THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EUROPEAN HEGEMONY 1415-1715, J.H. Parry,
Harper and Row, New York, 1966 (1949)

The theme of this book is European expansion globally. However, the
specific significance of the Spice Islands and Southeast Asia and
the importance of the chapters dealing with the region lead to the
inclusion of this review in this section of the Solarguard site.

The book is subtitled "Trade and Exploration in the Age of the
Renaissance." The introduction (pp. 5-11) sets the scene at the
beginning with Ming China, expanding Islam pressuring Hindu states
in the Sub-Continent and Southeast Asia and European crusading
spirit. In 1415 Portuguese forces, with Henry the Navigator present,
seized Ceuta, a North African port just south of Gibraltar.

Chapter One, "The Tools of the Explorers" (pp. 13-25), begins with
the survival or revival of Classical geography and the Italian and
Catalan cartographers whose charts were based on actual observation.
Astronomy and sailing by the stars had practical significance.
Polaris, of course, ceases to be useful as one probes further south.
Zacutos's solar declination tables (1478) were one tool. Europeans
used compasses since at least the Thirteenth Century. Astrolabes and
quadrants are Fifteenth Century. European ships improved until by
1600 they were at least the equal of any others. European ship
gunnery, from the Fourteenth Century, became increasingly dominant.

Chapter Two, "Christians and Spices" (pp. 26-38), begins with Henry
the Navigator's base at Sagres and explorations of West Africa. Cape
Bojador was passed in 1434. From 1441-1446 nearly a thousand slaves
were obtained. In 1471 Fernando Po reached the eponymous island. In
1482 Portugual established a fort and warehouse at Benin. Some
profits financed a school of navigation and hydrographic office. In
1483 Cao was sailing up the Congo. In 1486 Bartholemew Diaz rounded
the Cape of Good Hope. In 1497 Vasco da Gama pushed further up the
eastern coast and across to Calicut in India.

   Apart from salt, the preservative spices were all produced in
   tropical countries: pepper, the commonest spice, in India, the
   East Indies and (a very inferior sort) West Africa; cinnamon in
   Ceylon, nutmeg and mace in Celebes and other East India islands,
   whence they were shipped from the port of Macassar. Ginger is a
   Chinese product, though an inferior kind was also grown in
   Malabar. The most valuable preservative spice--cloves--came from
   the most restricted producing area, a few small islands in the
   Molucca group, including Tidore, Ternate, Amboina and the Banda
   islands. To complete the list of eastern trade goods, it is
   convenient to group together with spices certain other products
   which commanded high prices in Europe and which went there by the
   same routes: Chinese silk; Indian cotton cloth; rhubarb, grown in
   China and much prized as a medicine; and precious stones of
   various kinds--emeralds from India, rubies from Tibet and
   sapphires from Ceylon. p. 32

Da Gama had sailed with access to reports from Diaz and from Pedro
da Covilha, who had travelled to Cairo, Aden, Calicut, the Malibar
Coast and back to Cairo. Later he went to Ethiopia. In 1502, during
his second voyage, da Gama won a naval battle off Malabar and
bombarded Calicut. In 1509 Portuguese ships defeated Egyptian and
Indian ships. In 1510, Albuquerque seized the island of Goa. He took
Malacca in 1511. A few years later, Portuguese were in Macao and the
Moluccas.

Chapter Three, "The New World" (pp. 39-53), begins with the Canary
Islands, the Azores, Madeiras and Cape Verde Islands. Porto Santo,
Madeiras was settled in 1420. The Canaries had an indigenous
population (Guanches) who repulsed the Portuguese in 1425 and 1427.
There was some settlement a few decades later and fighting with
Spain over the islands. Spain won. Settlement of the Azores dates
from 1439. There were the voyages of Columbus, Cabot and in 1500
Cabral's landing on Brazil. Amerigo Vespucci (whence the name
America) sailed along Venezuela and the Guinas on his first voyage,
and, for Portugual, along Brazil and past the Rio de la Plata on his
second. Accounts of two additional voyages are not generally
considered authentic. Magellan sailed around South America and
across the Pacific dying in the Philippines. Sebastian del Cano
continued the voyage, reaching the Moluccas. Portugual proved too
powerful for Spain to hold the Moluccas. The Spanish claim was sold
to Portugual by Charles V in 1529.

