Colonization of America (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain everything about the colonization of America, the occupation of the territory by the European powers and their main characteristics.

What was the colonization of America?

The colonization of America was a historical process of appropriation and occupation of the territory inhabited by American native peoples by European settlerson behalf of the Spanish crown and the great European powers. This process began with the arrival of the first Spanish navigators in 1492 and ended with the American independence wars of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.

The main beneficiaries of the colonization of America were the Spanish Empire, the Portuguese Empire and, subsequently, the British Empire, the Kingdom of France and the Netherlands. There were also minor colonization initiatives by Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Italy and Scotland.

The conquest of America, which preceded the colonization period, which was a period of clashes between Spanish invaders and the different native populations. It was a short -term process, in which the Kingdom of Spain seized a large number of territories, from the north to the south of the continent.

After the conquest, the Spanish crown organized the occupied territory with the aim of continuing domination, extending its empire and exploiting the resources of the new continent. To do this, they initiated the colonization process, in which They founded cities, installed permanent population and created an administrative system and government authorities that, as a whole, is known as colonial domination system.

Key points

The colonization of America was a long -term process that began at the end of the fifteenth century and culminated in the 19th century.
During the colonization, the European kingdoms submitted to American populations and destroyed their ways of life.
The Spanish Empire was the one that created the largest colony in America; He was followed by the British Empire, the Portuguese, the French and the Dutchman.
In the colonies, a social differentiation of classes based on racial discrimination was established.
The main consequences of colonization were the death of millions of Native Americans for the violence of the colonizers, the introduction in the continent millions of enslaved African people and the enrichment of European kingdoms from the exploitation of American resources.

The conquest prior to the colonization of America

The Spaniards submitted American native societies before colonizing the territory.

Since the end of the 15th century and during the 16th century, the Spanish crown seized, through the use of force, a large portion of the American territory and submitted native populations. To do this, the Kingdom of Spain financed military expeditions of conquest formed by “Hidalgos” (Spanish nobles of little fortune) that sought to obtain prestige and wealth.

During the conquest of America, the Spaniards faced native societies that had different political, economic and social organizations. In this process, the occupation of Mesoamerica was key – where the Aztec Empire was located – and the conquest of the Andean region – in which they submitted to the Inca Empire. In both cases, the Spaniards seized authority and destroyed the imperial organization.

In other regions of America, where nomadic or semi -were inhabited, the conquest was a more slow and difficult process. They were populations that had not been controlled by other American cultures and that could resist European domination for much longer. Such is the case of Araucanos and the South American Pampas.

To explain the triumph of Europeans over American societies, specialists highlight different reasons:

Arms. The Spaniards used firearms, steel swords, metal armor and fought on horseback, which gave them technical superiority in armament over native populations, which mostly used arrows and spears with stone tips, and protected the body with leather hearts.
Diseases. Europeans introduced, without knowing it, microbes that produced diseases before non -existent in America and expanding as epidemics between native populations.
Rivalries The conquerors took advantage of the rivalries that existed between the different American populations and allied with the peoples dominated by the great empires to defeat them.

The demographic catastrophe in the colonization of America

The conquest and colonization processes had as its main consequence an abrupt fall of the American population, known as the “demographic catastrophe of America.” It is estimated that they died near seventy million American native people during the 16th century.

Among the main causes are:

Wars against European conquerors, especially Spanish.
The violent treatment of the Spaniards in the submission of the population.
The epidemics of smallpox, measles and flu, which especially affected the American population, which had no natural defenses.
The conditions of labor exploitation imposed on the natives, especially in the extraction of minerals (gold and silver).
The famine caused by the decrease in food production, caused by the forced mobilization of population groups in the new colonial economic system.
The destructuring of the social and family organization nuclei, which caused a decrease in the birth rate of the American population.

Slavery

The slave trafficking was a transatlantic trade organized by European merchants.

When conquering the territories, the colonizing Europeans needed to establish the economic bases for life in the new colonies. In the first occupied areas (in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean Islands), the settlers organized plantations, for which they needed labor. Due to the demographic catastrophe of the American native population, labor was scarce, so the Spaniards decided to resort to slave labor. Over time, Slave labor became one of the fundamental bases of the colonial economic system.

Slaves were captured in Africa, transferred to America and sold as goods. This transatlantic slave trade was a business in which European merchants (especially Portuguese, English and Dutch) and African leaders, who took prisoners of enemy populations and sold them as slaves to European merchants as slaves. The slaves were stripped of all kinds of rights and were subject to the will of their owners, the European settlers.

It is estimated that between the 16th and 19th centuries about ten million people were captured in Africa and enslaved in America. It was in the 18th century when the greatest amount of slaves was traded. The African regions most affected by the trafficking of transatlantic slaves were Senegambia, Sierra Leone, Costa de Barlovento, Costa del Oro, the Gulf of Benin, the Gulf of Biafra and the central-western region of Africa.

The European occupation of the American continent

The colonization of America was carried out by different European states, which competed with each other for the control of the resources and territories of the continent. The occupation of the American territory was given as follows:

The Spanish colony. The first and most extensive of all, occupied most of the territory of the current Latin America, from the Río de la Plata to Mexico, including part of the Caribbean and the Antilles. This territory was divided into four great viceroyalties: the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the Viceroyalty of Peru, the Viceroyalty of New Granada and the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata.
The Portuguese colony. It covered the territory that Brazil occupies today. It was divided into fifteen captains of almost 250 kilometers wide each, granted in a vital and hereditary manner to Portuguese nobles who were in charge of their commercial exploitation. However, in 1549 the king appointed a general governor for the entire colony.
The British colony. He strengthened in North America in competition with the French, with thirteen colonies formed through successive waves of immigrants and their black slaves between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. After beating France in the seven-year war (1756-1763), the English managed to dominate almost the entire territory of northern America. They also had influence in the Antilles and the Caribbean.
The French colony. It was installed in North America, more specifically in Quebec and other territories of the current Canada. Also in important coastal stripes of what is now the United States and some islands of the Antilles. Many of these Antillean colonies ended up forming with population of African origin, following the colossal movement of slave labor.
The Dutch colony. It was quite minor compared to the others, but had important settlements in North America (the current New York was initially a new Dutch Amsterdam), Brazil and Las Antilos Minors (Curacao).

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Some areas of difficult access, such as the Amazon jungle, the Austral Patagonia, the Great Chaco and the deserts of northern Central America, could not be controlled by Europeans for centuries.

The Spanish colonial system

The Spaniards were the European power that colonized most of the American territory. His empire covered from the Mesoamerican region in North America to the Patagonian region of South America. To carry out an effective occupation of the territory, the Spanish crown ordered the foundation of cities, with the aim of creating a network that connected all its domains in the continent and allowed to ensure its control against other European nations.

The colonial government was organized with the following system of authorities:

King. It was the highest colonial authority and resided in Spain.
Council of the Indies. It was the Spanish institution that dealt with preparing the laws that ruled in America. In addition, it worked as the highest court of justice and proposed the designation of Spanish and religious officials in America.
Hiring house. It was the agency that directed American commercial activity and controlled trade between America and Spain.
Hearings They were the Spanish courts of justice residing in America, and were in charge of controlling the work of the colonial authorities in the continent.
Viceroyes. They were the direct representatives of the king in America. They exercised executive, legislative and military functions for the Viceroyalty Government.
Governors and general captains. They were local authorities, subordinated to the viceroy. The governors administered the provinces in which the viceroyalty and general captains were divided controlled the border areas, where a greater military defense was necessary.
Cabildos They were the municipal agencies that dealt with the government of the cities.

The American economy of the Spanish colony was organized around the exploitation of economic resources, through different productive systems that had as a basis the labor of indigenous workers and African slaves. The main economic interest of the crown was the extraction and appropriation of gold and silver, which were sent to Spain. For mining activity, indigenous labor was used.

On the other hand, To support colonial activity, agriculture, livestock and manufacturing production for the American domestic market were promoted. For that, the property of the land was organized in plantations (specialized in a single crop and with slave labor), haciendas (which supplied the mining regions with food and goods of basic necessity) and stays (with livestock in large extensions of land, slave labor and day laborers).

The myth of “El Dorado”: The excessive ambition of the Spanish conquerors, who used to be walking citizens looking for their fortune in the Americas to return to an improved position in Europe, often led them to believe in legends of uncertain origin with respect to cities made all of gold, silver and other wealth. These imaginary cities were called “El Dorado” by the indigenous people, and many expeditions were lost following their supposed trace in the jungles of the Amazon.

