands, but the Indians killed one of their leaders, General George A. Custer. After the defeat of the American army, they started to devastate indigenous territories. Is important to say that the colonists had a profoundly racist thinking which they used to justify the occupation of the territory, they said they were helping the Indians to leave their bad habits. There is a big difference between American and British colonization, and is basically the Spanish did not want to establish colonies of settlement, they just wanted to obtain benefits from the land and miners resources of South America. However, the British wanted to settle there permanently and create a new society, and that is why they were not interested in keeping the indigenous population.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

ELLIOT, J.H.; España, Europa y el mundo de ultramar (1500-1800),Editorial Taurus, 2010.

Native American Population

In this post we will talk about the native American population after the arrival of the Europeans. So we are going to see the evolution of the population and the consequence of that arrival. We are also trying to understand the reasons that can explain it. We are going to use the following article: “The rate of Population Change in Central Mexico, 1550-1570”, which was written by Cook and Borah, and published in “The Hispanic American Historical Review”.

After Cook and Borah´s article the question of the demography of the colonization became international. But we have to say that the authors weren´t historians, they were professors at the Berkeley university of California, so we should not take this information as absolutely certain.

The main idea of the article is that after the conquest, the population of Mexico decreased, between 1550 and 1570, a 2-4 % every year, not only due to epidemics, also the deterioration on nutrition or the forced work. They are demographers, from USA. They need taxation records because they need mathematical and statistical dates in order to introduce them into equations. They are also accurate dates because the state was interested on it, so he could recollect taxes. But the records securely aren´t real because in a context of conquest they probably lie. They use this documentation thinking that is very accurate. (Sometimes the diseases arrive decades before the Spaniards arrive to a place). So those new proposed causes were voluntaries , not as the epidemics, other causes as overwork or killings.

·         In favor:

First of all, we are going to explain our point comparing the epidemics in Central mexico to the other ones epidemics in Europe and other countries, then, we are to explain the different causes and consequences that we consider that are interfering in the population decrease.

      What we are going to see here is a comparison between the consequences of the different epidemic diseases in another countries, and after analyzing  them, we can say that the epidemics are not enough to explain the decrease of the native population of America. So we have to include other facts, which are not so obvious.

We can divide the facts into two groups:

Main facts:

  “…disease; the systematic killing, ill-treatment, and overwork of the Indians; the disruption of Indian economies and societies caused by conquest and colonization, including its psychological impact; and miscegenation.”

-          Forced work/Overwork and systematic killing:

“The main porpoise of the Spaniards was to civilizate and Christianize them and to exploit them as sources of profit and labor.”

            The Spanish conquers established different kinds of forced works to obtain the most profits from the native population. At the first period, we have to talk about the encomienda, which was a work that natives have to do in exchange of being Christianised. Then, this system was substituted by the repartimiento. Another factor to take into account is the mita, the forced work which was used in the mines,

 “In most areas, the abolition of personal service under the encomienda was replaced by a system of forced labour, the repartimiento.”

“The repartimiento functioned best in Mexico and Peru, where it was more closely supervised and where large numbers of Indians were concentrated who could provide a labour force of reasonable size

“The Indians were reluctant to move into the missions, force was employed, and Indians were often killed.”

 “The mita constituted a large, cheap, dependable source of labour compared to free labour, which was poorly disciplined and difficult to attract”.

-          Disruption of Indian economies and societies psychological impact:

.

                                                                             

-          Miscegenation

       The colonos who arrived to America, were only men, and because of that they had to procreate with native women. This has two main social and demographic consequences: the first one, the indigenous could not procreate as it was before the conquest, consequently their demographic number was less and less numerous.

The second one, in a social aspect, the indigenous lost their own basic culture by the Christianization and the acculturation. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

COOK AND BORAH, "The rate of population change in Central Mexico, 1551-1570" in The Hispanic American Historical Review

The system of Flotas and Galeones

In response to the increasingly common attacks suffered by Spanish ships carrying goods of colonies to Spain, King Felipe II of Spain created the system called sistema de flotas y galeones. This system was based on two annual trips, formed by the galleons carrying products such as gold, silver and other commodities, accompanied by naval ships whose aim was to prevent attacks from pirates, buccaneers and privateers sent by European enemies the Spanish Crown

Now we are going to explain the different routes that the Spanish ships had to follow. Firstly, they left from Cartagena and it had to arrive at Nueva España, specifically to the port of Vera Cruz. Then, in august another one left the Spanish port and arrived at Cartagena and Portobello. Both met in La Habana and went together to Spain, so as we can see is a system of Puerto único.

