UNIT 3

The Diversified Caribbean in the

Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Debbie McCollin, PhD

Faculty of Humanities and Education,
The University of the West Indies,
St. Augustine
SESSIONS
Session 1:
Maritime Exploration and The Interlopers

Session 2:
Agricultural Change and the Emergence of
„King‟ Sugar

Session 3:
Labour Diversity and Demographic Change in
Caribbean „frontier‟ society
 UNIT OBJECTIVES
After completing this unit you should be able to:

1. Identify the factors that led to fifteenth and sixteenth

century voyages of exploration by Europeans;
2. Account for the various agricultural activities in the
Caribbean prior to the establishment of sugar cane;
3. Discuss the reasons why sugar cane became the dominant
plantation crop in the Caribbean by the seventeenth
century;
4. Trace some of the factors that contributed to the
complexity of Caribbean societies: its diversity, its
multinational beginnings and its earliest introduction to
globalisation by being integrated into a world economy.
SESSION 1
MARITIME EXPLORATION
AND THE INTERLOPERS
Objectives
On completing this session students should be
able to:

 discuss the reasons why Europeans

embarked on voyages of discovery in the
fifteenth century;

 evaluate the extent to which fifteenth

century voyages of discovery resulted in
local territorial wars and the establishment
of diversified economies in the Caribbean.
 THE AGE OF EXPLORATION:

The Reasons for Maritime

Exploration in the 15th Century
Ideological Influences: BULLIONISM
 Bullion- gold and silver

 the wealth of a nation

depended on the stores of
bullion that it physically held.

 A fixed amount of bullion in the world

 each state must secure as much bullion as
possible
 race to find bullion before another nation
Result:-
VOYAGES OF EXPLORATION
 to find new lands
 untapped reserves of bullion
 before other competing nations
 MERCANTILISM
 Extension of bullionism

 wealth not only physical stores of bullion

 the wealth of a nation depended on its

control of trade and markets
 Goals of Mercantilism:
 Develop trade systems and routes
find and conquer new lands and exploit their resources
for trade

 Protect new routes/systems from others

excluded other nations from engaging in trade with
newly conquered lands (create a monopoly)
 COLONIALISM
 formal political control of another‟s country

 wage military, intellectual and psychological

warfare in order to procure (and hold) the new
territory
Colonialism
 Mercantilism concepts justified colonialism
 need for more trade led to the conquering
and developing of new lands and territories

In the 16th and 17th centuries in the Caribbean

 military control by European nations
 forced to trade directly only with the
dominant metropolitan power
 Religion:
 Newly conquered lands = new flocks of converts

 Aim of voyages of exploration was the conversion

of indigenous peoples to Christianity

 Religious fervour high amongst the adventurers

 Technology Advances:

 Patrons of innovation and

exploration emerged
eg. Prince Henry, the Navigator,
son of the King of Portugal

 School for seamen and mapmaking

Technological Advances
 advances in nautical
technology
 improvements in ship
design and navigation =
larger ships travelling
further, faster and safer

 the invention of nautical

devices- the quadrant
(from about 1456)
 more accurate maps
 1492
 Spain had just completed a long war with the
Moors- so more resources for other ventures

 Columbus engaged in his voyages of exploration

 Brought New World to the attention of Europeans
 Destruction of the native people
 Increasingly a source of wealth for Spain
 Q? Perspectives:
 What do you think the rest of Europe
thought about Spain‟s newly found
lands?
European Nations‟ Perspective
 The rest of Europe saw the Caribbean as
opportunity to increase wealth and trade

 So region became the focus for other

powerful (and aspiring) European civilisations
Q? Spanish perspective
 What did Spain think about the attention
of the rest of Europe on her Caribbean
territories?
Spanish Perspective- Interlopers
 Spain saw these other nations as
uninvited guests or „interlopers‟ in „her‟
lands
Treaty de Tordesillas-Spain and Portugal
 1494 Pope Alexander VI to alleviate rivalry
 World divided into two
 between Spain and Portugal
 „Cockpit of Europe‟
 Caribbean became
known as „Cockpit of Europe‟

 “Cockpit” related to a popular blood

sport involving the use of male fighting
birds called „gamecocks‟. Two birds are
placed together into a small enclosed
arena where, upon seeing each other they
instinctively begin fighting to the death.
 Cockpit of Europe
 Wars over trade and territory in the
„cockpit‟ ie. Caribbean
European Methods of Attack
MOTIVATION: ECONOMIC

Privateering or Buccaneering
 Rather than set up own colony
 Could raid and capture Spanish
vessels laden with wealth bound for
Spain

 Organised their own expeditions into the

„New World‟
 seafaring in the Caribbean became
dangerous business
Illegal Trading
 Spain unable to send regular ships to her
colonies

 so Dutch, British and French began to trade

illegally with them

 provided goods and services to the needy

Spanish colonists

 disregarded mercantilist policies

Q?
 Spanish used the wealth of the Caribbean
to sponsor wars in Europe

 If you were Britain, France or The

Netherlands, what would be the best way
to stop this?
Eliminate source of wealth
MOTIVATION: POLITICAL

 Disrupt Spanish Caribbean trade

(destroy Spanish ships)

 disrupt Spanish wars in Europe

15th and 16th Century
Interlopers‟ Impact
 French, British and the Dutch (The
Netherlands)
 Rivalry- clashed with Spain and each other
 Many wars and conflicts
 Colonisation by different nations
 Diversified the Caribbean

 Spain‟s mercantilist policies broken

Summary- Section 1
 Reasons for involvement of European
nations in Caribbean-
- ideologies of the period- bullionism,
mercantilism, colonialism
- religion, technological advances