Chapter Four, "The Silver Empire" (pp. 54-67), recounts the Spanish
attacks against the Aztecs, Mayas and Incas. It mentions priestly
and legal support for the crown and the monarchy's concern not to
allow unfettered aristocratic control of America. Views of the
native population varied. These included Las Casas's, who saw
natives as equally human deserving their own local leadership,
though under the Spanish crown and with instruction in European
ways. Others differed. The crown held natives were subjects entitled
to property. Spaniards living in the New World took tribute, raised
forced labour, educated natives, and conveyed, alas, diseases that
killed a substantial proportion of the population. The crown
monitored the administration of the colonies and provided checks and
balances to the independent action of governors. Cattle (for
leather), sugar, silver and gold were the main products of the
Americas. The treasure fleet sailed in convoy and only thrice in a
century and a half was the fleet defeated.

Chapter Five, "Fishermen, Explorers and Slavers" (pp. 68-79), begins
with the importance of fish, with Cabot and with the Portuguese
fishing off Newfoundland. French came, too, and in 1509 some Indians
and a canoe were taken to France. There were Englishmen fishing
among those of a number of nations.

   The ships which sought the northern passages and opened the trade
   with Russia; the expeditions which began the settlement of North
   America; the English and Dutch fleets which defeated the navies
   of Spain, were largely manned by sailors trained in the hard
   school of the Banks fishery. p. 70

Great was the effort to find a northern passage. In 1553, three
English ships tried to sail north of Russia. Two perished, but one
reached Archangel. It's commander travelled to Moscow, met and
impressed Ivan the Terrible, but efforts to foster British-Russian
trade were unable to overcome the obstacles of distance, etc.
Frobisher's first voyage in 1576 launched the search for a passage
north of North America. A major accomplishment was the discovery of
Hudson's Bay. Spanish monopoly of trade with its American colonies
was challenged by such Englishmen as John Hopkins sailing to Africa
in the 1560s for slaves to trade at Hispaniola for hides, sugar and
silver. In the early 1570s the situation was less civil than anti
monopolistic trade. It was piracy. A notable event was Drake's 1577
sailing around Cape Horn, taking of Peruvian silver, proceeding to
the Mulaccas, obtaining of cloves and continuing on to England.

Chapter Six, "The Struggle For Eastern Trade" (pp. 80-92), begins
with Portugual's connection to Spain at a time of English, French
and Dutch hostility to Spain. In India Muslim sultanates overcame
the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar and in 1569 placed Goa under a two
year assault. Luis de Ataide brilliantly resisted. In the islands,
Majapahit vanished while Muslim sultanates arose. The Portuguese
with declining technological and human competency viz a viz other
European seapowers exacerbated their difficulties by religious
intolerance and lack of cultural awareness of the peoples of India
and Southeast Asia. Dutch and English ships sought to obtain at
source the products of the East Indies.

   The Dutch were well received almost everywhere. Unlike the
   Portuguese they did not in these early voyages mix their commerce
   with piracy or proselytising, and their fleets were equipped for
   competitive trading. Their greater ability as sailors and the
   better construction of their ships enabled them to carry spices
   to Europe far more cheaply than the Portuguese could do, and
   their trade goods--helmets, armour, weapons, glass, velvet and
   German toys--were carefully chosen for their market. p. 88

In 1602 Dutch companies joined together in the Dutch East India
Company. In 1600 the English East India Company was established.
Initially allies against Portugual and Spain, the Dutch and English
cooled towards each other. The Dutch invested far more in the East
Indies trade. Locals welcomed them as deliverers from the
Portuguese. The Dutch prevailed in the islands and the English
focused on India.

Chapter Seven, "The English Plantations" (pp. 93-106), mentions
British colonization of the east coast of North America, the absence
of docile native labour, promotion of investment and emigration,
political (anti-Spanish) and religious factors in colonization, the
seeking of naval supplies from America, among others. The Virginia
Company, founded in 1606, sent out colonists, who, at least
initially, had a very rough time. When the company went bankrupt,
Virginia became a Crown Colony. Tobacco was the chief export.
English efforts to colonize South America were not very successful
and some such colonists moved to the Caribbean. Barbados with its
cotton, tobacco, dyes, and, after 1640, sugar became very important.
In Massachusetts the dominant Puritans were efficient and their
religious intolerance led to the formation of other colonies around
them.