“Desde mediados de siglo y ante la intensificación de la piratería, los españoles tuvieron que proteger los encíos de mercancias y metales preciosos con una serie de barcos de escolta. A partir de 1564 todos los años salían de España dos flotas bien protegidas que se dirigían respectivamente a Mexico y Panamá. Tras pasar el invierno en América, se reunian en La Habana para realizer juntas el viaje de regreso en la primavera o comienzos del verano. El Sistema, ideado por Menéndez de Áviles, fue en lineas generals bastante eficaz.”[1]

So now we are going to see how the system of Galeons and Flotas was abolish. There are many reasons, but these are the more relevant ones:

-          They need to send every month mercury from the Azores to maintain the mining of silver in America, so this systems was not very appropriate.

-          The need to be communicated with the Americas. They need to keep a system of post and urgent communication to support the communication between two territories. This was the only case in which the ships were departure from La Coruña and not from Sevilla. There was also a need to send precious metals more than twice a year.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

 RIBOT GARCÍA, L.A.; “Europa y América en la época del monopolio ibérico”, in NAVARRO GARCÍA, L., Historia de las Américas II, Madrid, Universidad de Sevilla, 1991.

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[1]  RIBOT GARCÍA, L.A.; “Europa y América en la época del monopolio ibérico”, in NAVARRO GARCÍA, L., Historia de las Américas II, Madrid, Universidad de Sevilla, 1991. Page 18

Flags over California

In this post we are going to speak about the flags that we can see in the following photography:

         We are going to name and to explain them from right to left. First of all, we have to say that this is a photo of Santa Barbara’s port, and is suitable to see the evolution of the colonization in California:

1.       The flag of Charles V.

This Spanish standard was placed for the first time by Juan Carrillo, the captain of the first Spaniards who came to California, in 1542.

2.       The Cross of Burgandy

This flag was the first flag of Spain, and it is the flag of the “Duque de Borgoña”, Philip I “The Beautiful”, who introduced them because it was the flag of her mother, Mary of Burgundy. Charles V established it as flag of Spain in 1520. We have to say that this was the flag of Spain until 1785, but it has continued in use until the present.

3.       Flag of Sir Francis Drake, or the British flag

Francis Drake was a English privateer, slaver and sea captain. The Queen Elizabeth I gave Drake the task of disturbing the Spanish Crown and ships. He put this flag in 1579, in today’s Drake’s Bay.

4.       The Spanish flag of the 18th century.

Even though California was ignored by Spaniards, when England and Russia threatened to conquer this land, Carlos III decided in 1769 to colonize it. As we can see, it is quite similar to the present Spanish flag.

5.       The Russian-American company.

When Spaniards moved to the north of California, this chartered company, which was dedicated to build forts in Alaska, moved to the south. They arrived to the north of San Francisco, where they established Fort Ross. The relation with the Californios was good, but the aims of Russians was to obtain the sovereignty of California. They ceased this aim in 1826, and left the country in 1841.

6.       The flag of Argentina.

In 1818, Hyppolite de Bourchard, an argentine privateer who led a small fled arrive in California. He received the authorization to attack the lands controlled by Spaniards. Even though they attacked areas close to Santa Barbara, they did not add this land. Then, after hitting on San Juan Capistrano, they left California.

7.       Flag of the Mexican Empire.

The power of Spain was harmed because of the Napoleon’s conquest of Spain. That is why Mexican natives decided to revolt. They were inspired by American and French revolutions. In this revolution we have to remark the presence of Miguel Hidalgo, a parish priest who fight and died for the independence of Mexico. He was executed in 1811, but Father Morelos and Pavon continued with the struggled of Father Miguel. Finally, in 1821 Mexico won its independence, with Agustin de Itubide as Emperor of Mexico ( 1821-1823).

8.       Flag of the Mexican Republic

After achieving independence and be proclaimed an Empire in 1823 Mexico was declared a Republic ,in the style of the United States. This was the flag of the Mexican Republic, but only for 23 years, because in 1846 the United States of America took the control of this territory.

9.       California Battalion's Banner

                Captain John Fremont was an American explorer and military, who came to California stating scientists and topographic interests, but what he really did was encourage Americans who live in Mexico to rebel against the Mexican Government, and that’s how the war began. Finally, California was taken over by United States.

