The Other West: Latin America from Invasion to Globalization (California World History Library)

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By the time Columbus died in , Europe had already felt the first winds of change blowing in from the New World, even before the new continent was named America. Notwithstanding Columbus's self-interested stubbornness, most Europeans considered these new lands the new Azores, and the rest believed they were the antipodes. Although intensive exploration of the Caribbean and the first contacts with terra firma took place between and , only in , when the Spaniards came upon the Aztec Empire the Mexica Triple Alliance , would a new phase of the invasion begin.

In the twenty years between Columbus's discovery of the lands known as "islands and terra firma of the ocean sea" and the first invasion of Mexico, the Spaniards had founded numerous settlements in the Caribbean. This document was a contract similar to those signed between the monarch and a captain during the centuries of reconquest, whereby the captain was to reconquer and repopulate the lands held by the Moors in exchange for rewards and titles of nobility.

The Capitulations of Santa Fe granted Columbus and his descendants the title of viceroy and admiral of Castile and specified that the monarchs and Columbus would share equally the revenue from the commercial and economic exploitation of the new territories. However, the new lands would become the monarchs' personal property. Reports of gold on Columbus's first trip led to the establishment of a business on the island of Santo Domingo Hispaniola managed directly by Columbus. Everyone arriving from Castile was put to work under his authority, exchanging European goods for the gold extracted by the natives.

The monopoly held by the crown and Columbus turned out to be poor business, however, because tribal life on Santo Domingo and the other Caribbean islands was organized around subsistence farming of cassava, sweet potato, yucca, maize, beans, and pumpkin. The Indians collected whatever alluvial gold there was purely for religious and ornamental purposes, and even though the Spaniards coveted it, it continued to be the rarest of goods.

The royal-Columbian enterprise failed to grow, and the king considered closing it. The rebellion signaled the real beginning of the invasion of the Americas.

Having revoked the monopoly in , the crown began to grant licenses to individuals and companies for trading both between Spain and the Antilles and within the Antilles territory. As a result royal officials made their first appearance in the Antilles. The new trade satisfied both the Spanish settlers and the monarchy, which sought to block Portugal's expansion and enforce the jointly signed treaty that allocated maritime space. In fact, the Treaty of Tordesillas reprised the contents of a papal bull that assigned to the Catholic king the lands discovered by Columbus, while revising the demarcation line to leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands.

In this new phase the Spanish king had to find a way to reconcile conflicting interests-those of the settlers and those of religion outlined in the papal bull, which called for the evangelization of the natives-while still enforcing his own sovereignty over that part of the world. The Spanish monarchy had by then set out on a path that would lead, under Charles V, to a composite monarchy with universal or imperial characteristics in which political and ethical principles coexisted in the link between throne and altar.

The still unexplored American regions took on a new significance in the king's imagination and would occupy an important place in the crown's political and religious plans for more than two centuries, in spite of the changes that occurred during that time. The new directions that the Spanish monarchy embraced as it was about to become the first great modern power were difficult to implement. Once the era of Columbus was over, the monarchy granted several licenses to Castilians for trading with the Antilles natives, but the low quality of alluvial gold, the difficulty in fishing for pearls, and the small agricultural surplus offered for barter ultimately transformed the merchant companies into veritable armed bands that raided Indian villages and captured the natives for use as slaves.

These armed merchant bands were essentially conquest enterprises, whose partners and financial backers included royal officials, churchmen, and the stewards of the great Castilian and European mercantile firms that had their offices in Seville. In time the Iberian invasion of the Antilles led to frequent uprisings, the Indians having tired of the conquistadors' treachery. Obsessed with gold and pearls, the Spaniards armed themselves with swords, spears, and crossbows and went about with vicious dogs as escorts.

The Other West: Latin America from Invasion to Globalization

Sixteenth-century Europe learned about the horrors of the invasion through the Milanese Gerolamo Benzoni; his narrative, enhanced by Theodore de Bry's vivid illustrations, was the first book to disseminate anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic sentiment in Europe. Nevertheless, the armed bands in the Antilles were, in effect, a vanguard. They built the first Spanish settlements by using their own weapons and goods for barter.

More than just a commercial enterprise, they evolved into a political organization whose members had to obey the oldest or most respected of them, the caudillo leader. When the settlements became stable and turned into cities, these bands took on an institutional character, forming muncipalities, each of which had its own government, the cabildo, or municipal council.

With this transformation the bands became truly conquest enterprises-that is, sociopolitical organizations-rather than mere commercial ventures. The forays of these armed merchant bands, however, soon alarmed both the crown and the Church. Concern grew after the s rebellion of the Castilian cities, which was harshly quelled by Charles V, who feared that the Castilians overseas might likewise aspire to independence. For its part, the Church pressed the monarchy to defend the Indian populations, which had already been decimated in the Antilles.

