European colonization of Americas

The European colonization of America began at the end of the 15th century after Christopher Columbus arrived on the continent in 1492 with the support of the Crown of Castile. From there, the Spanish Empire, the Portuguese Empire, and from the beginning of the 17th century, the British Empire (1608), France (1609) and the Netherlands (1625), conquered and colonized a large part of the American territory.

The Spanish Empire and the Portuguese Empire were the first to carry out the conquest, and they settled mainly in the south of North America, Central America and in the Andean area of ​​South America (Aztec, Maya, Muisca and Inca Empires, respectively). The Spanish Empire was the power that achieved the greatest colonial presence in America. In the Caribbean, he dominated above all Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, including the Florida peninsula within his Caribbean possessions. From the Antillean settlements, it managed to spread throughout the American continent: in North America it managed to defeat the Aztec Empire, located in a small part of present-day Mexico, where it founded cities, in addition to forming a mestizo society with Tlaxcalans, Tarascans, Mixtecs, Zapotecs and hundreds of otherindigenous tribes. From there, it spread throughout Central America, incorporating the Mayan-speaking tribe, as well as the Pipiles, the Niquiranos, and the Guaimi-speaking peoples of Veragua (Panama). From Panama, the conquest of the Andean zone of South America was undertaken to the central zone of present-day Chile. At the same time, in search of the Sierra de la Plata and the lands of the White King, cities were founded in the Plata estuary and on the banks of the Paraná and Paraguay rivers, Asunción being the most important of them.

Portugal appropriated most of the Atlantic coastal strip of the northern part of South America, which would later originate the State of Brazil. England established thirteen colonies on the North American Atlantic coastal strip, as well as on some Caribbean islands. France occupied what is now French Guiana in South America (still under its rule), Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico, some Caribbean islands, and the Canadian region of Quebec. The Netherlands established colonies in North America (New Amsterdam, later New York), northern South America (Dutch Guiana, now Suriname), and some settlements on Caribbean islands (Netherlands Antilles and Aruba).

History of the conquest

It was populated and occupied in part of its extension, most likely by Asian cultures that entered the continent through the area of ​​Beringia, in the north. The American population carried out two original Neolithic revolutions, in Mesoamerica and in Norte Chico (Peru), which would expand agro-ceramic cultures throughout the continent and generate two great centers of high civilization. Cultures and civilizations in America arose and developed without contact with African, Asian and European cultures and civilizations, so it is appropriate to speak of the existence of two worlds: the so-called "ancient world" (African, Asian and European) and "new world" (American). The Mesoamerican cultures had called the land that they came to know with the names of Abya Yala or Cem Anáhuac.

The remains of a short-lived Viking settlement are known to exist in eastern Canada.

Spanish colonization

The Spanish exploration and colonization of America was by far the most important of all European ones. In just over a century, the Crown of Castile explored, conquered and populated huge territories in the north, center and south of the American continent. From Santo Domingo and later in Cuba, large expeditions to the mainland began, which explored, mapped and then colonized large territories. After the conquest of the Aztec and Inca kingdoms and the subjugation of other peoples, the Spanish territories were initially organized into two great viceroyalties; that of New Spain, with capital in Mexico City and that of Peru, governed from Lima. Later, with the expansion and settlement in the south, the Viceroyalties of Nueva Granada and Río de la Plata were created.Some regions, such as Patagonia, the Gran Chaco, the Amazon, and the deserts of northern Mesoamerica were not completely controlled by the Spanish Empire.

Colonization encouraged the development of agriculture, mining, and commerce, the latter being the jurisdiction of the Casa de Contratación based in Seville. It also gave rise to the foundation of new cities, the arrival of Spanish settlers and the introduction of slaves from sub-Saharan Africa, especially in the Caribbean region. The interest of the Crown was both material and spiritual. The existence of gold and silver attracted new settlers and encouraged many expeditions in different latitudes. However, the Crown also promoted the evangelization of the indigenous people by sending countless missionaries from different religious orders to America, who built churches, schools, hospitals and even universities. The San Marcos University of Lima was founded in 1551 by the Dominicans and is the oldest in America.

Impact

The arrival of Christopher Columbus in America is considered one of the most important events in universal history due to the consequences it had and must be related to the first trip around the world made by the crew of Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano a few years later., which paved the way for Europe's conquest of the world.