10.   Sonoma's Rebel Flag

American settlers who lived in Sonoma, unhappy with the treatment they received by the Spanish-Californian authorities, so they rebel against these authorities in 1846 and declared themselves independent for a month, in which this flag flew. After that month, John Fremont, who had captured the capital of California, Monterey, a short time before, put the American flag instead of this.

11.   California's First U.S. Flag

In 1846 the first American flag was raised in California by Commodore John C. Sloat. We can see that this flag has 28 stars, in reference of the 28 states that were under the control of the Unites States of America.

12.   Flag 12 California's First State Flag

This is the last flag that we can see there. This is the California’s first state flag, and it was created in 1911 by the modification of the Sonoma Rebel’s flag.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMAQH4_Twelve_Flags_over_California_Santa_Barbara_CA  (2014/05/26, 12:24)

“Flags over California, a History and Guide”, State of California, Military Department, March 2002.

Privateers and Pirates

In this post we are going to talk about the differences between pirates, privateers, buccaneers and filibusters, and also about the different causes that led to his birth.

Throughout the 16th century and the following centuries, the Atlantic countries began to be dissatisfied with their indirect participation in the colonial monopoly. That is why countries like France, Holland and England, thanks to their social and economic development, the evolution of their ships, and ever larger needs generated by commercialism, began to participate without intermediaries in the economic benefits of colonial exploitation.[1]

There were two main ways in which they took out the meddling in the Spanish monopoly, the contraband and the most violent, the piracy, which in war times turned into privateering. One of the first and most important contrabandists was John Hawkins, because the routes that he made ​​between 1562 and 1568 would be followed by other Europeans seeking direct connection with the colonies.

The objective of the contraband was to create a direct link with the American Colonies and their products; however, the interest of the pirates was to get the silver of the galleons, and also to disturb the Spanish commerce.

The pirates were free people, they did not have to be accountable to any country, but they also had no protection of any country. The pirates were sailors who were engaged in the same activity as pirates, there was just one difference, they had official permission of the king, which was called patente de corso. They only were allowed to attack in wartime, and it was totally legal, not as pirates. But we have to say that the governments often gave permissions out of the war. As a reward for the work done, the pirates received part of the booty they got in their attacks. Meanwhile, the pirates did not have to divide their booty with any Government; all they got was for them.

During the 16^th and the 17^th centuries, two new forms of piracy appeared in the Americas, we are talking about the filibusterism and the buccaneers.

The buccaneers were French who had occupied abandoned areas in La Española. There, they used to make smoke meat and treating leader for selling it to the ships. When the Spanish government expelled them from the island for not paying taxes, they settled in Turtle Island, and once there, they started to attack Spanish ships, often with the filibusters.

On the other hand we have the filibusters. They were freemen and they used very fast ships. Their main interest was to obtain loots as fast as possible.

As we can see, there are many names to refer to the same activity, and the major difference between them is the law under which they acted. There are also many reasons to explain why some people decide to choose this way of live, which was not very secure, but it made possible for many people to get rich quickly and governments attack their enemies.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

 RIBOT GARCÍA, L.A.; “Europa y América en la época del monopolio ibérico”, in NAVARRO GARCÍA, L., Historia de las Américas II, Madrid, Universidad de Sevilla, 1991. (13-19)

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[1] BIBLIOGRAFIA: RIBOT GARCÍA, L.A.; “Europa y América en la época del monopolio ibérico”, in NAVARRO GARCÍA, L., Historia de las Américas II, Madrid, Universidad de Sevilla, 1991. Page 15

Political and administrative organization

v  Firsts attempts to organize: 1492-1535/1543

The application of the institutions and organization elements in the Americas was very gradual, because the Spanish people who arrived to those new lands did not have any example, any experience about colonizing. This is the main idea, and it is important to realize that it was no planned. When they arrived to America, there were some different empires and societies, so the way in which they organized those new lands depended on the previous situation of them. The size of the lands was very important too.

Another important question is that Castile did not send an army, they send colonists and religious men, but, even so, they had guns, which the natives had no.

During the first 8 years, they establish an inheritable viceroyalty, so Colon was the king until he dies. It was applied to Antilles, Cuba and La Española. Then, they created governors and they organize the land to manage resources and share benefits, but this system was good until it was limited to a little territories.

v  The political and administrative system during the Habsburgs ( 1540-1710)

In the first step was a simple system, putting governors with direct contact with the crown,

Now they establish a system of four levels for governing. And along with that there were also local institutions.

