Brazilian Counterpoint: Nomads, Traders, and Slaves

Transcription

1 Thomas Holloway, History, UC Davis Brazilian Counterpoint: Nomads, Traders, and Slaves Empire to Empire: The Americas in the Age of Exploration CLAS Summer Institute for Teachers UC Berkeley, July14-16, 2008

2 Brazil in the Age of Expansion (plan for this presentation) Indigenous Peoples: Hunters and gatherers (Jê speakers) retreat from hunters and farmers (Tupi speakers) before Europeans arrive Portuguese maritime pioneers: navigation, ship design, cartography; a network of aggressive trade The plantation complex: European demand (for sugar), American land, African labor How the west was won: Brazil comes to occupy half of South America

3 Indigenous Peoples Today Today the indigenous population of Brazil is about 300,000, or.02% of the national total. About 12% of the national territory is in Indigenous Reserves. There are 206 different tribes speaking 170 distinct languages. Only 10 groups have more than 5,000 members.

4 Ethnohistorians believe that speakers of Jê languages were pushed to the interior of the continent by groups speaking Tupi, who were still expanding north to south and east to west when Europeans arrived around Language Families

5 Waura From near the Venezuelan border.

6 Tchikao people, Xingu park Subsistence Making manioc flour (farinha de mandioca) Pounding corn Beiju (manioc cakes)

7 Subsistence Pirarucu Fishing Learning to hunt

8 Shifting Villages A Jê speaking group In Xingu park Villages are abandoned and rebuilt a few miles away every few years, as soil and hunting are depleted.

9 Ceremonies Nambikwara Bororo

10 Portugal emerges The Christian retaking of the Iberian peninsula from the Muslims left Portugal an independent kingdom by 1143, recognized by the Pope in 1179, and territorially complete by Aljubarrota Portuguese independence from Castile was confirmed in 1385, at the battle of Aljubarrota.

11 Technical Innovations Mapmaking --where things are in relation to other things, in distance and direction Navigation aids --how to find one s location on the globe in relation to other points, and how to reach the other points Naval architecture --how make a ship that will get there and back, with a cargo that will pay for the trip

12 Maps from Medieval Europe These stylized T in O maps, based on religion more than astronomy or cartography, show Jerusalem at the center of the world (and the east at the top--the origin of orientation ). Augsburg, 1472 Hereford Mappamundi,1300

13 Maps of the Renaissance This map from 1482, is adapted from the work of Ptolemy (about 150. It shows the world known to Europeans before the Age of Expansion.

14 The Compass A magnetized needle, used not just to find North, but to maintain a bearing (direction) in relation to North. It was known in China in ancient times, and first used in Europe in the 1200s.

15 The ASTROLABE was used for sighting the sun at its zenith (noon) or the North Star at night, to determine one s latitude (position north to south on the globe) in relation to the horizon. The Astrolabe

16 The QUADRANT was used for sighting the sun or North Star, to determine one s latitude (position north to south on the globe) in relation to the surface of the earth (by using the plumb line). The Quadrant

17 north star Finding Latitude In practice, the curved surface of the earth appears as a flat horizon, and the angle between it and the North Star increases as one moves north from the Equator.

18 The Caravel was developed in Europe in the 1400s, combining relatively large hull capacity (also used in the Carrack and the Galleon) and lateen (triangular) sails for maneuverability, making long-distance voyages practical. Naval Architecture

19 The Caravel A typical Caravel was about feet long and 20 feet across, and combined square sails in the front masts for speed with the wind,and lateen (triangular) sails in the rear for maneuverability, including sailing into side winds. (A replica of Columbus s second ship, the Niña, a caravel.)

20 Portugal Leads Maritime Expansion A seafaring tradition underpinned a consolidated monarchy after c A large Portuguese fleet occupied the north African port of Ceuta in Prince Henry The Navigator promoted exploration of Africa from his base in southern Portugal, from the 1420s to his death in 1460.

21 Portugal in West Africa After taking Ceuta in 1415, Portuguese Prince Henry launched trips down the African coast, beginning the black slave trade by the 1440s and seeking a route to the Far East. Ceuta, 1415 Cape Bojador, 1434 El Mina, 1481

22 Start of the African Slave Trade In this building in Lagos, southern Portugal, the first black slaves brought directly from subsaharan Africa were sold, brought by Gil Eanes in (Lagos, Nigeria is named for this town.)

23 Portuguese mariners seeking a sea route to India hit contrary conditions in the south Atlantic. Both currents and winds push north along the African coast. Around Africa Bartolomeu Dias, 1487 (5 years before Columbus sailed west)

24 Knowledge spreads quickly This map was produced in 1489 by Henricus Martellus, a German working in Florence, Italy, not long after Dias returned to Portugal in Dec The African coastline is complete to beyond the Cape of Good Hope.

25 Compared to a few years earlier Just 7 years difference.

26 Dividing the World After Columbus s trip in 1492 (red line) Spain and Portugal met at Tordesillas in 1494 and agreed on a line dividing non-christian territories between them (black line).

27 South Atlantic navigation To avoid the contrary currents along the African coast, Vasco da Gama,10 years after Dias, sailed to the south west, and caught currents that took him around the Cape of Good Hope to India. Bartolomeu Dias, 1487 Vasco da Gama, 1497

28 Accidental(?) landing Following Da Gama s trip 3 years later, Pedro Alvares Cabral took a similar route with a slightly different bearing, and bumped into Brazil in April Bartolomeu Dias, 1487 Vasco da Gama, 1497 Pedro Alvares Cabral, 1500

29 The Cantino Map, 1502 Drawn after the voyages of Columbus (for Spain), and Da Gama, Cabral, and the Corte-Real brothers (all for Portugal).

30 Este he o marco dantre castella y portuguall (Detail from the 1502 Cantino map)

31 A New World map Made by Martin Waldseemuller in Amerigo Vespucci is the figure in the upper right. The eastern coastline of America, including the Caribbean islands, shows at the left side.

32 America named Detail showing label America, on the Waldseemuller map of 1507.

33 A New Understanding In just 18 years, European understanding of the world changed dramatically.

34 Around the World With the first circumnavigation, by the Magellan (Magalhães)/ Del Cano in , the basic configuration was established. The fleet started with 5 ships and c. 240 men. One ship with 18 men survived.

35 The Portuguese Trading Empire By about 1550 the Portuguese had established some 50 trading bases (feitorias, often mistranslated as factories ) on three continents, including Brazil. In the 16th century the African and Asian trade was much more lucrative than was Brazil.

36 The dyewood phase -Pau Brasil The first economic activity by Portugal in Brazil was trading with the indigenous people for pau brasil, a native wood that produces a red dye used in coloring textiles.

37 Unsustainable extraction Extraction of pau brasil went on for about a century, and nearly brought the tree to extinction along Brazil s Atlantic forest. It also brought the natives in contact with Europeans and their trade goods--and weapons.

38 Sugar By the 1530s sugar production began along the Brazilian coast, based on patterns already used in the Atlantic islands (Madeira and the Azores). An enclave economy using European capital, colonial land, African labor for European markets.

39 Slaves Brazil alone received some 40% of all slaves taken from Africa over more than 3 centuries, around four million people. (Vs. about 500,000 to British North America).

40 The Sugar Engenho (mill)

41 A United Kingdom (and colonies) Between 1580 and 1640, Spain and Portugal were united under one crown, so the border set at Tordesillas was not so important.

42 Erasing the Tordesillas line In the 1600s expeditions of Bandeirantes extended Portuguese influence through the interior of the continent, ignoring the line of demarcation set in 1494.

43 Bandeirantes The legend The reality

44 Monções ( Monsoons ) River-borne expeditions into the interior of the continent, named for the season when the rivers ran high--a term borrowed from the Indian Ocean experience.

45 How the West was won Both river and landbased expeditions established a Portuguese presence in the area not Occupied by the Spanish. Tordesillas line: Monções (river trips): Bandeirantes (overland trips):

46 Borders redrawn Borders with Spanish America were realigned, in the Treaties of Madrid (1750), and San Ildefonso (1778).

47 Thomas Holloway, History, UC Davis Muito Obrigado pela Atenção! Empire to Empire: The Americas in the Age of Exploration CLAS Summer Institute for Teachers UC Berkeley, July14-16, 2008

48 Extra slides The following slides were deemed not essential to the presentation, and are placed here to remove them from the the body of the show, to save time and reduce sensory overload. I have left them in the PPT set in case anyone who uses this collection might find them of interest or useful. Tom Holloway, Dept. of History UC Davis <thhollow@ucdavis.edu>

49 Body Decoration Kraho Suya

50 The Crusades of the 1100s

51 Between 1347 and 1351, the bubonic plague killed about one-third of the population of Europe. The Black Death

52 On a clear night, point to the horizon with one arm, and point to the North Star with the other arm. Then measure the arc between your arms, in degrees. (Note: You ll probably need to have a friend help, and a really big protractor.) Guessing Latitude

53 A globe--with parts missing This globe was made by Martin Behaim in 1492, the same year Columbus first sailed west. After Dias, Africa was (fairly) complete. What s missing, between Europe and Cipangu was the American continent and most of the Pacific Ocean. (A flat version)

54 Boundary Disputes There were several attempts to fix the location of the Line of Demarcation described by the Treaty of Tordesillas.

55 Marking the Divide This monument in the southern Brazilian town of Laguna marks the position of the line of Tordesillas, according to the Portuguese).

56 The Slave Trade From Curtin, The Atlantic Slave Trade, 1969

57 Cabral left Lisbon with a fleet of 13 ships, lost5ontheway, sent one more home with news of the landfall in Brazil, and arrived in India with 7 ships. Only 4 of the 13 ships returned to Portugal in Risk and Reward