The arrival of Christopher Columbus marked the beginning of the conquest of America, with the invasion of the islands of Hispaniola (by Columbus and Nicolás de Ovando), Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Cuba (the latter by Diego Velázquez the monkeys They seized followed by that of the Mexicas (by Hernán Cortés), that of the Inca Empire (by Francisco Pizarro), until its end with the royal certificates of Felipe II of recognition of the conquest, but from that moment the so-called « colonization of America", with the intervention of the Dutch, French and English, who unlike the Spanish, did not try to evangelize or civilize the indigenous people in the positive sense, nor did they build infrastructure: villas, towns, cities, roads, convents and churches, but the other Europeans focused on trading with the indigenous,creating trading posts and factories, especially developing the exchange of European objects for skins of all kinds of animals, causing one of the first ecological catastrophes in the modern world.

The Hispanic Monarchy, on the other hand, tried to recreate the social conditions, production system and working conditions (but incorporating the indigenous people as forced labor) with almost the same political, ideological, religious conditions of the Spain of its time in the territories of the New World.

On the other hand, the contagion of the diseases that the Europeans involuntarily brought to America (smallpox or typhus) produced a marked decline in the American population. There were also diseases from America that reached Europe, such as syphilis.

With cultural and religious assimilation came the introduction of the Spanish and Portuguese languages ​​in their respective areas of influence. The Catholic religion became official. Over time, for the first time in history, a large mestizo population was generated, both genetically and culturally, due to the coexistence of indigenous peoples, sub-Saharan Africans, and Europeans.

The main wealth generated by the Spanish territories and Portuguese colonies in America was the extraction of gold and silver. In the first 150 years of conquest, 17,000 tons of silver and about 200 tons of gold arrived in Spain.

Another important consequence of the arrival of Europeans in America was the global spread of foods that had been developed by American cultures and that today are estimated to constitute 75% of the food consumed by Humanity, including corn, sweet potato, pumpkin, tomato, chocolate, peanuts, vanilla, chili peppers, avocado or avocado, all of these originating in Mesoamerica, with just reason named by the conquerors "the horn of plenty", and the potato (or potato as it is called in some parts of Spain) originating from the native peoples of the Andes. Other important products developed in America are rubber and tobacco.

On the other hand, first the Spaniards and then the rest of the Europeans brought with them to America animals as useful as horses, donkeys, and other livestock such as Castilian cows, oxen, sheep, and farm animals such as pigs, chickens, the rabbits. They also brought some fruit trees, barley, oats, rye and wheat from the Iberian Peninsula and sugar cane from the Canary Islands or Madeira, which was so successful in the Caribbean, or the very coffee of the Portuguese colonies of Africa.

The arrival of Columbus in America also caused a great expansion of navigation and trade between peoples that became global.

Starting in 1776, the English settlers in America ended up organizing a new type of society based on novel concepts such as independence, constitution, federalism and gave rise to the United States that, in the 20th century, would replace Great Britain as the dominant world power..Not everything was horror: on the ruins of the pre-Columbian world, the Spanish and the Portuguese built a grandiose historical construction that, in its broad strokes, is still standing. They united many peoples who spoke different languages, worshiped different gods, fought among themselves or did not know each other. They were united through laws and legal and political institutions but, above all, through language, culture and religion. If the losses were huge, the gains have been huge.In order to fairly judge the work of the Spaniards in Mexico, it must be stressed that without them – I mean: without the Catholic religion and the culture that they implanted in our country – we would not be what we are. We would probably be a group of peoples divided by different beliefs, languages ​​and cultures.Octavio Paz, 1995

List of possessions:

• Viceroyalty of New Spain
  • Captaincy General of Guatemala
  • Captaincy General of Cuba
  • Captaincy General of Santo Domingo
  • Captaincy General of Puerto Rico

• Viceroyalty of Peru
  • Captaincy General of Chile
• Viceroyalty of New Granada
  • Captaincy General of Venezuela
• Viceroyalty of the River Plate

Portuguese colonization

The rise of Portuguese colonization in America began motivated by economic and strategic reasons. On the one hand, the economic ones due to the decrease in profits in trade with the East and the mercantile possibilities of the Brazil tree, from whose bark a red dye used to dye textiles was produced. On the other strategic, for fear of a Spanish or French invasion of their territory.