The expansion of the Catholic Church

From the beginning of the conquest and colonization processes, The Spanish crown received support from the high hierarchy of the Catholic Church. In 1493, Pope Alejandro IV granted the Catholic Monarchs the “right” to conquer American lands.

In addition, in the following decades, they obtained the Patronato de Indiaswhich was a special permit to administer the creation of the Catholic Church in America, appoint bishops and collect tithing (the 10 % tax for the Church). In exchange for this, the kings had the duty to evangelize the Native Americans, defend the Catholic faith, hold the clergy and build churches.

Thus, the Catholic Church played a fundamental role in the conquest, as a moral and cultural element of the Spanish imposition on the American peopleswhich justified the use of violence as a mechanism of forced conversion.

Only in 1537, the papal bull Sublimis Deuspromulgated by Paulo III, said that the natives were human beings and had a soul (this was under discussion among some European intellectuals). Therefore, they had the right to freedom and to receive a Christian education. However, they were considered as children and the legal status of minors were attributed to them, so they could not make decisions and should be under the protection of the Spaniards. In practice, this meant the prohibition of enslaving American indigenous people, but, in turn, determined their political subjection to Spanish conquerors.

Colonial class society

The social organization established by European colonizers was markedly racist, as it was based on ethnic distinctions for the recognition of people’s rights. This was so in the colonial organization of the territories occupied by the different European states.

Thus, in the Spanish colony, society was stratified based on ethnic differences. In addition, it was hierarchical (certain groups had greater privileges than others) and rigid (it did not allow social mobility from one group to another). It was divided into three social groups, categorized by its ethnic origin and activity:

White They were the upper stratum of colonial society and had all privileges: they did not pay taxes, they could not be hit, they had a differentiated education and monopolized all positions of power, government and authority. It was a minority formed by the nobility and the clergy.
Indians. The whites distinguished the indigenous elite (the leaders of the American societies before the arrival of the Spaniards) and gave him a differentiated treatment, with the aim of guaranteeing the work of their populations. The elite should take care of organizing the payment of the tribute, and the indigenous mass was subject to mandatory work, so that it became the labor that supported the colonial society in the production of food and manufactures, transport and mining exploitation.
Blacks The transatlantic slave trade generated that a large percentage of the population of colonial America was originally from sub -Saharan Africa. Slaves had no freedom, but were merchandise that could be bought and sold by their owners, and were prohibited from learning trades or receiving education. They were used for the forced labor of plantations and domestic tasks.

Important: Beyond this categorization, In reality there was a process of miscegenation. The children of white and black people were called mulattos; to those of black people with indigenous, zambos. In the seventeenth century, social differentiation in castes was established, which categorized people according to the percentage of white, indigenous or black blood.

Discussions on the colonization of America

The term *discovery* To refer to the arrival of Columbus to America, it has been widely questioned.

There are positions found regarding the way of calling the conquest and colonization of America. Indigenist and aboriginal memory movements fight in favor of visibility and recognition of the Massacre of the native peoplesagainst concepts such as “the meeting of two worlds” or “the day of the race.”

Expression has been questioned discovery of America To refer to the arrival of Columbus in America in 1492because there were already societies that inhabited the continent. Therefore, we should not talk about a discovery, but about a conquest and subsequent colonization.

On the other hand, The use of the concept of genocide To refer to the death of the millions of Native Americans during the conquest processes and colonization. There are those who refuse to use this term because they argue that Europeans had no intention of annihilating the natives and most deaths were caused by disease. Instead, other specialists postulate that they should talk about genocide because Colonization implied the systematic exploitation of indigenous communities and their destruction when they resist submission.

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References

Ackermann, Me, Schroeder, MJ and others. (2008). “1450 to 1750” and “Africa and The Slave Trade”. Encyclopedia of World History. Vol II. Facts on File.
Leonard, TM and Francis, JM (2010). “The Atlantic World in the Age of Conquest, 1492-1560”, “The Spanish Atlantic in the Age of Conquest”, “Economy”, “Conquest” and “Native America”. Encyclopedia of Latin America. Facts on File.
Magdooff, H., Nowell, CE and Webster, RA (2023). “Western colonialism”. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/