This system is based on the figure of a king, with the same conceptions of power that we have on Castile, the king is in the top of the power.

There were different institutions:

-          CENTRAL INSTITUTIONS

         1-Casa de la Contratación. The House of Contracting (1503) was an institution made with the objective of controlling the trade, namely, for controlling of the taxes.  After a royal ordenanza issued in Alcalá de Henares, 1503, the main objective of the House of Contraction was to manage the trade monopoly between Castile and America, and Seville had the monopoly  to departure to the Americas.

About the competences of this institution, we have to remark the following ones: customs duties, control of trade, control of migration, navigation… so if anyone wants to travel to America, he had to go to Seville, and there they had to ask for permission. This monopoly lasted until the end of the colonies.

         2-Consejo de las indias. The Council of the Indias.1524.

At the beginning, two were its main competences: the general (civil and ecclesiastical) government of the Indies, as well as the management of Justice. Later two new elements (royal treasury and defence) were also included to these competences.

Even it was not allow to make laws, it was allowed to give counsels or advices, which were sent to the King, and once he agreed,

It has no capacity of making laws, but giving counsels or advices. These advices were sent to the king, who must first agree, therefore, the Council would be in charge of proclaiming, disseminating and enforcing them.

It also nominated the candidates for the any governing body in the Indies ( except city councils) and was in charge of controlling them in their duties, through two main systems: << juicio de residencia>> and <<visita>>.

Finally it became the veritable central government agency for the American territories.

-          REGIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN AMERICA

1-    Governorates

o   Creation: conquest and capitulations

o   Competences in governments.

o   Governorates and captaincies: during the whole colonial age, they were the basic unit of the administrative system of the Colonial Spanish America.

2-    The Audiences, they were created after the conquest of Mexico.

Originally, they were high courts or tribunals, and the objective of these institutions was to avoid the abuses of one-person governing bodies.

In America it had supposed a problem from the beginning, first with Colon and then with Hernan Cortes, who had under his domain a land that was 3 times bigger than Castile.

So the goal was to make a collective body to govern the whole Audiencia, and whose role also be to act like a governor.

The audiencia, as a collective body, will govern the whole audiencia, will also be acting like a governor.

Functions: competences in Justice and government.

Composition: oidores ( judges), president ( not judge), prosecutor, protector of the Indians.

Evolution and types: viceroyalty, subordinate, praetorial ( the president is military)

- VICEROYALTIES: in the top we found this level, which was governed by the Viceroy, who was a person whose job was to manage and govern a specific site in the Americas, always in the name of the Spanish Crown. There were two, New Spain in the north, and Peru in the south.

New Spain in the north, and Peru in the south

1. Implementation

         New Spain, 1535.

         It was a consequence of the failure of the two previously attempted systems of government. The viceroyalty was set in Mexico, and in their hand were the different Audiencias.

         Peru, 1543

         One of whose aims was to erase definitely the system of encomienda. (which was not created to be permanent, but it became permantent.)

2. Duration: This distribution lasted about 150 years, until the arrival of the Bourbons.

But there were some problems, like for example the vertical accumulation of power (because on more than one occasion the same person was ruling all the presidencies.) also the geographical situation became a problem, because the most places within America were very badly connected to each, which slowed any management.  

v  Reforms of the Bourbon period ( 18^th  century)

a)   Division of the viceroyalties. Nueva españa, Peru,  Nueva Granada, De La Plata.

b)   A new institution: intendencias. They established this new institution between the governors and the audiencias, so now the audiencias had only the role of court.

c)    Control of the borders: captaincies and commandancies

d)   The end of polysynody in the central bodies, in reference to the political organization based on councils that Spanish Crown had.

BRITISH COLONIES

In the case of the 13 colonies under the control of the Kingdom of Great Britain, we can find three main bodies of power, which are:

-          The Governor: he was the head of the colonial organization, and used to be directly elected by the King. He also was the head of the armed forces. He could convene and dissolve assemblies.

-          The Lawmaker Assembly: it was formed by all the freemen, namely, all adult, male and white landowners, which supposed between 50-80% of the male population.

-          The Council: serving as the upper chamber of the legislative power.

We can see that there are many differences between the organization of north and south America, and the main is not only the governance model of the colonizers, but the interest and the objectives of them in these lands. South America, which was under the control of the Spanish Crown was much richer in natural resources and offered greater profit expectations, so the Crown decided to establish a rigorous control over them. In the other hand, we have North America, which did not have mining and natural resources sufficient to cause the British government to get involved in the organization. The government's goal was provide an outlet for excess population, so they established population-colonies.