In 1530, the Portuguese Crown expelled the French who were roaming the coasts of Brazil, since they were lands that had belonged to Portugal since the year 1500.

In 1533, the King of Portugal divided the territory of Brazil into 15 strips or captaincies, each 150 miles wide, which influenced the private nature of Portuguese colonization. These captaincies were distributed or granted to Portuguese noblemen for life and hereditary in order to obtain the highest yield with the minimum cost for the metropolis. The nobles who received them undertook to evangelize the aborigines, recruit settlers, and economically develop the captaincy.

For 19 years, the administration of the captaincies was in charge of the nobles, but, in 1549, the king appointed a governor general or "Capitán mayor" representative of the king who would administer the entire colony. The purpose of this government was for the King of Portugal to govern Brazil with the advice of the Ultramarine Council, in addition to unifying the colonial government. However, although it was intended to remove powers from the captains general, they actually continued to dominate the colony. They only lost political power, but kept their economic privileges and continued with indigenous slavery. Even so, the indigenous people were not enough for the workforce, so they resorted to the use of African slaves from 1530.

List of possessions:

• Viceroyalty of Brazil
  • Captaincies of Brazil
  • Colonia del Sacramento
• Terranova
• Labrador Peninsula
• the bearded

French colonization

The processes of French colonization began at the beginning of the 17th century, with the first viable colony being that of Quebec in 1608, founded by Samuel de Champlain. During the previous century, the French had tried unsuccessfully to take possession of North American territory and, despite the difficulties, during the 16th century French fishing boats regularly visited the North Atlantic coast of the continent. This was motivated mainly by the demand for skins in European markets and, therefore, French traders began a lucrative business with the aborigines.

In the early 17th century, France established trading posts in Nova Scotia, Annapolis, and Quebec (the first French colony, founded as part of a fur factory) in present-day Canada, and did not hesitate to support its trading allies, the Huron Confederation, in their efforts. wars with other indigenous peoples of eastern North America known as the Beaver Wars. Another French colony was founded in Montreal, from where the exploration of the Great Lakes area and the Mississippi River began.

Unlike the early English settlers, who stayed on the coasts and used middlemen to trade with the natives, the French moved into the forests with the intention of expanding commercial and religious frontiers with the natives. Thus, by the first half of the 18th century, there were French settlements in Detroit, Niagara, Illinois, and New Orleans. These posts gave France control of territory that stretched from Canada to Louisiana.

The French government also promoted the establishment of colonies in the Caribbean: in the course of the seventeenth century, it conquered the islands of Saint Christopher, Saint Croix, Saint Bartholomew, Granada, Saint Martin, Tortuga, Marie Galante and the western part of Hispaniola which it was called Saint Domingue (Haiti).

The importance of the French colonies was basically economic and military. They were close to the main Spanish shipping routes, which made it possible to intercept their ships and establish trade. The French islands had an economy based on the production and export of sugar, cotton, cocoa and tobacco. On the other hand, slave labor also generated large profits. Eventually the French colonies had a larger black slave population than white free population, one of the factors that favored their economic prosperity.

The French colonial regime

Originally the administrative institutions of the French colonial regime resembled those of the English, since the commercial contracts of colonization granted great freedom to the forest brokers, as they called the hunters of precious furs. Over time, this changed, and governors were appointed who enjoyed similar prerogatives to the captain-generalships of Brazil or the advanced and first governors of the Spanish colonies. However, by the second half of the seventeenth centurya centralized regime was imposed; more in line with the ideas of Louis XIV, French absolutist king: Canada was converted into a French province, under the command of a governor general subservient to the monarch, and the territory was divided into manors that were granted to court nobles. These manors were subdivided into parishes under the authority of the priest or parish priest and the military chief. Numerous intendants or civil servants with military, fiscal and judicial powers maintained the rigid centralism of the French metropolis. That same regime was imposed in the other French colonies from this time.

List of possessions:

• Viceroyalty of New France
• French West Indies*
• Saint-Domingue (Haiti)
• French Guiana*
• French West Indies(*): Currently in possession of France

British colonization

After the arrival of the explorer John Cabot (John Cabot) on the Labrador peninsula in 1497, the English crown led another expedition headed by Sir Walter Raleigh, who attempted to establish colonies on the eastern plain in North America and briefly founded Virginia, in 1585, in homage to Queen Elizabeth. Although the first viable English colony or town in America was the founding of Jamestown in Virginia on May 14, 1607, on that day Captain Edward Maria Wingfield, elected President of the Ruling Council the day before, chose a section of the Jamestown Island on the James River, about 40 miles (67 kilometers) inland from the Atlantic Ocean coast (out of sight of the Spanish), as a good place for a fortified settlement.

