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Vast and vulnerable networks

An overview of the economic, political, and information networks into which Iberian peoples and officials had inserted themselves and an analysis of the opportunities and difficulties inherent in such global activities. Special attention to the pull of its "periphery" on Portugal.

Reading: Bakewell, pp. 210-215, 296-297, and ch. 13 to p. 338; Russell-Wood, ch. IV.

  1. In what ways did the exchange of plants, animals, and peoples between the Americas and Afroeurasia in the late fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries affect the social and cultural environments of Europeans, Asians, Africans, and American Indians?
  2. Why did an active silver trade develop between Mexico and Manila?
  3. Why were Roman Catholics generally more successful than Protestants in converting non-Europeans between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries?
  4. Why, despite intense missionary efforts by Christians, was Islam the most rapidly expanding religion in Afroeurasia between 1500 and 1800 (and in terms of numbers of converts, in the world during this period)?
  5. What was required to mine, process, and transport American silver?
  6. Why were the systems of mine labor different in Mexico and Peru?
  7. What were the environmental consequences of the tremendous expansion of silver production in Mexico and Peru?
  8. What accounts for the centrality of mining and sugar production in the economic importance of the Americas to Europe?
  9. What factors led to significant increases in European demand for sugar?
  10. If official corruption was so widespread, as is often claimed, how was it possible for the Castilian government to organize huge administrative enterprises like the Atlantic fleet system or the expulsion of the Moriscos?
  11. Why did the Castilian and Portuguese governments so often encourage monopoly practices in production and trade?
  12. What was the impact on Castilian and Portuguese territories of the taxes needed to maintain Habsburg political and military commitments?
  13. Why didn't the Castilian and Portuguese royal governments collect their taxes directly?
  14. Why didn't the Castilian and Portuguese royal governments pay more attention to the economic impact of their fiscal policies?
  15. Why did the government of the Portuguese ruler João (John) III give ever greater attention to Brazilian developments?
  16. Why did the English have to resort to the weak strategy of pirate attacks on the Habsburgs' American dominions?
  17. Why did so much of the defensive military organization in Castilian and Portuguese America have to be undertaken by local groups? Why didn't such fragmented military leadership lead to the loss by Castilian and Portugal of their American dominions?
  18. Why was the price of African slaves climbing in the seventeenth century when the cost of many of other products was stagnant or declining?
  19. What factors led to the financial crisis of the final years of the reign of king João III (r. 1521-1557) of Portugal?
  20. What impact did the developing Catholic Reformation have on the social and cultural environments of European Portugal? What impact did this religious reform movement have on Portuguese territories in East Africa and Asia?
  21. What impact did the activities of Inquisition tribunals have on the social and cultural environments of Portugal?
  22. Why did the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), one of the best-known products of the Catholic Reformation, develop a policy of toleration for Christians of Jewish origin, in the face of a good bit of Iberian official and popular hostility toward them?
  23. Why were political and military developments in Morocco of importance to the Portuguese Crown?
  24. The Portuguese Crown in the mid sixteenth century faced problems on three international fronts. Why did the Crown not have adequate resources to act on all these fronts at the same time?
  25. Why did the Portuguese Crown increasingly withdraw from direct trading activities?
  26. Why would the Portuguese in South India act in ways that would stimulate the hostility of Hindus and Mappila Muslims?
  27. Why did the viceroy Dom João de Castro fail in his mid sixteenth-century efforts at military reform in Portuguese India?
  28. Why was the Portuguese carreira system chronically short of ships?
  29. In light of the Ming government's prohibition of overseas trade, why were Portuguese merchants and officials interested in southeastern China?
  30. Why would Portuguese traders become involved with the Wako of the South China Sea?
  31. Why were Jesuit missionaries able to gain a relatively open entrance to Japan in the mid sixteenth century?
  32. Why did trade with Japan take on such a great importance within overall Portuguese activity in Asia in the second half of the sixteenth century?
  33. Why did expansion of Portuguese activity and territorial control virtually cease after 1570?
  34. What factors created opportunities for the Portuguese in Burma?
  35. Why would the Portuguese have been particularly concerned about the Sultanate of Aceh (Atjah)?
  36. Why was there such a great demand for Indian textiles as far away as West Africa and eastern Indonesia? How were Indian producers able to supply such a vast market?

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J. B. Owens
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Revised:  28 July 1999


URL:  http://www.isu.edu/~owenjack/spemp/reading.21.html