 First explorers and colonists- Spanish

 Interlopers- French, British, Dutch

 Motivations for and methods of disrupting

power of Spanish control of Caribbean
SESSION 2

Agricultural Change and the

Emergence of „King‟ Sugar
Objectives
On completing this session students should be
able to:

 discuss the role of European settlers in the

establishment of various agricultural
activities in the region;

 discuss the reasons why sugar cane emerged

as the dominant crop in the Caribbean by
the end of the seventeenth century.
Q?
 What did the Europeans come
looking for in the Caribbean?
Q?
 What did they find in abundance in
the Caribbean that could be used to
make money?
Why agriculture?
 the region failed to provide the quantities
of bullion required by the Europeans

 Thus the Europeans were forced to use

what they had- LAND- to generate
wealth
A Laboratory for Agricultural Experiments
 Initially –subsistence (little to export)
 Span tested crops to see if they would be
profitable

 small holdings, many small farmers

 mainly producing cotton and tobacco,
indigo, cocoa and ginger
 livestock for meat (animal pens)

Indigo dye
Cotton:
 plantations were small

 not enough produced to compete

 not a significant export market

 Tobacco:
 Markets were available- successful
 Barbados and St. Kitts (British- first successful)
 Clearing large tracts of land
 Indentured labour (usually white European) to
cultivate the crop
 Decline of Tobacco:
Competition from the Americas
 tobacco grown in the Caribbean was of
an inferior quality to that produced in the
Americas.
 Could not compete with the huge high
quality exports coming out of the
Americas
Cocoa- Spanish in Trinidad
 From mid 17th century- Spanish settlers
 significant cocoa industry developed and
thrived in Trinidad
 high quality cocoa
Decline of Cocoa:
 1725
 a disastrous series of deadly diseases that
destroyed the crops
 cocoa was no longer a viable export crop for
the island
 Rise of „King‟ Sugar
 Seen as viable
alternative

 early Spanish and

Portuguese industry
in the region

 Hispaniola
 Cuba
 Jamaica
Brazilian Influence
 Successful sugar industry in Brazil
 Portuguese, supported by Dutch

 generated large amounts of revenue

 large plantation system
 lots of capital, equipment, labour
(permanent)
Caribbean- An Alternative Site…
 the Dutch were expelled from Brazil
 chose to move production to Barbados in
1654

 the Caribbean area chosen to take over

from Brazil in lucrative sugar production
First major sugar producers:
Barbados and Jamaica
 Barbados- transformed into largest
sugar producer 1640-1660

 Jamaica
 1655- British captured prize island
 more fertile land
 by 1700 sugar became island‟s main
economy and took over position from
Barbados
Caribbean Sugar
 a hugely successful agricultural crop
 a ready market in Europe
 fetched premium prices on the worldwide
market.

 No further effort to diversify

Caribbean economy
Problem:
 highly labour intensive

 traditional labour sources in Caribbean insufficient

Summary- Session 2
 The development of plantation
agriculture

 Variety of crops that were grown

before sugar became „King‟
SESSION 3
Labour Diversity and Demographic Change
in Caribbean „Frontier‟ Society
Objectives

On completing this session students should be able to:

 discuss the various types of labour schemes used to

pursue agricultural activity in the region;

 identify and distinguish various levels of coercion used

within the different labour schemes and the reasons
why they existed;

 account for the transition to enslaved West African

labour.
 Neo-Indians as Labour
Encomienda System
 first large scale labour system
 Spanish settler granted a parcel
of land (encomandero)
 the right to exact tribute from
the Neo-Indians living on the
land (labour/crops/ both)
 in return expected to
christianise the neo-Indians and
protect them
 Given provisions
 Spanish more interested in
extracting as much labour as
possible
Audiencia
 Poor treatment = investigation by Spanish
crown
 mid-sixteenth century

 Audiencia (special court) was established to

- oversee the system
- stop genocide of the native people

 Ineffective as encomandoros took over

Audiencia
Q? Frontier Society
 What do you think of when you hear the
term „frontier society‟?

 What is meant by the word „frontier‟?

Frontier Society
 From a European perspective
 initial phase of colonisation
 the towns very rudimentary
 lacked many of the European amenities
 the threat of attack and conflict with the
neo-Indians
 White Indentured Labour
 Initial labour-
 young, white, poor, male
bonded servants from
England, Scotland and Ireland

 came under contract four to

five years

 Initially few females;

increased as settlements
grew
 White Indenture Conditions
 underfed and overworked

Punishment: were allowed to

 be whipped
 sentenced to death

 Result- high mortality rates

 Source of labour unsustainable and

unprofitable for sugar production
First Enslaved Africans
 First came from Spain in 1518
 called ladino
 spoke the Castillian language

 Small numbers
 Initially worked alongside white
indentured labourers
Enslaved Trade of West Africans
 With rise of sugar needed large amounts of
labour
 Racist ideas about West Africans
 labour was deemed best suited
- low cost
- believed to be lacking souls

 Note: not new idea- to prevent genocide of

Neo-Indians in 1540s, the Dominican Friar
Bartholomew de las Casas had suggested
this form of labour for the „Indies‟
THE TRADE BEGINS…
 1549
 legalisation of the trade for imported
enslaved Africans to labour on plantations
in the Caribbean
 Triangular Trade develops
 primarily between Europe, Africa and North American
colonies and the sugar colonies of the Caribbean.
Summary- Session 3
 examined the various attempts to find
appropriate sources of labour for the
agricultural activities

 attempted to account for the failure of some

of these efforts

 examined issues of white indentured labour

 and the introduction of West African slave

labour