These are the main causes of the actual differences between the Two Americas.

GALEANO, Eduardo; Las venas abiertas de América Latina, Editorial Siglo XXI, 2011.

ELLIOT, J.H.; España, Europa y el mundo de ultramar (1500-1800), Editorial Taurus, 2010.

THE CONTROVERSY OF VALLADOLID, 1550-1551

The proceeding of Valladolid, better known as Juntas de Valladolid  is a debate that happened in the Colegio De San Gregorio, in the city of Valladolid between 1550 and 1551. There  were discussed issues about the legitimacy and the need to provide a legal basis for the conquest of the Indies.  Although there were many participants, in this post we are going to focus on the most important two, or at least, on the best known ones, Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. They kept two completely opposing positions, and these opinions will be our focus.

One the one hand we have Bartolomé De Las Casas, who made ​​a complete vindication of the Indians and the rights that belonged to them as human beings, rights which in his opinion were being brutally seized by the Spanish conquistadors from 1492. He defended the way of live and the dignity of the Indians and also that the religious or political issues could not take precedence over those rights.  In his “Antropología”, he talked about “the perfect primitive” as a superior person both physically, socially, and morally. He attributed these characteristics to a lot of factors, like the age at which parents conceive their children, which was earliest than in Europe. He also speaks about a better diet, because on his words “los indios son absentisímos y muy sobrios, de muy poco comer y beber, lo que les ayuda y favorece”. As we will see throughout this post, he made a difference between two types of infidel, the one who was infidel because of the ignorance, and the one who was infidel by choice. In the case of the Indians from the Americas, he classified them on the first group, because when the Spaniards arrived to America, they did not know about God.

On the other hand we have Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, who was one of the biggest defenders of the evangelization, the conquest and, at least, the war against the Indians. He also used some classic text from authors like Aristotle to defend his cause, but we have to say that he made a translation that it is supposed to be manipulated according to his interests. He talked about the just war, as a tool for evangelizing and solving conflicts. He and many Spaniards for who it was convenient to keep the situation of the Indians and black slaves in America, maintained that it was natural that the barbarians were servants and submissive to the civilized men, so if they showed opposition, the war should be fair.

Now let's see what were the reasons or the sins Sepulveda argued to defend its position.

1)      The natural division between different people.

The barbarians must serve civilized men, and if after being informed about the benefits of being Christianized, they did not accept, the conquerors could declare war on them.  

But, as we have said before, is not just that  De Las Casas considered them as a equal, is that he considered them superior in many aspects.  

2)      Cannibalism and idolatry.

In the opinion of Sepúlveda, all the Indians were cannibals and idolatrous, and it was against the natural laws and rights, so it was enough to justify the war, the occupation, domination and guardianship of Indians. Moreover, the Pope gave them the right to fight against the idolatrous.

But in response to this argue, Bartolome denied that the Spaniards had jurisdiction over these people to punish and dominate them, because they were out of their jurisdiction. It was not the case, for example, of Jews and Moors that were living in Castile.

3)      Avoid unnecessary suffering for those who would be victims of idolatry and sacrifices.

Sepulveda said that it was duty of Spaniards to defend the innocents that could be injured by the infidels, but Bartolome argued that they only can be judged if they were part of the Church and they decided to do these kinds of acts. But if they decided to be evangelized, the obligation of the Spaniards was to protect them, not to punish them. The way for the Indians cease to commit such crimes, was to achieve the Indians to turn into a religion that did not allow such crimes. But anyway, it could not be imposed, it must be the result of the evangelizing work.

4)      War makes easier the evangelization of the infidels and the indigenous.

In the opinion of Sepulveda, there were two ways to convert an Indian into the Christianity, the first was the doctrine and the second one was the terror and the force. But it is very important to realize that Sepulveda did not think that this was the way to coerce them to believe, far from it, he thought that it was the way to remove the barriers that opposed the propagation of the faith. In his words, once they were under the control of the Christians and away from their rituals, they would be happy to be baptized.

In response to this, Bartolome De Las Casas said that it was only suitable to heretics, but they only were infidels.

   
 BIBLIOGRAPHY:
MANERO SALVADOR, Ana; "La controversia de Valladolid: España y el análisis de la legitimidad de la conquista" Revista Electrónica Iberoamericana, vol.3, nº2, 2009. pag 85-112.