To counteract the breakaway tendencies of the expeditions of conquest, the crown installed an audiencia in Santo Domingo. This was the first governmental and juridical body in the New World.

Patterned after the Castilian audiencias, it consisted of a council of judges appointed by the king and charged with ruling the territory and administering justice. The position of royal commissioner adelantado and alcalde mayor was discontinued, although without putting an end to the expeditions of conquest. In the meantime sugar production began in the Antilles, and sugarcane soon would become the leading Caribbean crop for several centuries.

Merchant shipping and sugar production enabled the first American treasure to arrive in Spain: The remaining 30 percent were taxes collected in the New World. The effort to strengthen the king's authority in America intensified the activity of the Church, especially the religious orders, which made public pronouncements in favor of the Indians.

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As a result of Church pressure the Spanish enacted the first laws protecting the natives, known as the Laws of Burgos, in Thus, alongside the economic and social interests, spiritual interests began to take shape, resulting in the increased presence and influence of royal dignitaries and churchmen. Despite these political correctives, the Spanish invasion of the Antilles took a heavy toll.

The population of the island of Santo Domingo shrank from 3. The Brazilian regions were similarly affected, as the Portuguese crown tried to assert its sovereignty in Brazil in keeping with the Treaty of Tordesillas. To reach its goal without any outlay of resources, Portugal granted an exclusive license to Fernando Noronha's merchant company to cut and ship the trunks of the tree known as brazilwood, which was used to produce a red dye.

As had been the case for the Columbian enterprise and for African trade, the Noronha monopoly installed trading stations where the precious trunks harvested by native tribes were bartered for Portuguese and European goods. But here too the monopoly system soon grew rife with problems, not because of disagreements between the partners and the Portuguese employees but because of competition from the French, who were also interested in the precious wood. The arrival of the French in the New World was the first in a long series of infiltrations by European countries that refused to recognize the division of the New World between Portugal and Spain.

The clashes between the French and the Portuguese helped sharpen intertribal conflicts as tribes would ally with one or the other. Most likely, the situation exacerbated human sacrifice practices and promoted the intertribal trade of Amerindian slaves, which was previously unknown. The trading between invaders and natives led to the first mixed-race unions and the birth of the mameluco the Portuguese equivalent to the Spanish mestizo , which contemporary Brazilian nationalism identifies as the prototype of the Brazilian. The European invasion of Brazil was very bloody as well: The devastation of the native populations caused by the spread of European epidemics, tribal wars, and slavery prevented the rise of a Portuguese-American society, as had been the case in the Antilles for Spanish-American society.

In the sixteenth century the Spanish monarchy born of the union of the crowns of Castile and Aragon accelerated its imperial designs. With the ascent of Charles V to the throne in , an empire comprising a plurality of realms, with laws and institutions founded on widely dissimilar cultural and political traditions, came into being. Charles V's empire did not destroy the many cultures within it: Elements of this system included the Catholic faith, a court that could assure the subjects' loyalty to the crown, and an administration that could convey to the emperor the needs of each different realm.

The new empire was a mosaic with tiles of different shapes. Although these pieces did not fit together perfectly, the whole projected an image of unity-a unity that the Spanish monarchy would not actually achieve, or even seek, before the eighteenth century. The Portuguese monarchy projected the same image. In both cases, the monarch was seen not as the king of Spain or Portugal but rather as the ruler of a number of European and American kingdoms. The element that brought unity to both Iberian monarchies was thus the figure of the king as a symbol of justice and a defender of the faith-he who metes out justice, rewards the good, punishes the evildoers, and enforces respect for the rights and duties of each subject as dictated by social rank.

This was the ideal of good government that the empire guaranteed to all its dominions. The imperial organization that resulted from this concept was established in the various territorial councils. In the early sixteenth century there were two, for Castile and Aragon; the Council of the Indies was formed in ; the one for Italy in ; the Portuguese one in , when the two crowns were joined as the Iberian Union; and the Flemish one in Before the two crowns were joined, the Portuguese Empire had two territorial councils, for Portugal and the Indies; the latter's autonomy would be preserved even after Spain and Portugal came under one monarch.

In this empire under construction, Castile and southern Portugal were to supply the manpower, financial means, and organizational models for the New World. In fact, the American territories-or West Indies-ceased to be the personal property of the king only in , when they gained the right to their own territorial council, the Council of the Indies.

Although the council inherited the legal and institutional traditions of Castile, it produced new laws and institutions because it was forced to take into account Amerindian common law. The new status of the West Indies in this second phase of the invasion corresponded roughly to the rise of the Spanish monarchy under Charles V. Central to this process was the disappearance of the old expeditions authorized by royal functionaries and the requirement that capitulaciones, or contracts between the monarchy and potential conquistadors, now be authorized by the Council of the Indies.