The Thirteen Colonies, a handful of towns founded by waves of English immigrants between the 17th and 18th centuries, did not possess the features of the rigid European feudal system. The Northeastern Colonies were initially made up of Puritans who founded Massachusetts. In the southeastern colonies (Virginia, Carolina and Georgia), where the population was made up of large and small owners and slaves, a system of slavery had been organized, in which some 500,000 black slaves exploited tobacco, cotton and sugar plantations..

After England's victory over France in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), in which England received great economic and military aid from the colonies, collaboration despite which new taxes were created on sugar and already existing (especially in the stamped paper that at that time was widely used in the administration and in notarial acts).

When the colonial war broke out, the colonists took consensus of their power, which they used to oppose the tax hike decreed from England. The brawl degenerated into the American War of Independence (1776-1783).

At first the English armies seemed superior, but in 1779 there was an escalation in the conflict: France and Spain decided to enter the war directly, thus turning the war of independence into an international conflict.

Later, the Netherlands also joined the coalition formed by Spain and France, with ambitions to gain positions by dominating the seas. In 1783, Great Britain recognized independence.

List of possessions:

• british america
  • Thirteen colonies
• British West Indies
  • Bermuda*
  • Eel*
  • British Virgin Islands*
  • Montserrat*
  • Cayman Islands*
  • Turks and Caicos Islands*
• British Honduras
• British Guiana
• Falkland Islands*

(*): Currently in the possession of the United Kingdom.

Dutch colonization

From the mid-16th century, Dutch merchants entered the Spanish colonies in the Antilles, the first settlement being the city of New Amsterdam (present-day New York), founded in 1625. Later, they settled in the Lesser Antilles (Curaçao) and in the northeast of Brazil (New Holland) from where they were expelled in 1654. However, the colonies of Suriname and part of the Guianas prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries by developing a plantation economy to supply tropical products to the metropolis and the rest of Europe. The plantation system was massive, leading to one of the largest concentrations of slaves in the 17th centuryand to a fierce struggle by them for their freedom.

In North America, the Dutch began their entry around 1609, when Henry Hudson, an English navigator in the service of the Dutch East India Company, sailed the river that bears his name (in the present state of New York), while looking for a passage to the Pacific. By 1621, the Company had established trading posts in the vicinity of the Delaware and Connecticut rivers such as in New York and Albany.

As for the administrative regime implemented by the Dutch during the colonial era, in its origins it was similar to English and Portuguese given the character of factories or commercial establishments that their ephemeral colonies had. However, the colony established in Brazil was ruled by a member of the royal family. A government subordinate to the Crown was also established on the islands.

Most of the Dutch colonies in America were ephemeral, conquered by the English and the Portuguese, and only a few possessions remained in the Caribbean.

List of possessions:

• new amsterdam
• Essequibo
• Dutch Virgin Islands
• Dutch Guiana
• Brazil Dutch
• Dutch West Indies
  • Dutch Caribbean*
  • Aruba*
  • Curaçao*
  • St Martin*

(*): Currently in the possession of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Other colonizations

German colonization

The only colonization under government initiative carried out by the Germans in America was a failed attempt to establish a colony in present-day Venezuela between 1528 and 1556. The initiative corresponded to the important banking family of the Welsers, who received the land from the hands of the Emperor Carlos V, in turn King of Spain under the name of Carlos I. The military domain of the indigenous peoples was the work of Ambrosius Ehringer, known as Ambrosio Alfinger by the Spanish, who hoped to find the mythical El Dorado in the territory. In order to exploit the gold mines that were expected to be found in the area, a significant number of German miners arrived in Klein-Venedig, joined by some 4,000 African slaves tasked with cultivating sugar cane.

Other attempts were the initiatives of Brandenburg-Prussia to obtain colonies in the Caribbean in the 17th and 18th centuries (the closest was Peter's Island) and the Duchy of Hanau in obtaining dominions in Guyana; as well as initiatives of the Second Reich to obtain domains in a "German Caribbean" to counteract the power of the emerging USA.