Chapter Eight, "Rival Empires in America" (pp. 107-119), begins with
French Canada, the efficient Jesuit missionaries and the coureurs de
bois, better woodsmen than other Europeans. The French also
colonized some of the islands in the Caribbean. The Dutch, too, were
interested in the Caribbean. In 1624 the Dutch attacked Bahia,
Brazil. In 1628, the Dutch seized the Spanish treasure fleet.
British piracy continued until 1670, when Spain recognized British
West Indies possessions and Henry Morgan was appointed governor of
Jamaica. The Portuguese in Brazil overcame the Dutch in Bahia, but
the Dutch had seized African slaving posts providing labour for
Bahia's sugar. The Dutch augmented sugar production in the
Caribbean. Minas Gereis's gold then became Brazil's precious
product. Dutch attitudes, focus on honest trading, technological
inventiveness contributed to their carrying much of the trade of the
Seventeenth Century.

Chapter Nine, "The Old Colonial System" (pp. 120-133), looks at
English and Spanish plantations, establishment of royal colonial
systems, internal English colonial governance with governor,
executive council and legislative assembly. English colonies were
guaranteed markets in England for their particular raw products and
were obligated to sell to England such products transported
exclusively on English or colonial ships. There was considerable
augmentation of English shipping. Increased naval strength was
required to protect this from European and North African predators.
France made efforts at emigration. French exploration of North
America was impressive.

   By 1673 the Jesuits had completed the exploration of the Great
   Lakes and were striking southwards to the headwaters of the
   Mississippi and its affluents. In 1682 La Salle made his great
   journey by water down the whole length of the Mississippi to the
   Gulf of Mexico and opened up a whole vista of strategic and
   economic possibilities. p. 131

Two intrepid Frenchmen, Radisson and Grosseilliers, turned to
England and hence was born the long lasting Hudson Bay Company.

Chapter Ten, "Trade and Dominion in the East" (pp. 134-148),
outlines Dutch expansion, wide ranging geographical exploration,
including Tasman's discovery of Tasmania and New Zealand, seizure of
such Portuguese bases as Malacca and those on Ceylon, establishment
of an expansive Dutch network, including South Africa, Batavia and
Macassar. The Dutch focused on trade and economics and participated
in local intrigues and conflicts to Dutch financial advantage. The
Dutch had residents at the courts of local rulers. Non-European
foreigners in East Indian states were the responsibility of their
own headmen. The Dutch exerted great efforts to monopolize trade and
to control production of spices, dyes, sugar and coffee.

Dutch and especially English trade with India flourished through the
favour of the Mughal Empire. Madras, obtained in 1639, was the first
British trading territory in India. Bombey followed in 1665 and
Calcutta in 1686. Turmoil with the decline of the Mughal Empire,
speeded by Aurangzeb's Islamic fanaticism, and pressures in England
to overcome the company's monopoly attended increased trade. By 1709
monopoly was re-established and six years later regular trade with
China began.

Chapter Eleven, "Slavery and the War For Trade" (pp. 149-161),
begins with the acceptability for most southern Europeans of
obtaining slaves traded by independent kingdoms. There were
practical considerations in obtaining slaves for Spanish colonies
when Portugual had a monopoly on the Guinea coast. Dutch and English
competition challenged the Portuguese and after 1640 those
competitors were carrying most slaves. Many slaves worked in the
sugar plantations. Plantations tended to exhaust the soil. England
gained from the War of the Spanish Succession and the Treaty of
Utrecht which ended it Acadia, Newfoundland, Hudson's Bay, Gibraltar
among others. The Dutch continued to consolidate control in the West
Indies.

"Epilogue: The Bounds of Christendom, 1715" (pp. 162-169), notes the
confidence of Europeans in their technical superiority in ship
building and arms, their geographically extended posts across the
world, their residing as upper elites in many places. Spanish,
French and Portuguese Catholic religious enthusiasm was largely
absent from Protestant mercantile ventures, New England exceptions
only proving the rule. There is a glimpse into later times.

This book is a summary of European expansion very suggestive of the
complex, varied and fascinating epic it highlights. It is very
valuable, especially to those limited to some awareness of the
origins of the US, for its portrayal of the much wider picture.

Michael McKenny August 21-23, 2003 CE


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