The new governing of the New World was more effective than previously thought, although of course it did not bring justice or, much less, equality of rights for Amerindians. The tighter royal control held in check the seigniorial tendencies that had flourished during the invasion of the Antilles and introduced the imperial organizational principle to America. The king's strengthened authority not to be confused with the beginning of absolutism inspired in Spanish and native subjects alike the idea of the king as the guarantor of the rank-based liberties that had taken root in the various American territories.

Because the colonies could not regularly convene in the Cortes, deputies from the leading American cities defended these liberties in the king's court. The fact that America was no longer the personal property of the king, and that it was becoming an integral part of the monarchy, conditioned the course taken by this second wave of invasion. Moreover, on the American continent the invaders would confront better-organized Amerindian societies that could respond politically and socially. The conquests of first Mexico and then Peru thus marked a significant turn.

During the Iberian invasion, the so-called Spanish conquest, the conquistadors captured the principal centers in less than thirty years, from to The occupation proceeded by gemmation: Four centers branched out from Santo Domingo: Panama , Mexico , Peru , and Buenos Aires The occupation of vast territories started from these settlements and was organized with small bands of Spaniards.

The penetration of the Mexican hinterland was quick: The invasion of the Andean territory was not much different. Between and the Spaniards extended their control to the Andes and branched out into Chile. In Brazil the invasion took on a different rhythm. As late as the donation of territories to the Portuguese nobility had not led to the founding of important centers of territorial control.

In the Portuguese had failed to stem French infiltration; it would subside only after the kings of Portugal and France had signed a peace agreement.

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The Spanish invasion was faster than the Portuguese, thanks to the Spaniards' underlying structure. The king's authority was limited to the trade monopoly of precious wood and spices and the levy of taxes on precious metals and diamonds. This type of agreement obligated the licensee to explore, settle, and populate the grant territory at his own expense.

These operations were entrusted to a conquest expedition organized by the grant holder the conquest captain , with no financial or military support from the crown. Among the rights was the appointment of the captain to the office of governor and the possibility that he would be granted a title of nobility.

Both he and his men were exempted from taxes, and the men were given official and municipal positions, in addition to being awarded lands and an inheritable income derived from the tribute that the Amerindians paid to the king. The conquistadors were subject to the king's laws and to the authority of the royal officials in charge of overseeing the levying of taxes and duties.

Finally, the king could suspend or revoke any of the rights he had granted. Among the methods they adopted were formal, but also forced, alliances with the Amerindians, which allowed the conquistadors to move freely about the territory and, with the aid of interpreters, take full advantage of intertribal rivalries. No doubt the Iberians' skill in drawing the natives into their enterprise was useful for colonizing purposes. Another significant factor in the conquest-one that is often overlooked-was the individual set of abilities that the different captains demonstrated.

So too were the skills of Pedro de Valdivia, who conquered Chile, as compared to those of Juan de Garay, who occupied Paraguay. This large group is important because it supported the nascent municipal institutions, helping to check the feudal intentions of the captains and, more generally, of the encomenderos, the lifetime beneficiaries of Indian tributes. The society that began to emerge from the conquest was not a mere dualism between the dominant and the dominated but rather a world that slowly took on Iberian traits, a stratified society with differentiated rights and obligations derived from the individual's level in the social hierarchy in a system protected, guarded, and defended by the monarchy.

This explains the existence, especially in the north central and Andean regions, of Amerindian lords and notables who understood the advantages of the new situation, including the possibility of turning a considerable portion of common land-which in pre-Hispanic society they could manage but never own-into their private property,. Invasion and conquest are terms associated with violence, abuse of power, and illegality.

The level of violence during this phase of the invasion, although certainly great, was less pronounced than in the initial phase, not just because mixed-race unions were becoming more commonplace but also because the poorer conquistadors and the Indian notables were thwarting the feudal tendencies of the more powerful conquistadors.

Another factor was the failure of the Antillean experience. The resistance to the conquistadors' ruthlessness meshed nicely with the Church's moderating efforts, in particular the work of the Dominican, Franciscan, and Augustinian orders and of the secular clergy. Their work transcended the religious sphere, since the hundred or so monasteries active in New Spain in the s not only gave shelter to the indigent but also disseminated European culture and agricultural methods to the native populations.

They portray an Amerindian and Spanish world shot through by tensions, one in which any alliance or understanding between the two peoples could not last because it was motivated by limited, short-term goals. The Indians showed great skills in exploiting the conflict among the Spanish captains, supporting one to weaken the other, all the while knowing that this tactic did not amount to a strategy.

The Other West: Latin America from Invasion to Globalization by Marcello Carmagnani

Against this background of partial alliances and ententes, several political projects developed that would help bring about a new order. That is, the Spaniards should not "exploit and destroy it, only to abandon it," but rather should lay the groundwork for a future "great and noble land where God Our Lord shall find and gather thousands of faithful and Your Majesty shall reap great rewards. He applied this idea when, after imprisoning the emperor, he "restored the office of lieutenant held at the time of Moctezuma" to a Mexica nobleman and appointed other notables to "city government posts, in accordance with their customs.

Poma de Ayala developed the idea of a kingdom in which each province the four parts of the ancient Inca Empire is governed by Amerindian lords, while an emperor sits in the center, in Cuzco, the Inca capital.

The invasion of the American continent entailed enormous challenges, both material and cultural, that forced the conquistadors to adapt and react flexibly to the new demands. A similar process also occurred in the conquered populations; just a few years after the invasion, they were mastering the invaders' language and in some cases even using the Spanish alphabet to transliterate their mother tongue. Many intermediaries participated in this interaction, foremost among them the clergy, who, notwithstanding the destruction wrought in the name of the faith, saved a significant part of the Indian heritage.

Like the first phase, this phase of the invasion began with acts of force on the part of Iberian armed bands, but it eventually led to a variety of economic, social, political, and cultural phenomena of adaptation and connection between the conquerors and the conquered. Both sides were thrown into a mutual learning process, which extended even to war practices. Soon the Indians, the nomadic tribes especially, mastered horseback riding and became mobile, a custom that for many tribes would last until the nineteenth century.

Thanks to the progressive assimilation of Iberian novelties such as the horse and the spread of semiwild livestock, nomadic and semisettled Amerindian populations successfully slowed the Iberian advance in the outlying regions, starting in the second half of the sixteenth century.

Likewise, contact with the natives taught the Spaniards and the Portuguese to rely less on firearms, since gunpowder was inefficient in a humid, tropical climate and cannons were difficult to move. As a result the most effective Iberian weapons on the battlefield became the crossbow, spear, and sword; the Iberians also found horses and dogs useful in battle.

The Other West provides a provocative new interpretation of Latin American history and the region's place in the changing global political economy, from the discovery of America into the twenty-first century. Marcello Carmagnani's award-winning and multidisciplinary analysis sheds new light on historical processes and explains how this vast expanse of territory--stretching from the American Southwest to the tip of the Southern Cone--became Europeanized in the colonial period, and how the European and American civilizations transformed one another as they grew together.

Carmagnani departs from traditional historical thought by situating his narrative in the context of world history, brilliantly showing how the Iberian populations and cultures--both European and American--merged and evolved.

Giammanco Frongia , a former sociology teacher and author, has translated numerous books on politics, art, sociology, and religion, including Paolo Cesaretti's Theodora: List of Maps Acknowledgments Introduction. Latin America in World History 1. Revival The International Context: Historical Forms and Trends Bibliography Index. Books Digital Products Journals. Disciplines History Latin American History. Entry America's entry into the Western world is the result of a process whose first phase, from the discovery by Christopher Columbus in to about , when much of the continent had been transformed into an Iberian territory, entailed the violent destruction of the many native American civilizations and peoples.

The Invasion The American Indians Before the Spanish and Portuguese invaded and conquered the Americas, the various native societies had a history of almost forty thousand years, starting with the migration of Asiatic peoples who had reached the continent by crossing the Bering Strait as well as those who had come by sea from Oceania. The Iberians The cultural background of the Iberian invaders, for whom religion was the foundation of political and social action, played a primary role in the interactions between the conquered and the conquerors.

Invasion and Conquest In the sixteenth century the Spanish monarchy born of the union of the crowns of Castile and Aragon accelerated its imperial designs.

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This explains the existence, especially in the north central and Andean regions, of Amerindian lords and notables who understood the advantages of the new situation, including the possibility of turning a considerable portion of common land-which in pre-Hispanic society they could manage but never own-into their private property, Invasion and conquest are terms associated with violence, abuse of power, and illegality. About the Book The Other West provides a provocative new interpretation of Latin American history and the region's place in the changing global political economy, from the discovery of America into the twenty-first century.

Physical description xi, p. Series California world history library ; Find it at other libraries via WorldCat Limited preview. Bibliography Includes bibliographical references p. Contents List of Maps Acknowledgments Introduction. Latin America in World History 1. Revival The International Context: Historical Forms and Trends Bibliography Index. Nielsen Book Data Publisher's Summary "The Other West" provides a provocative new interpretation of Latin American history and the region's place in the changing global political economy, from the discovery of America into the twenty-first century.

Marcello Carmagnani's award-winning and multidisciplinary analysis sheds new light on historical processes and explains how this vast expanse of territory - stretching from the American Southwest to the tip of the Southern Cone - became Europeanized in the colonial period, and how the European and American civilizations transformed one another as they grew together.

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