Conquest, Colonies and the Slave-Trade What had begun as uncertain voyages came to have lasting consequences for Europe, the Americas and Africa. From the fifteenth century, European maritime projects produced knowledge of continuous sea passages from ocean to ocean. Before this, most of these passages had been unknown to Europeans. Some were not known to anyone.
No ship had penetrated the Caribbean or the Americas. The South Atlantic was wholly unexplored; no sea-going ship had ever entered its waters, much less crossed it, or sailed from it to the Pacific or the Indian Ocean. In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, all these feats were accomplished. ‘There is no greater curse on a home or family than to be unjustly supported by the sweat of others!’ ‘Any man who deprives others of their freedom, and being able to restore that freedom, does not do so, is condemned!’ – Antonio Vieira, Jesuit priest in Brazil, 1640s C ONFRONTATION OF C ULTURES ACTIVITY Analyse the effects of contact with the Europeans on the native people of South America.
Describe their reactions to the settlers and the Jesuits. T HEMES IN W ORLD H ISTORY For Europe, the ‘discovery’ of the Americas had consequences for others besides the initial voyagers. The influx of gold and silver helped further expansion of international trade and industrialisation. Between and , a hundred ships each year carried silver from South American mines to Spain.
But it was not Spain and Portugal that benefited. They did not invest their huge income in further trade, or in building up a merchant navy. Instead, it was the countries bordering the Atlantic, particularly England, France, Belgium and Holland, that took advantage of the ‘discoveries’. Their merchants formed joint- stock companies and sent out trading expeditions, established colonies and introduced Europeans to the products of the New World, including tobacco, potatoes, cane- sugar, cacao and rubber.
Europe also became familiar with new crops from America, notably potatoes and chillies. These were then taken by Europeans to other countries like India. For the native people of the Americas, the