Atlantic World: The Columbian Encounter

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Atlantic World The Columbian Encounter
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Europe in the late fifteenth century
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The West In 1500

• Late 15th century period of fateful change in
  Europe
• Islamic and Chinese isolationism
• Renaissance and reformation
• Beginnings of modernisation

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Modernisation

• Modernisation the process by which humans have
  increased their control over their physical
  environment as a means of increasing per capita
  output (economists definition)
• Awakening and activation of the masses and
  replacement of belief in supernatural
  intervention with view of human affairs as
  understandable through science and rational
  thought (sociologists definition)

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Renaissance

• A polemical term meaning new birth or revival
  coined in the eighteenth century by advocates of
  the Enlightenment
• One major feature transformation the idea that
  people could mould their own destiny rather than
  just be the plaything of supernatural forces
• Birth of individualism

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Reformation

• Rebellion against Catholic church
• Engendered doctrinal dissension and intolerance
• Transfer of power from church to state (esp.
  England)
• Led to expansion of crusading spirit to rest of
  world (Jorge Canizares-Esguerra, Puritan
  Conquistadors, 2006)

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State Power

• Europe distinctive in respect to increase in
  state power
• Europes economy geared to international trade in
  15th century
• Competitive desire to find new markets in
  contrast to more self-sufficient Chinese
• European advantages in technology, esp in
  shipbuilding

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Spanish Galleon
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Capitalism

• Commercial revival and technological progress
  undermined feudalism and led to capitalism
• Invention of joint stock company as way of
  maximising individual investment in risky new
  enterprise
• Great stress on always improving productivity
  through the better use of workers or better use
  of technology

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New Monarchs Henry VIII, Ferninand and Isabella,
Francis I

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Reasons for European Expansion

• Technological prowess
• Population increase and growth in productivity
  and in resources
• Emergence of dynamic capitalism
• Religious change and rebirth of crusading spirit
• Rise of the new monarchs

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William Blake Europe, supported by America and
Africa
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China vs Europe

• Chang Hsieh, 1618 Coming into contact with
  barbarian peoples, you have nothing more to fear
  than touching the left horn of a snail. The only
  things one should be anxious about are the means
  of mastery of the waves of the sea and, worst of
  all dangers, the minds of those avid for profit
  and greedy of gain.

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China vs. Europe

• Portuguese Captain Joao Ribeiro, 1688 From the
  Cape of Good Hope onwards, we were unwilling to
  leave anything outside of our control we were
  anxious to lay our hands on everything in that
  huge stretch of over 5,000 leagues from Sofala to
  Japan there was not a corner which we did not
  occupy or desire to subject to ourselves.

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Meeting of New Worlds
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First Contact Papua New Guinea, 1920s
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First Contact Papua New Guinea 1920s
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The Caribbean
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Guanahani
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Columbus on Guanahani
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Culture Contact
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Taino Bracelet
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Cat Figurine
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Columbus in Chains
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An Imagined Portrait of Columbus
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Columbus Modern views

• Felipe Fernandez-Armesto Columbus best seen in
  context of 15th century Genoa
• William and Carla Rahn Phillips, The Worlds of
  Christopher Columbus

felipe fernandez armesto
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An historian in trrouble
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• Michael Ryan new lands and new people
  registered little impact on the values, beliefs
  and traditions of the sixteenth and seventeenth
  centuries
• Sir John Elliott in observing America, Europe
  was in the first instance observing itself.
• Stephen Greenblatt Columbus was involved in the
  production of wonder.

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Brutalities of the Conquerors
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