European Colonialism (HIST 1301 History)

EXCHANGE in EAST ASIA and THE INDIAN OCEAN HIST 1301 | History European Colonialism Bartolomeu Dias, the captain of a Portuguese ship, circumnavigated the southern tip of Africa in 1488, but he was forced to return due to discontent among his crew, preventing him from venturing farther into the Indian Ocean. After Portugal captured the Muslim town of Ceuta on the Moroccan coast in 1415, Dias was one of several Portuguese explorers who sailed into the Atlantic Ocean in the fifteenth century. Ceuta was situated at the terminus of caravan routes that traversed the Sahara Desert to transport West African gold. King Edward of Portugal gave his younger brother Henry—dubbed "the Navigator" by historians in the 19th century— permission to conduct exploration south of Cape Bojador on Morocco's northwest coast after taking the throne in 1433. Additionally, Edward granted Henry the right to any earnings from commerce with the areas that these explorers found. Henry funded expeditions along the African coast in an effort to discover the source of the gold in West Africa. The Portuguese moved slowly southward, setting up trade stations along the way. