("Mina"), Ghana, one in a chain of about fifty fortified
factories to enforce Portuguese trade rule along the coast, 1563. ,
Codex Durán. European colonization of both
Eastern and
Western Hemispheres has its roots in Portuguese exploration. There were financial and religious motives behind this exploration. By finding the source of the lucrative
spice trade, the Portuguese could reap its profits for themselves. They would also be able to probe the existence of the fabled Christian kingdom of
Prester John, with an eye to encircling the Islamic
Ottoman Empire, itself gaining territories and colonies in Eastern Europe. The first foothold outside of Europe was gained with the conquest of
Ceuta in 1415. During the 15th century, Portuguese sailors discovered the Atlantic islands of
Madeira,
Azores, and
Cape Verde, which were duly populated, and pressed progressively further along the west African coast until
Bartolomeu Dias demonstrated it was possible to sail around Africa by rounding the
Cape of Good Hope in 1488, paving the way for
Vasco da Gama to reach India in 1498. Portuguese successes led to Spanish financing of a mission by
Christopher Columbus in 1492 to explore an alternative route to Asia, by sailing west. When Columbus eventually made landfall in the Caribbean
Antilles he believed he had reached the coast of India, and that the people he encountered there were Indians with red skin. This is why
Native Americans have been called Indians or red-Indians. In truth, Columbus had arrived on a continent that was new to the Europeans, the
Americas. After Columbus' first trips, competing Spanish and Portuguese claims to new territories and sea routes were solved with the
Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, which divided the world outside of Europe in two areas of trade and exploration, between the Iberian kingdoms of Castile and Portugal along a north-south meridian, 370 leagues west of
Cape Verde. According to this international agreement, the larger part of the Americas and the
Pacific Ocean were open to Spanish exploration and colonization, while Africa, the
Indian Ocean, and most of Asia were assigned to Portugal. In 1521, the
Portuguese took control of
Bahrain under the command of
António Correia, making it the first country in the
Middle East to be fully colonised by any European power. During the same year of 1521, the boundaries specified by the Treaty of Tordesillas were put to the test in 1521 when
Ferdinand Magellan and his Spanish sailors (among other Europeans), sailing for the Spanish Crown became the first European to cross the Pacific Ocean, reaching
Guam and the Philippines, parts of which the Portuguese had already explored, sailing from the Indian Ocean. The two by now global empires, which had set out from opposing directions, had finally met on the other side of the world. The conflicts that arose between both powers were finally solved with the
Treaty of Zaragoza in 1529, which defined the areas of Spanish and Portuguese influence in Asia, establishing the anti-meridian, or line of demarcation on the other side of the world. During the 16th century, the Portuguese continued to press both eastwards and westwards into the Oceans. Towards Asia they made the first direct contact between Europeans and the peoples inhabiting present day countries such as
Mozambique,
Madagascar,
Sri Lanka,
Malaysia,
Indonesia,
East Timor (1512), China, and finally Japan. In the opposite direction, the Portuguese colonized the huge territory that eventually became Brasil, and the Spanish
conquistadors established the vast Viceroyalties of
New Spain and
Peru, and later of
Río de la Plata (Argentina) and
New Granada (Colombia). In Asia, the Portuguese encountered ancient and well populated societies, and established a seaborne empire consisting of armed coastal trading posts along their trade routes (such as
Goa,
Hormuz,
Malacca, and
Macau), so they had relatively little cultural impact on the societies they engaged. In the Western Hemisphere, the European colonization involved the emigration of large numbers of settlers, soldiers and administrators intent on owning land and exploiting the apparently primitive (as perceived by Old World standards)
Indigenous peoples of the Americas. The result was that the colonization of the New World was catastrophic: native peoples were no match for European technology, ruthlessness, or their diseases which decimated the
Indigenous population. Spanish treatment of the indigenous populations caused a fierce debate, the
Valladolid Controversy, over whether Indians possessed souls and if so, whether they were entitled to the basic rights of mankind.
Bartolomé de Las Casas, author of
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, championed the cause of the native peoples, and was opposed by "Juan Ginés de
Sepúlveda", who claimed
Amerindians were "natural slaves". The
Roman Catholic Church played a large role in Spanish and Portuguese overseas activities. The
Dominicans,
Jesuits, and
Franciscans, notably
Francis Xavier in Asia and
Junípero Serra in North America were particularly active in this endeavor. Many buildings erected by the Jesuits still stands. Buildings such as the
Cathedral of Saint Paul in Macau and the
Santisima Trinidad de Paraná in
Paraguay, the latter an example of the
Jesuit Reductions. The Dominican and Franciscan buildings of
California's missions and
New Mexico's missions stand restored, such as
Mission Santa Barbara in
Santa Barbara, California and
San Francisco de Asis Mission Church in
Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico. As characteristically happens in any colonialism, European or not, previous or subsequent, both Spain and Portugal profited handsomely from their newfound overseas colonies: the Spanish from gold and silver from mines such as
Potosí and
Zacatecas in
New Spain, the Portuguese from the huge markups they enjoyed as trade intermediaries, particularly during the
Nanban Japan trade period. The influx of precious metals to the Spanish monarchy's coffers allowed it to finance costly
religious wars in Europe which ultimately proved its economic undoing: the supply of metals was not infinite and the large inflow caused inflation and debt, and subsequently affected the rest of Europe.
Northern European challenges to the Iberian hegemony It was not long before the exclusivity of Iberian claims to the Americas was challenged by other up and coming European powers, primarily the Netherlands, France and England: the view taken by the rulers of these nations is epitomized by the quotation attributed to
Francis I of France demanding to be shown the clause in Adam's will excluding his authority from the New World. This challenge initially took the form of piratical attacks (such as those by
Francis Drake) on Spanish treasure fleets or coastal settlements. Later the Northern European countries began establishing settlements of their own, primarily in areas that were outside of Spanish interests, such as what is now the eastern seaboard of the United States and Canada, or islands in the Caribbean, such as
Aruba,
Martinique, and
Barbados, that had been abandoned by the Spanish in favor of the mainland and larger islands. Whereas Spanish colonialism was based on the religious conversion and exploitation of local populations via
encomiendas (many Spaniards emigrated to the Americas to elevate their social status, and were not interested in manual labor), Northern European colonialism was bolstered by those emigrating for religious reasons (for example, the
Mayflower voyage). The motive for emigration was not to become an aristocrat or to spread one's faith but to start a new society afresh, structured according to the colonist's wishes. The most populous emigration of the 17th century was that of the English, who after a series of wars with the Dutch and French came to dominate the
Thirteen Colonies on the eastern coast of the present-day United States and other colonies such as Newfoundland and
Rupert's Land in what is now Canada. However, the English, French, and Dutch were no more averse to making a profit than the Spanish and Portuguese, and whilst their areas of settlement in the Americas proved to be devoid of the precious metals found by the Spanish, trade in other commodities and products that could be sold at a massive profit in Europe provided another reason for crossing the Atlantic, in particular, furs from Canada, tobacco, and cotton grown in
Virginia and sugar in the islands of the Caribbean and Brazil. Due to the massive depletion of indigenous labor, plantation owners had to look elsewhere for manpower for these labor- intensive crops. They turned to the centuries-old slave trade of west Africa and began transporting Africans across the Atlantic on a massive scale – historians estimate that the
Atlantic slave trade brought between 10 and 12 million black African slaves to the New World. The islands of the Caribbean soon came to be populated by slaves of African descent, ruled over by a white minority of plantation owners interested in making a fortune and then returning to their home country to spend it.
Role of companies in early colonialism From its very outset, Western colonialism was operated as a joint public-private venture. Columbus' voyages to the Americas were partially funded by Italian investors, but whereas the Spanish state maintained a tight rein on trade with its colonies (by law, the colonies could only trade with one designated port in the mother country and treasure was brought back in special
convoys), the English, French and Dutch granted what were effectively trade
monopolies to
joint-stock companies such as the
East India Companies and the
Hudson's Bay Company.
Imperial Russia had no state-sponsored expeditions or colonization in the Americas, but did charter the first Russian joint-stock commercial enterprise, the
Russian America Company, which did sponsor those activities in its territories.
European colonies in India meeting with
Mir Jafar at the
Battle of Plassey in 1757, painted by
Francis Hayman In May 1498, the
Portuguese set foot in
Kozhikode in
Kerala, making them the first Europeans to sail to India. Rivalry among reigning European powers saw the entry of the
Dutch,
English,
French,
Danish and others. The kingdoms of
India were gradually taken over by the Europeans and indirectly controlled by puppet rulers. In 1600, Queen
Elizabeth I accorded a
charter, forming the
East India Company to trade with India and eastern Asia. The English landed in India in
Surat in 1612. By the 19th century, they had assumed
direct and
indirect control over most of India. ==Colonialism within Europe (16th–20th century)==