Lastly, East Germany received Cayo Ernest Thaelmann from Cuba, but due to German Reunification it could not be claimed.

List of possessions and claims:

• Little Venice
• Prussian Caribbean
• Hanauisch-Indies
• german caribbean
• Cayo Ernest Thaelmann

Italian colonization

Duke Ferdinand I de' Medici made the only Italian attempt to create colonies in America. For this purpose, the Grand Duke organized an expedition to the north of Brazil in 1608, under the command of the English captain Thornton.

In the early seventeenth century Ferdinand I of Tuscany considered the possibility of a Brazilian colony.(In the early years of the 17th century, Ferdinand I of Tuscany considered the possibility of making a colony in Brazil. )

Unfortunately Thornton, on his return from the preparatory trip in 1609 (he had been in the Amazon), found Ferdinand I dead and all projects were annulled by his successor Cosimo II.

Successively, from the first decades of the 19th century, there were colonies of Italians in many Latin American nations, although they were never directly controlled by Italian authorities as colonial possessions. The first colony of this type was attempted by the Italian-Venezuelan Luigi Castelli, who in 1841 wanted to create a colony of Tuscans in Venezuela to favor local agriculture.

List of claims:

• Guyana-Brazil Toscano (present-day French Guiana)

Danish colonization

After the union of Denmark and Norway in 1536, the former retained the claims of the latter to Greenland, which had had colonies on the island until these were destroyed in the early fifteenth century by a worsening climate (the beginning of the " Little Ice Age"). In 1721 colonies were refounded on the southwestern coast of Greenland, and today the island remains under Danish sovereignty, albeit with self-government. During the re-establishment of Danish control a large number of missionaries were sent who converted the indigenous Inuit population to Christianity.

Further south, in the Virgin Islands, the Danish West India Company occupied Saint Thomas in 1671, joined by Saint John in 1718 and Saint Croix in 1733, the latter acquired from the French Crown. Unlike in Greenland, fishing played a secondary role in the Danish Virgin Islands, where most of the economy revolved around the cultivation and sale of sugar cane, the production of which employed large numbers of African slaves. These soon made up the majority of the population, at the same time that Dutch and British settlers outnumbered the Danes as the main European nationality on the islands. The islands also served during this time as a haven for pirates.

Following the abolition of the slave trade in 1803 and its possession in 1848, the islands fell into increasing economic crisis and lost much of their population. After several decades of negotiations, Denmark finally sold the three islands to the United States in 1917.

List of possessions:

• Danish West Indies
• Greenland*

(*): Currently in possession of Denmark

Swedish colonization

Following the example of other European powers, Sweden founded a series of small colonies in North America and the Caribbean beginning in the 16th century. The settlers came mainly from the Savo and Kainuu regions of Finland (part of Sweden until 1809), so the common language of the colonies was Finnish and not Swedish. Between 1638 and 1655 the Swedes established the colonies of New Sweden in present-day Delaware and New Stockholm (present-day Bridgeport) and Swedesboro in present-day New Jersey. These short-lived colonies were eventually conquered by the Dutch, who united them with the territory of the New Netherlands.

In the Caribbean, Sweden also briefly controlled the islands of Saint-Barthélemy (1785-1878) and Guadeloupe (1813-1814), which were finally ceded to France, to whom they currently belong.

List of possessions:

• new sweden
• Swedesboro
• Saint Barthelemy Island
• Guadalupe

Russian colonization

The Russian colonization of America developed mainly in southern Alaska (discovered in 1732 by Ivan Fedorov), where fur factories were established at the end of the 18th century. However, the Russian dominions in America also extended to the rest of Alaska and over the Aleutian Islands and the northwestern coast of America, reaching as far south as northern California, where they aroused the suspicions of the Spanish. These consequently occupied the west coast as far as Vancouver, thus limiting Russian influence to Alaska.

