Spanish and Portuguese colonies

1, the so-called colony, in fact, is an accessory brought by the great navigation era initiated by Portugal and Spain. Spain and Portugal are fighting for maritime rights. It started the wave of modern colonialism, expanded and merged in the competition, and caused a chain reaction in other European countries, bringing world history into an unprecedented new situation. Because of the overseas territory, Spain and Portugal will inevitably compete for interests, so Prince Henry and John II started a colonial struggle from gran canaria, and later had to compromise again, with the Pope as the arbiter of the expansion conflict between the two countries; So in 148 1 year, the Pope approved the Alcaso Gas Treaty signed by Spain and Portugal. It includes "all islands found or acquired in and around the southern Canary Islands and western Guinea". After Columbus discovered the New World,1May 3, 493, the Pope issued the first instruction, announcing: "In view of Christopher the Confessor &; S226 Columbus once sailed near India and discovered some distant islands, and even some land that has not been discovered by others so far. Many people live in peace. They don't wear clothes or eat meat. They intend to believe in Christianity. It is hereby confirmed that every island and land discovered by the envoys sent by the two kings of Castilla and their heirs will be fully exercised by the kings and their heirs if they have never been under the jurisdiction of the Pope. " Although this directive explicitly recognizes that Spain can exercise sovereignty over Cuba, Hispaniola Islands and Bahamas. After several consultations, 1494 On June 7th, Portugal and Spain signed the Treaty of Tolde silas, dividing their overseas spheres of influence. Spain and Portugal draw a dividing line from the South Pole to the North Pole at 2056 kilometers west of Cape Verde, that is, between 48 and 49 degrees west longitude. In the area west of the demarcation line, the exclusive right belongs to Spain, and the Portuguese expedition can only be carried out east of the demarcation line. Neither country can occupy any territory owned by Christian rulers. In the history of the world, this is the first treaty between two countries to divide the world. 1529, the Pope drew a line on the map of the world quite casually, and divided the whole world into Spain and Portugal like a pie-this is the Treaty of Zaragoza. This treaty gives the expansion of the two countries a sense of destiny. Spain gave up its claim to the Moluccas and accepted the eastern boundary line between the two countries, that is, the meridian of 17 degrees east of the Moluccas. Judging from the treaties granted by the Pope to Spain and Portugal, Spain and Portugal basically divided up the non-Christian territory in the world.

2. Reasons for expansion

Kings, nobles and churches in Portugal and Spain were the first people who supported navigators to explore and establish colonies in the era of great navigation. How can there be capitalism? It was not formed at that time. In my opinion, the reason for opening up the colony is largely a continuation of the Crusade. Since the Crusade, the wealth of the East has been like a paradise since the middle of12nd century. In the late Middle Ages, there was a serious shortage of precious metals in Western Europe, which made many Europeans salivate over the East. For the Iberian Peninsula, which has just left Arab rule, the economy cannot make ends meet, resources are in short supply, and society is full of contradictions. Expansion is undoubtedly a good way to solve domestic contradictions. For the king, expansion can enhance his prestige. For nobles, expansion can open up financial resources and increase wealth; For ordinary people, expansion can emigrate and fill their stomachs; For the church, expansion can expand the power of Christianity. Christianity and Catholicism in the west are keen on expansion. In the Middle Ages, he always emphasized jihad, "Where there are people, there should be Christianity". This kind of incitement is very aggressive. As early as 1344, Pope Clemens V ruled that the war between justice and injustice and the rights of pagans were legal. He also claimed that the Pope had the right to deal with the newly discovered islands in the Atlantic Ocean and convert the local residents to Christianity by means of war, which undoubtedly provided a legal basis for future colonial expansion. 14 15, Portugal occupied North Africa and captured the Moorish town of Ceuta, among which the church participated. Auriac, the confessor of the former Portuguese Queen who marched into North Africa, was appointed Bishop of Morocco, and another priest Menezes was appointed Bishop of Carthage. At that time, the conquest of Ceuta was actually under the banner of conquering Islam in the name of Catholicism. During the period of 14 18~ 1420, Pope Pope Martin V strongly supported Prince Henry's exploration activities in West Africa, which he regarded as a continuation of the Southern Crusades. Pope Pope Martin V appointed Prince Henry as the head of the Portuguese Christian order, and provided a large sum of money to solve the shortage of funds in the early exploration. The reason why Columbus was able to sail was also supported by the church. Spanish Cardinal Demendos is Columbus' protector and supporter, and Columbus naturally promised to open up routes and find overseas territories, which can bring wealth.

The colonial development of Spain and Portugal is like opening Pandora's box, which makes other countries follow suit. On the one hand, the wealth accumulated by Spain and Portugal is spent on wars, on the other hand, it is invested in luxury consumption, such as spice trade. The plundered wealth has become a luxury consumption, not a capital that can form an industry and carry out technological innovation. Alfonso Castro, a Spaniard, boasted in 1675 that the whole world was working for Spain: "Let London produce fiber satisfactorily; Let the Netherlands produce striped cloth satisfactorily; Let Florence produce clothes satisfactorily; Let the West Indies produce beaver skins and saddles; Let Milan produce woven cotton satisfactorily; Let Italy and Flanders produce their flax and our capital will satisfy them. The only thing that can be proved is that all countries are training skilled workers for Madrid, which is the queen of national parliaments. The whole world serves her and she doesn't need to serve anyone. "

How can capitalism make such an upstart approach? The emergence of colonies is a means of plundering wealth, which did not originate in capitalist countries at first, but continued in capitalist countries. The slave trade advocated by our textbooks is an evil means for capitalism to accumulate wealth. Think carefully, if this view holds, the outbreak of the American Civil War is really unnecessary. Facts have proved that slaves are not freelancers, and slaves are sold to the United States, and most of them are engaged in farming. Slavery will only hinder the development of capitalism.

3. The decline of Spain and Portugal.

Start with Spain. When Spain was strong, it was a real great empire. It wiped out the Aztec and Inca empires in America, conquered a territory dozens of times larger than itself, and then established a fairly large colonial empire except Brazil (north to the central United States, south to Argentina, and monopolized the Philippines in Asia).

Then how did he turn from prosperity to decline? In fact, as long as we observe carefully, in the middle and late sixteenth century, too many disadvantages of the Spanish Empire have surfaced, leading to its decline.

The endless war exhausted the national strength.

It is better to describe Spain as "the greater the power, the greater the responsibility". During the whole16th century and the middle of17th century, Spain was at war with many European countries. Although Spain has a territory several times larger than itself in America, they will also intervene in European affairs. Spain in Charles V owns many territories in southern Italy, Holland, Burgundy and Habsburg in Europe. At the same time, in order to compete for the Mediterranean waterway and trade, Spain had to compete with the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Because Charles V has assumed too much territory, there will inevitably be many opponents; Although Spain prevented Turkey from expanding into the Mediterranean, it cost a lot. Then Spain fought against the French and Italians, intervened in the Protestant reform in Germany, suppressed the uprising in the Netherlands, and sent troops to participate in the sectarian civil war in France, often losing more and winning less. Before he could catch his breath, Britain appeared as a new enemy, directly challenging the hegemony of Spain, and finally ended in the collapse of the Spanish armada. Due to the failure of the war, many treasures plundered from the colonies were exhausted.

(2) Spain is a rich boss, and other European countries are his wage earners?

With the colonial expansion, Portugal and Spain achieved their respective economic prosperity and hegemony in the16th century. The power of capital at that time was really intoxicating. Alfonso Castro, a Spaniard, boasted in 1675 that the whole world was working for Spain: "Let London produce fiber satisfactorily; Let the Netherlands produce striped cloth satisfactorily; Let Florence produce clothes satisfactorily; Let the West Indies produce beaver skins and saddles; Let Milan produce woven cotton satisfactorily; Let Italy and Flanders produce their flax and our capital will satisfy them. The only thing that can be proved is that all countries are training skilled workers for Madrid, which is the queen of national parliaments. The whole world serves her and she doesn't need to serve anyone. " At that time, people including the whole country were intoxicated with this nouveau riche mentality. Many people would rather take risks in the colonies than be poor. However, their purpose is not to put more money into industrial and manufacturing production, but to spend it on luxury goods, such as spice trade. From the nobility down to many people want to go to the colonies to plunder wealth. Everyone wants to be the local master and make a fortune, but who will do the local handicraft industry? Of course, it is reserved for those foreigners. Money comes quickly and is spent quickly. Of course, those who don't save money or work will be idle sooner or later. The plundered wealth has become a luxury consumption, not a capital that can form an industry and carry out technological innovation. This is why although Spain is rich, its own industry has not developed. And the handicraft industry in those wage earners' countries will develop better than this nouveau riche. In the future, Spain will rely more on the goods and market resources of these European countries. The extravagant consumption of the "nouveau riche" is nothing more than the wedding clothes of the "wage earners".

(3) The initial greed led to the crisis of the empire.

Because too much gold and silver were plundered, the value of more gold and silver decreased and the price began to rise, which triggered a "price revolution". Due to the influence of the price revolution, two kinds of people have suffered serious damage. Some of them were feudal landlords who collected fixed-currency land rent in the traditional way, and their income decreased due to currency devaluation, and they were trapped in poverty and bankruptcy; The other part of people are employed in urban and rural areas. Because they are in the position of being employed, and in order to protect the interests of employers, the state has repeatedly introduced laws to limit wage increases, and wage increases cannot keep up with price increases. Countries with developed handicrafts can carry out capitalist transformation more smoothly. The fixed-currency land rent collected by feudal landlords was also affected by the price revolution, and its power gradually declined. However, the feudal forces in Spain are still quite strong. Faced with the soaring prices of agricultural products, feudal nobles only blindly strengthened feudal exploitation, and guilds in cities continued to control industrial production. As a result, prices have risen, handicrafts are unsustainable, Spanish goods have lost market more than other countries, and the lower classes are heading for bankruptcy and famine. Spain finally failed to keep the gold and silver flowing in from overseas, but Britain was able to turn it into wealth. At this time, Spain has been troubled by the rising prices of industrial and agricultural products and the shrinking domestic product market.

/kloc-At the beginning of the 7th century, a new generation of imperialist countries changed from weak to strong, breaking Spain's trade and colonial monopoly. Britain, the Netherlands and France have intervened in American affairs, and Spain's influence has been shrinking. By the18th century, only 1/20 was a Spanish product. At the beginning, the inflow of gold and silver has stopped, and Spain has entered a long-term decline period.

In the19th century, the defeat was decided, Spain was unable to keep its colony, and with the independence of the colony, the empire fell.

Let me briefly talk about Portugal:

Compared with Spain, Portugal declined earlier. Portugal almost inherited many factors of Spain's decline, such as hedonism, lack of progress and fanatical religious persecution. Some scholars even think that engaging in luxury spice trade is the direct cause of Portugal's decline. Relatively speaking, Portugal has won a lot of wealth through foreign expansion and colonial development, but like Spain, it has not invested money in manufacturing and production, but has endless luxury consumption. Businessmen who made money from overseas colonization returned to China, mostly buying land to be feudal lords, and there was no so-called "bourgeoisie" at all.

In addition, the great voyage led to a large loss of Portuguese labor resources with a small population, and agricultural production was semi-paralyzed. Even meat, cabbage, eggs and other agricultural products need to be imported from abroad. Generally speaking, the decline and fall of Portugal is very similar to that of Spain. The only difference is that Portugal has not made many enemies in Europe. Because of its small territory and sparse population, it can only concentrate on its own colony. But it is a pity that the front line has been stretched too long, but it has lost a large number of people and it is impossible to reform itself. He did not invest his wealth in trade and industry, which led to his colony being replaced by a new generation of overlords, the Netherlands and Britain.