The Transatlantic Economy, Trade Wars, and Colonial

Rebellions

Chapter 17

EQ: What were the impacts of European mercantile ventures in the 18th century? How were colonies formed and why did they begin to rebel?

Introduction This chapter discusses the European rivalries

of the mid-18th century…Britain and France fought for dominance as the Spanish colonial system declined abroad…on the continent, Prussia and Austria-Hungary squared off over territory

The eventual winners of each rivalry were Britain and Prussia

The costs of war between commercial rivals eventually led nations like Britain to create new methods of taxation to help pay off war debt

These new taxes created their own results: Revolution in America, increased enlightened Absolutism on the continent and a financial crisis in France that led to disaster

Mercantilism European powers administered their 18th

C empires according to the theory of mercantilism, the close government control of the economy which demanded greater exports and the increase of precious metal specie production

Colonies were established for the sole purpose of not only producing raw materials for the mother country, but to also create markets for mercantile ventures

For the colonies, the mother country became responsible for basically providing military protection and a basic structure of local governance

Each country maintained a tight control on the economic interests of its colonies…the best example of this is seen through the Spanish colonial system

“Watson and the Shark”

Patterns of Spanish Colonization

The Spanish proceeded to layout a strict colonial system (later legitimized in the Law of the Indies)

They designed cities in a grid like structure similar to their own in Spain (influenced by Muslims)…at the center of these towns/cities was a large plaza, surrounded by government buildings, military offices and a CATHOLIC CHURCH…a market would also be held in the plaza

The church became a central figure in the government/colonization process (more later)

The Spanish Colonial Government

Remember, sovereignty over the New World was granted through Papal decree (and the Treaty of Tordesillas), so therefore, the church would become a central element in Spanish colonial government

The Spanish system became a great bureaucracy, with lawyers, church members and other judicial officers at its central authority

The crown ruled through the Council of Indies (est. 1524)…the council created 2 main viceroyalties (territories) known as New Spain and Peru (with several more to come later in the Caribbean and northern and southern South America) which were divided into audiencias (judicial territories)

Viceroys were the appointed governors and could ONLY come directly from Spain…most were members of the Spanish nobility

The clergy took the lead in conversion and education in the new system, making sure the natives understood the layout of Spanish law, learned to speak the language, and learned to pay their taxes

The Spanish Colonial Economy

More than 80% of Spanish America was engaged in agricultural production

HOWEVER, mining was the essential activity

Major silver mines opened up in Mexico, Peru and Bolivia Potosi in Bolivia was the largest and

most productive of all mines, the town was populated by over 160,000 people, mostly by mita mining slaves from other parts of Peru

According to Spanish law, the crown held all subsoil rights even though mines were owned by individuals…these individuals had to pay 1/5 of their profits to the Spanish crown

The Spanish Colonial Economy

The Spanish crown established one important provision in the Law of the Indies ALL luxury goods, gold and silver produced in Spanish colonies had to be directly sent to Spain

There was NO direct trade between Spanish Viceroyalties or other European power from the Spanish colonies…Spanish colonies and colonists had to buy Spanish made goods (source of dissatisfaction for future independence movements)

Spanish galleon fleets funneled goods from the Pacific (Philippines) through the Americas then directly to Spain…these fleets were well armed to prevent piracy…only one fleet was lost before this era of trade ended in the 1730s

The over importing and spending of Spanish silver caused inflation and led to Spain’s eventual downfall

Spanish Reforms Due to competition from other European powers and impacts of the

Enlightenment being felt in Spanish and Portuguese government, changes came…

Spain was weakened by poor rulers, competition, and the inflation problems of trade during the late 1700s…the flow of silver declined…local Creoles in the colonies came to power, many were corrupt and selfish…Spain then had wars of Succession where French Bourbons came to power on the throne in Spain

The Bourbons monarchs took direct control over the colonies, eliminating bureaucratic and even church power…additional viceroyalties were added to colonies… creoles were removed from any power positions in the colonies but forced to be in colonial militias…trade policies were changed (no more one way trade)…companies similar to what the British and Dutch has were established…certain areas specialized in certain products (Cuba = sugar, Argentina = beef)…new minerals were mined other than gold and silver

All of the changes brought on by the Bourbons bought great prosperity again to Spain…BUT it annoyed/angered the colonists (Creoles) as they lost power positions gained from the period of turmoil and were forced into such patterns of specialization…all they had were well-being and control of social aspects

Rivalries

Competition for foreign markets was intense amongst the British, French, Spanish and the Dutch

In North America, colonists at the behest of international trading companies quarreled over trading rights with various indigenous groups (Indians) as well as fur trading regions, fishing rights and territorial claims

The West Indies served as a breeding ground of contention as nations fought over their lucrative plantation economies…the early pattern by each nation was to “raid” the others shipments (PIRATES!) to disrupt trade

India was another area of contention between Britain as France, as each nation attempted to align with as many rajah states in the Mughal Empire…trading companies such as the British East India Company and the French Compagnie des Indes Several events affected foreign relations in India…1) the decay of the Mughal

empire’s central rule and 2) the leadership of pioneering business leaders (Dupleix from France and Clive from Britain) which sought to “take over” local rule of rajahs as Mughal rule vanished

The Dutch, they largely had little troubles with rivals since they mainly focused their attentions to Indonesia, and other European powers were just hunky dory with that!