However, the population of the area never exceeded 40,000 inhabitants under Russian rule, the vast majority of these indigenous being of the Aleut ethnic group; some of these, including Peter the Aleut, converted to Christianity after the arrival of missionaries from Russia. Finally, the low profitability of the colony (in which animal skins were exploited at the time) and the poor communications with the rest of Russia determined its sale to the United States for 7,200,000 USD on April 9, 1867. With the money obtained the tsar hoped to repair the damage caused by the Crimean War. If he had waited a little longer, perhaps his subjects would have found the valuable deposits of gold and oil among others that awaited in the subsoil of the colony,

List of possessions:

• Alaska

Norwegian colonization

Norway was united to Denmark in 1536 until 1814, but due to the Swedish annexation of Norway, the latter lost all its colonies, which passed to the Danish colonial Empire. Norway finally got its independence in 1905 and was able to get some colonies in this period.

During the exploration of the Norwegian Otto Sverdrup between 1898 and 1902 to the Sverdrup Islands, he claimed them for Norway, but the government did not show much interest until 1928, when the Norwegian government began to claim them and in 1930 they were ceded to the Kingdom. United.

Another Norwegian claim was the Land of Erik the Red on the Danish island of Greenland between 1931 and 1933, in which the International Court of Justice ruled in favor of Denmark.

List of possessions :

Islas Sverdrup

Land of Erik the Red

List of possessions in the union with Denmark :

Greenland

Vinland

Scottish colonization

The Scottish colonies developed mainly on the coasts of North America (current territories of the United States and Canada) and another in Panama.

List of possessions:

• New Scotland
• Cape Breton Island
• East Newark, NJ
• Stuarts Town
• New Caledonia
• Darien / Nueva Iverness

Hospital colonization

Since the beginning of the French colonization of the Americas, members of the Knights of Malta had been prominent in New France (due to the majority of their membership being French aristocrats). In 1635, Isaac de Razilly suggested to the order's Grand Master, Fra' Antoine de Paule, that the Hospitallers establish a priory in Acadia; however, Paulle rejected the idea. The next Grand Master Juan de Lascaris-Castellar was more interested in colonial affairs. In 1642 or -43 he was appointed godfather to an Abenaki convert in New France. Montmagny represented Lascaris at the baptism.

In 1651, the Hospitallers, with the approval of the Grand Master Lascaris, purchased Saint-Christophe, together with the dependencies of Saint Croix, Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin. They built strong and impressive fortifications in San Cristóbal along with churches, roads, a hospital, etc. Outside the capital, Hospitaller government was more precarious. The settlement at Saint Barthélemy came under attack from the Caribs and those who were not killed left the island, so a group of 30 men was sent to replace them, which grew to 100 by 1664. In 1657 a rebellion overthrew the Hospitaller regime in St Croix. So a new governor was sent to restore order, build fortifications and a monastery, and begin clearing much of the island's forests for plantation farming.

By the early 1660s, frustration was growing that the colonies were not making a profit. The Order still owed money to France for the initial purchase of the islands, and in Malta the knights debated whether they should be sold again, so in 1665 they were sold to the French West India Company.

Courier colonization

The Duchy of Courland was the smallest of the European countries that had colonies in America. The Courland colonization of America consisted of the creation of a colony in Tobago, New Courland, between 1654 and 1659 and again between 1660 and 1689. Courland was established as a duchy in 1561, a feudal vassal of the Polish-Lithuanian Confederation, in the current Latvia. It had a population of only 200,000 inhabitants.

Under Duke Jacob Kettler, the dukedom reached its height of prosperity. During his travels in Western Europe, Jacob became an ardent supporter of mercantilist ideas. Metal working and ship building developed. Trade relations were established not only with neighboring countries, but also with Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and others. Kettler established one of the largest merchant fleets in Europe, with its main ports at Windau (now Ventspils) and Libau (now Liepāja).

List of possessions:

• Nueva Curlandia (Tobago)

Massacres and diseases

Regarding the way in which the aforementioned European kingdoms achieved the conquest of America, there are mainly two groups:

In the areas colonized by the Spanish and Portuguese there would be a great demographic catastrophe of the indigenous people of the areas in which they settled. Most of the indigenous people died from the effect of various diseases (especially smallpox and to a lesser extent measles and mumps, among others) against which they were not protected. Likewise, the few conquerors undertook allied wars with the original peoples, which they called "just" wars.under its medieval ideology, for the subjugation of other peoples, where a large number of deaths occurred both there and later in the conditions of work and life imposed and the wars of conquest over the Aztec, Inca, Muisca or Chibcha cultures and the Mapuche peoples, ranquel and het, wichí, pazioca (diaguita), guaraní, charrúa, of the abipones, chiriguanos, toba, arawak, etc.

Once again, in the areas colonized by the English and French, the diseases that initially also exterminated most of the original peoples are affirmed. But this time instead, later after their independence, the former British and French colonies used war and massive deportations in the numerous treaties with the local indigenous populations and that they were systematically isolated by the North American governments in the so-called Indian reservations so that they would not hamper the development of the country.

In 2006, an American researcher estimated that in the first 130 years of European colonization, 90-95% of the total original population of America died. And he justified that this was the reason why the European powers had to kidnap millions of people. men and women in Africa, to bring them as slaves to America and replace deceased indigenous labor.

Over time, most of the Western Hemisphere came under the control of Western European governments, leading to changes in its landscape, population, and plant and animal life. In the 19th century, more than 50 million people left Western Europe for America. The time after 1492 is known as the period of the Columbian Exchange, a dramatically extended exchange of animals, plants, culture, human populations (including slaves), ideas, and contagious diseases between the American and Afro-European hemispheres following Columbus' voyages to the Americas..

Most scholars writing in the late 19th century estimated the pre-Columbian population at about 10 million; by the end of the 20th century most scholars favored an intermediate estimate of about 50 million, with some historians defending an estimate of 100 million or more. One recent estimate is that there were about 60.5 million people living in the Americas. immediately prior to depopulation, of which 90%, mostly in Central and South America, perished from wave after wave of disease, as well as war and slavery.

Slavery

The practice of slavery was not uncommon in native society before the arrival of the Europeans. Captured members of rival tribes were often used as slaves and/or for human sacrifice. But with the arrival of white settlers, Indian slavery "became commodified, unexpectedly expanded, and came to resemble the kinds of human trafficking we can recognize today.

While disease was the leading cause of death for Indians, the practice of slavery also contributed significantly to the number of Indian deaths. With the arrival of other European colonial powers, the enslavement of native populations increased, as these empires lacked anti-slavery legislation until decades later. It is estimated that from the arrival of Columbus until the end of the 19th century, between 2.5 and 5 million Native Americans were forced into slavery. Indigenous men, women, and children were often forced to work in sparsely populated border environments, at home, or in toxic gold and silver mines.To extract as much gold as possible, Europeans required all males over the age of 13 to exchange gold as tribute. This practice was known as the encomienda system and granted free native labor to the Spanish. Building on the practice of exacting tribute from Muslims and Jews during the Reconquest, the Spanish Crown granted a number of native laborers to an encomendero, who was usually a conquistador or other prominent Spanish male. Under the grant, they were obligated both to protect the natives and to convert them to Christianity. In exchange for their forced conversion to Christianity, the natives were required to pay tribute in the form of gold, agricultural products, and labor. The Spanish crown became aware of the serious abuses that were taking place and tried to end the system through the Laws of Burgos (1512-13) and the New Laws (1542). However, the encomenderos refused to comply with the new measures and the indigenous continued to be exploited. Over time, the encomienda system was replaced by the repartimiento system, which was not abolished until the end of the century. xviii.​

In the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the Pueblo tribe led an uprising that resulted in the deaths of 400 Spanish settlers and the repossession of indigenous lands. Andrés Resendez argues that this was "the greatest insurrection against the other slavery". Resendez also argues that the perpetrators of indigenous slavery were not always European settlers. He asserts that the rise of powerful Indian tribes in what is now the American Southwest, such as the Comanches, led to indigenous control of the Native American slave trade in the early 18th century. The arrival of European settlers in the American West increased the slave trade in the 19th century.There is debate as to whether the indigenous population of the Americas suffered a greater demographic decline than that of the African continent, despite the latter losing an estimated 12.5 million individuals to the transatlantic slave trade.

By the 18th century, the number of black slaves was so overwhelming that Amerindian slavery was less widely used. The Africans, who were taken aboard slave ships to America, were obtained mainly in their African lands by coastal tribes who captured and sold them. The Europeans traded the slaves with the captors of the local native African tribes in exchange for rum, weapons, gunpowder and other manufactures. The total slave trade to the Caribbean islands, Brazil, the Portuguese, Spanish, French, Dutch and British empires is estimated to have involved 12 million Africans.The vast majority of these slaves ended up in the Caribbean sugar colonies and in Brazil, where life expectancy was short and numbers had to be continually replenished. An estimated 600,000 African slaves were imported into the United States, or 5% of the 12 million slaves brought from Africa.

