The "New Colonialism" in Latin America and the independence of Portuguese
and Spanish America in its global context
In the eighteenth century, the Bourbon and Bragança monarchies, to some
degree as pioneers, developed "colonial" policies about the role of overseas
territories in their relationship to the peninsular ones. These policy shifts
created both resentment among American elites who felt that their interests
were being illegitimately subordinated to those of Iberian elites and fear
that "reforms" would damage the American elite control over the massive,
coerced, and largely non-white "commonwealth" (república) of the
non-Europeanized population whose labor and subordination made possible the
very disproportionate share of resources and production enjoyed by both
American and Iberian notables.
Reading: Bakewell, ch. 12 and ch. 13, pp. 338 to the end; Thornton, chs. 10 &
11.
- Why was Robert Clive's victory in 1757 at the battle of Plassey in Bengal
so important to the overseas interests of Portugal and Spain?
- Why were the royal governments of eighteenth-century Portugal and Spain so
intent on gaining greater administrative and economic control of their
American territories? Why was movement toward greater control so slow?
- Why wasn't the Spanish Monarchy able to build up the financial and
military might to challenge the extension of British power in the Americas?
- How do you assess the importance to the Spanish Monarchy of its ties to
Bourbon France?
- What were the consequences for Portugal and Spain of the Seven Years War?
- Since the Portuguese and Spanish monarchs had a great deal of influence
over the appointments to Church positions in the Americas, why did these
governments begin to have more trouble with Catholic authorities in the
eighteenth century?
- From where did the investment capital come to expand rapidly Brazilian
gold production and slave importation after 1695?
- Why did both Portugal and Spain change in the eighteenth century from the
Atlantic fleet system of transporting valuable cargoes to the Asian pattern of
licensing individual ships?
- Why did Andean Indian revolts become increasingly more frequent from the
1750s? What consequences did these revolts have for the Viceroyalty of Peru?
- What role did the continuous resistance of black slaves to their
conditions play in bringing about independence movements in Portuguese and
Spanish America?
- What are the differences between petit marronnage and grand marronnage
among black slaves in the Americas?
- Why was social position (class) the dominant factor among slaves in petit
marronnage while the social and cultural environments of the African
background were much more significant in grand marronnage?
- Why didn't slave resistance at all times take the form of attempts to
overthrow the slave system?
- What factors might "enter into a person's decision to work below his or
her potential" (Thornton 1998: 275)?
- By what means could individual slaves gain freedom in Portuguese and
Spanish America?
- In what ways did Native American communities play a role in the escape of
black slaves?
- What impact did runaway black slaves, as "transfrontiersmen" and
"transfrontierswomen," have on the unconquered Native American communities
with which they made contact?
- Why didn't the tremendous growth of Mexican wealth in the eighteenth
century lead to a fundamental transformation there in the patterns of
interaction among groups with different roles in the region's social
environment?
- What factors lead to sharp increases in world food prices in the 1780s and
afterwards? Do you suppose that these increased food prices had something to
do with the economic develop of the peripheral areas of Spanish America?
- What factors led to increased European per capita consumption of sugar and
tobacco in the eighteenth century? What impact did this increased consumption
have on the Atlantic slave trade?
- What factors led to the creation of new viceroyalties, audiencias,
and other administrative units in Spanish America in the eighteenth century?
- What were the consequences of the expansion of the market economy
throughout Iberoamerica in the eighteenth century?
- What impact did shifting control of the Atlantic slave trade in the
eighteenth century have on developments in Iberoamerica?
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J. B. Owens
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Revised: 28 July 1999
URL: http://www.isu.edu/~owenjack/spemp/reading.27.html