Rivalries Lead to WAR! As personal business interests increased in foreign colonies, so to did

the political drive to protect those interests at all costs…the leaders of trading companies were quite successful in demanding declarations of war from their home states to protect those interests

The first such example was the War of Jenkins’ Ear England had been given special concessions in the Spanish Empire

thanks to its intervention in winning the War of Spanish Succession…Britain had the right to furnish slaves to the Spanish colonies while at the same time allowing British traders the ability to smuggle goods out of Spanish ports…the Spanish, remember, have a closely controlled economy so they managed this situation by boarding British ships to check for smuggled goods form their ports

In one such boarding in 1731, a British captain named Robert Jenkins lost his ear…he kept his ear in a jar until 7 years later in 1738 when he appeared before parliament decrying the Spanish atrocities on British ships…pressure from West Indies merchants forced a minor war between Britain and Spain in 1739

Rivalries Lead to WAR!

The War of Austrian Succession In December of 1740, Frederick the Great of Prussia, after

only being on the throne a few short months, captured the Austrian territory of Silesia, thinking that a weakened Austria would not retaliate…he was partially right

Maria Theresa rather focused her attention on building strong alliances with neighboring states in central Europe to consolidate her empires seemingly weak position…her most successful union was with Hungary…Austria also gained Britain as an ally

Battles ensued over claims in Bavaria and Bohemia…France made the fateful decision to support Prussia (fateful, since its alliance allowed Prussia to become powerful and virtually claim numerous German states right up to France’s borders in the coming years)

With Britain drawn into the conflict by Austria, France had to concede territorial controls in the Low Countries and Rhine region

The conflict essentially ended in a stalemate, with Prussia retaining Silesia and Britain gaining continued rights in Spanish colonies…the only real losers were the French who invested a lot of time and money into virtually a lost cause

Rivalries Lead to WAR!

The Seven Years War (aka The French and Indian War, aka the Third Carnatic War, aka the Third Silesian War) was the first WORLD WAR taking place in North America, South America, continental Europe and in India as well as a little bit in China The war first begins on the continent when Frederick the Great invaded

Saxony in 1756, for reasons relating to what he thought was a French, Saxon, Austrian conspiracy to destroy Prussia…the result was what Frederick truly feared a unlikely alliance between France and Austria (Marie Antoinette was eventually married to Louis XVI to cement that alliance) with Sweden and Russia siding with France as well

Frederick and Prussia were saved two fold by 1) financial support from Great Britain and 2) the death of Russian Empress Elizabeth and rise of German princess Catherine to the throne of Russia, leading Russia to withdraw as a combatant in the hostilities

Rivalries Lead to WAR! The Seven Years War (aka The French and Indian War,

aka the Third Carnatic War, aka the Third Silesian War) In North America, it was British Prime Minister

William Pitt’s (aka Pittsburgh) ambition to gain control of all of North America east of the Mississippi…to do so, he had to fight the French for control of it

The French government basically gave up…they were unwilling to increase their debt by fighting more wars…they left it up to local leaders (who were corrupt and divided) to fight it out…of course, those French in Canada enlisted the help of local natives with the promise of greater freedom and increased profit from fur trade…none the less, French territories fell to British forces, and not just in Canada but also in the Caribbean

In India, the director of the British East India company, Robert Clive, won a victory at the Battle of Plessy in 1757, empowering his trading company to begin a total takeover of India

The Treaty of Paris in 1763 made Britain the official global imperial power it would start to become thereafter

The American Revolution

The most important elements are the general impacts of the Revolution on Great Britain as well as what happened in Great Britain to cause the revolution The first such acts are, of course, the crown’s need to repay

war debts…taxes were first levied on sugar in 1764…then on stamps and other documents in 1765…the Townshend Acts came next, all of which were eventually repealed after violence occurred (take a guess!) except for the one on a certain product (take another guess!)

The later Intolerable Acts (which increased the presence of troops in private residences and suspended habeas corpus) along with the Quebec Act that limited American’s from crossing over the Appalachians sealed the deal for the angry colonists

The American Revolution

The most important elements are the general impacts of the Revolution on Great Britain as well as what happened in Great Britain to cause the revolution There were political revolutions in Britain that also contributed to the revolution…

in fact, many historians argue that these events within the British government had a greater impact on the eventual American Revolution

Political writers known as Commonwealthmen had been openly criticizing the patronage of Prime Ministers by the crown (ie. Walpole, Pitt being allowed to benefit personally from financial dealings they helped push through parliament)…their writings were ignored by British citizens, however, those in the colonies took great stock in them

In this event, it was George III who was trying to revive the old practice of influencing parliamentary elections of officials who were favored by the crown, a practice his predecessors had been bullied from doing.

The affair of John Wilkes was a prime example…he openly criticized the negotiations of the Peace of Paris…he was arrested, later to be released due to a warrant technicality, but expelled from parliament for libel…he was subsequently elected 4 more times while in exile by his constituency only to be refused his seat…demonstrations ensued and some nobles seeking to make George III look bad aided Wilkes who eventually took his seat in 1774

Americans had watched these events and saw that a tyrant king was willing to do anything to suppress liberty

The American Revolution As Britain began to show signs of losing the war, calls for reform in

parliament were made…a group known as the Yorkshire Association formed to demand what would be rather moderate changes to the corrupt system of elections…otherwise, the movement was not so successful

Parliament still made reforms in lessening the power of the crown (to the chagrin of Mad George III) and to reform the “patronage” of certain offices (buying office)…George III still wanted to pick his own parliamentary officials and eventually approached Pitt the Younger to be prime minister…the young Pitt failed to make any further reforms

Though Britain lost the American colonies, they were still economically dependent on her former master

All told, the American Revolution provided an example to future revolutions globally ( for example, in Latin America only 25 years later, and in France immediately thereafter)…the ideas of rejecting the absolute control of a monarch and of an aristocracy became rallying cries for all future period revolutions.