Although slavery went against the mission of the Catholic Church, the colonizers justified the practice through the theory of latitude belts, supported by Aristotle and Ptolemy. In this perspective, belts of latitude encircled the earth and corresponded to specific human features. The peoples of the "cold zone", in northern Europe, were "less prudent", while those of the "hot zone", in sub-Saharan Africa, were intelligent but "weaker and less courageous". According to this theory, those from the "temperate zone" of the Mediterranean reflected an ideal balance of strength and prudence. These ideas about latitude and character justified a natural human hierarchy.

During the 19th century gold rushIndian slavery flourished in the United States. American landowner John Bidwell forced Indian boys to work on his ranch by scaring them with stories of man-eating grizzlies. He justified his protection and the offer of food and clothing as fair payment for indigenous work. Captain John Sutter paid Indian slaves with metal disks pierced with star-shaped holes to keep track of the work they did. Two weeks of work meant that they could receive a cotton shirt or a pair of pants. Andrew Kelsey organized the enslavement of five hundred Pomo Indians, who were flogged and shot for entertainment. They also raped young Indian women. In 1849, the Indians eventually rose up and murdered Kelsey in what became known as the Bloody Island Massacre. Other laws legalized a peonage system that allowed any Indian who traveled without a proper employment certificate to be tried and punished. These documents listed the "advance wages" as a debt that had to be paid before the Indian could be free to leave. This system allowed the ranchers to control the migration of the Indians and subject them to labor recruitment. The Indian Act of 1850 legalized all kinds of exploitation and atrocities against Indians, including the "apprenticeship" of Indian minors which, in practice, gave the petitioner control of both the child and her income. Thus, the establishment of encomiendas, repartimientos,​

Diseases and loss of native population

The European way of life included a long history of coexistence with domestic animals such as cows, pigs, sheep, goats, horses, dogs and various domesticated birds, from which many diseases arose. Unlike the indigenous people, the Europeans had developed a greater supply of antibodies. Large-scale contact with Europeans after 1492 introduced Eurasian germs to the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Epidemics of smallpox (1518, 1521, 1525, 1558, 1589), typhus (1546), influenza (1558), diphtheria (1614), and measles (1618) swept the Americas after European contact, killing between 10 and 100 million people. people, up to 95% of the indigenous population of the Americas. The cultural and political instability that these losses caused seems to have been of great help, for example, in the efforts of various settlers from New England and Massachusetts to gain control of the great wealth in lands and resources that indigenous societies had habitually made use of.

Such diseases have produced human mortality of unquestionably enormous scale and severity, which has profoundly confounded efforts to determine their full extent with any real precision. Estimates of the pre-Columbian population of the Americas vary greatly.

Others have argued that significant variations in population size throughout pre-Columbian history are a reason to view the higher estimates with caution. Such estimates may reflect historical population peaks, while indigenous populations may have been somewhat below these peaks or in decline in the period immediately prior to European contact. Indigenous populations reached their last lows in most areas of the Americas in the early 20th century ; in several cases, growth has returned.

According to scientists at University College London, the colonization of the Americas by Europeans killed so many indigenous populations that it caused climate change and global cooling. Some contemporary scholars also attribute significant indigenous population losses in the Caribbean to the widespread practice of slavery and deadly forced labor in the gold and silver mines. overwork and famine killed more indigenous people in the Caribbean than smallpox, influenza and malaria".

Impact of colonial land ownership on long-term development

Over time, most of the Western Hemisphere came under the control of Western European governments, leading to changes in its landscape, population, and plant and animal life. In the 19th century, more than 50 million people left Western Europe for America. The time after 1492 is known as the period of the Columbian Exchange, a dramatically extended exchange of animals, plants, culture, human populations (including slaves), ideas, and contagious diseases between the American and Afro-European hemispheres following Columbus' voyages to the Americas..

Most scholars writing in the late 19th century estimated the pre-Columbian population at about 10 million; by the end of the 20th century most scholars favored an intermediate estimate of about 50 million, with some historians defending an estimate of 100 million or more. One recent estimate is that there were about 60.5 million people living in the Americas. immediately prior to depopulation, of which 90%, mostly in Central and South America, perished from wave after wave of disease, as well as war and slavery.