The very first colonial empires arose in the 16th century, when Europe entered the Age of Discovery. Before all the expansion in hitherto unknown lands began the Spaniards and the Portuguese. Their states built classic colonial empires.
Spain
In 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered several islands in the Caribbean. It soon became clear that in the west, Europeans were waiting not for a few patches of land, but for a whole unknown world. Thus began the creation of colonial empires.
Columbus tried to discover not America, but India, where he went in order to explore the route along which it would be possible to establish trade in spices and other unique goods of the East. The navigator worked for the King of Aragon and the Queen of Castile. The marriage union of these two monarchs made it possible to unite neighboring states into Spain. In the same year that Columbus discovered America, the new kingdom conquered the southern province of Granada from the Muslims. Thus ended the Reconquista - the centuries-old process of cleansing the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim rule.
These prerequisites were enoughfor the emergence of the Spanish colonial empire. First, European settlements appeared on the Caribbean islands: Hispaniola (Haiti), Puerto Rico and Cuba. The Spanish colonial empire also founded the first colony on the American mainland. In 1510, it became the Panamanian fortress with the complex name of Santa Maria la Antigua del Darien. The fort was laid by the explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa. He was the first European to cross the isthmus of Panama and end up on the Pacific coast.
Internal Unit
The structure of colonial empires is better to consider on the example of Spain, since it was this country that first came to those orders, which then for the most part spread to other empires. It all started with a decree of 1520, according to which all open lands, without exception, were recognized as the property of the crown.
The socio-legal structure was built according to the feudal hierarchy familiar to Europeans. The center of the colonial empire gave the Spanish settlers plots of land that became family property. The indigenous Indian population turned out to be dependent on new neighbors. At the same time, it is worth noting that formally the natives were not recognized as slaves. This is an important point that helps to understand how the Spanish colonial empire differed from the Portuguese.
In the American settlements that belonged to Lisbon, slavery was official. It was the Portuguese who created the system for transporting cheap labor from Africa to South America. In the case of Spain, the dependence of the Indians was based on peonage -debt relationship.
Features of viceroy alties
The possessions of the empire in America were divided into vice-kingdoms. The first in their line in 1534 was New Spain. It included the West Indies, Mexico and Central America. In 1544, Peru was established, which included not only Peru proper, but also modern Chile. In the 18th century, New Granada (Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia), as well as La Plata (Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay) appeared. While the Portuguese colonial empire controlled only Brazil in the Americas, Spanish possessions in the New World were an order of magnitude larger.
The monarch had supreme power over the colonies. In 1503, the Chamber of Commerce was established, which led the judicial, governmental and coordinating bodies in the field. It soon changed its name and became the Supreme Royal Council for the Affairs of the Two Indies. This body existed until 1834. The council led the church, oversaw important colonial appointments of officials and administrators, and legislated.
The viceroys were viceroys of the monarch. This position was appointed for a period of 4 to 6 years. There was also a position of general-captains. They ruled isolated lands and territories with a special status. Each viceroy alty was divided into provinces, which were headed by governors. All the colonial empires of the world were created for the sake of income. That is why the main concern of the governors was the timely and complete financial receipts to the treasury.
A separate niche was occupied by the church. She performed not only religious, but also judicialfunctions. In the 16th century, the Tribunal of the Holy Inquisition appeared. Sometimes her actions led to real terror against the Indian population. The great colonial empires had another important pillar - cities. In these settlements, in the Spanish case, a peculiar system of self-government developed. Local residents formed cabildos - councils. They also had the right to elect certain officials. There were about 250 such councils in America.
The most active layer of the colonial society were the landlords and industrialists. For quite a long time they were in a humble state in comparison with the well-born Spanish aristocracy. And yet it was these classes that made the colonies grow and their economies profitable. It is important to note another phenomenon. Although Spanish was ubiquitous, in the 18th century the process of disintegration of the population into separate nations began, which in the next century built their own states in South and Central America.
Portugal
Portugal arose as a small kingdom, surrounded on all sides by Spanish possessions. Such a geographical location deprived the small country of the opportunity to expand in Europe. Instead of the Old World, this state turned its gaze to the New.
At the end of the Middle Ages, Portuguese navigators were among the best in Europe. Like the Spaniards, they sought to reach India. But if the same Columbus went in search of such a coveted country in a risky western direction,then the Portuguese threw all their strength into going around Africa. Bartolomeu Dias discovered the Cape of Good Hope - the southern point of the Black Continent. And the expedition of Vasco da Gamma 1497-1499. finally made it to India.
In 1500, the Portuguese navigator Pedro Cabral veered east and accidentally discovered Brazil. In Lisbon, they immediately announced their claims to previously unfamiliar lands. Soon, the first Portuguese settlements began to appear in South America, and Brazil eventually became the only Portuguese-speaking country in America.
Eastern discoveries
Despite the successes in the west, the east remained the main goal of the navigators. The Portuguese colonial empire achieved significant success in this direction. Its researchers discovered Madagascar and ended up in the Arabian Sea. In 1506, the island of Socotra was captured. At the same time, the Portuguese first visited Ceylon. The Viceroy alty of India appeared. All the eastern colonies of the country fell under his control. The first to receive the title of viceroy was the naval commander Francisco de Almeida.
The structure of the Portuguese and Spanish colonial empires had some administrative similarities. Both had viceroy alties and both appeared at a time when the vast world was still divided among Europeans. The resistance of the local inhabitants, both in the east and in the west, was easily suppressed. The Europeans played into the hands of their technical superiority over other civilizations.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the Portuguese captured significant eastern ports and regions: Calicut, Goa, Malacca. In 1517 trading began.relations with distant China. Every colonial empire dreamed of the markets of the Celestial Empire. History (Grade 7) at school touches in detail on the topic of the Great Geographical Discoveries and European expansion around the world. And this is not surprising, because without understanding these processes it is difficult to understand how the modern world has developed. For example, today's Brazil would never have been the way we know it, if not for the Portuguese culture and language. Also, Lisbon sailors were the first among Europeans to open the way to Japan. In the 1570s, they began the colonization of Angola. During its heyday, Portugal had many fortresses in South America, Africa, India and Southeast Asia.
Trading empires
Why was any colonial empire created? Europeans established control over lands in other parts of the world to exploit their human and natural resources. They were especially interested in unique or rare goods: spices, precious metals, rare woods and other luxury items. For example, coffee, sugar, tobacco, cocoa and indigo were massively exported from America.
Trade in the Asian direction had its features. Great Britain has become the leading force here. The British set up the following marketing system: they sold fabrics in India, they bought opium there, which they exported to China. All these trading operations gave enormous income for their time. At the same time, tea was exported from Asian countries to Europe. Each center of the colonial empire sought to establish a monopoly on the world market. Because ofThis led to regular wars. The more land was exploited and the more ships plowed the oceans, the more such conflicts broke out.
The colonies were "factories" for the production of cheap labor. As it was used by local residents (most often natives of Africa). Slavery was a profitable business, and the transatlantic slave trade was the backbone of the economy of colonial empires. Thousands of people from the Congo and West Africa were forcibly transported to Brazil, to the South of the modern United States and the Caribbean.
Expansion of European civilization
Any colonial empire was built on the basis of the geostrategic interests of European countries. The foundation of such formations were strongholds in different parts of the world. The more coastal posts the empire had, the more mobile its armed forces became. The engine of European expansion around the world was mutual rivalry. Countries fought each other for control of trade routes, human migration, fleets and troops.
Every colonial empire acted for reasons of prestige. Any concession to an enemy in another part of the world was seen as a sign of declining geopolitical importance. In modern times, monarchical power was still associated with the religious beliefs of the population. Because of this, all the same Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires considered their expansion as a matter pleasing to God and equated it with Christian messianism.
Language and civilizationaloffensive. By spreading its culture, any empire strengthened its legitimacy and authority in the international arena. An important feature of her was active missionary activity. The Spanish and Portuguese spread Catholicism throughout the Americas. Religion remained an important political tool. By making their culture ubiquitous, the colonists infringed upon the rights of the local natives, depriving them of their native faith and language. From this practice such phenomena as segregation, apartheid and genocide were later born.
UK
Historically, Spain and Portugal, the first colonial empires (7th grade at school gets to know them in detail), could not hold the palm in the fight against other European powers. Before others, England announced its maritime claims. If the Spaniards actively colonized South and Central America, then the British took up North. The conflict between the two states broke out for another reason. Spain has traditionally been considered the main defender of Catholicism, while in the 16th century the Reformation took place in England and its own church appeared independent of Rome.
At about the same time, naval wars began between the two countries. The powers did not act with their own hands, but with the help of pirates and privateers. English sea robbers of modern times have become a symbol of their era. They plundered Spanish galleons loaded with American gold, and sometimes even captured colonies. Open war shook the Old World in 1588 when the English fleet destroyed the Invincible Armada. Spain has since entered a period of prolonged crisis. Gradually, she finally gave way to the English, and later the British Empire, leadership in the colonial race.
Netherlands
In the first half of the 17th century, there was another great colonial empire built by the Netherlands. It included the territories of Indonesia, Guiana, India. The Dutch had outposts in Formosa (Taiwan) and Ceylon. The main opponent of the Netherlands was Great Britain. In the 1770s The Dutch ceded their North American colonies to the British. One of them was the future metropolis of New York. In 1802, Ceylon and the Cape Colony in South Africa also turned out to be transferred.
Gradually, the main possession of the Netherlands in other parts of the world became Indonesia. The Dutch East India Company operated on its territory. She traded in important oriental goods: silver, tea, copper, cotton, textiles, ceramics, silk, opium and spices. During the heyday of the colonial empire, the Netherlands had a monopoly in the markets of the Pacific and Indian Ocean. For a similar trade with America, the Dutch West India Company was created. Both corporations were abolished at the end of the 18th century. As for the entire colonial empire of the Netherlands, it has sunk into the past in the 20th century, along with the empires of European competitors.
France
The beginning of the French colonial empire was laid in 1535, when Jacques Cartier explored the Saint Lawrence River inmodern Canada. In the 16th century, the Bourbon monarchy had the most modern and efficient economy in Europe at that time. In terms of development, it was ahead of both Portugal and Spain. The French began to colonize new lands 70 years earlier than the British. Paris could count on the status of the main metropolis in the world.
However, France has not been able to fully exploit its potential. She was prevented by internal instability, weak trade infrastructure, as well as flaws in the resettlement policy. As a result, in the 18th century, Britain came out on top, and France found itself in secondary roles in the colonial race. Nevertheless, she continued to own significant territories around the world.
After the Seven Years' War in 1763, France lost Canada. In North America, the country retained Louisiana. It was sold in 1803 to the USA. In the 19th century, France reoriented itself towards the Black Continent. She captured vast expanses of West Africa, as well as Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Later, France gained a foothold in Southeast Asia. All these lands gained independence in the 20th century.
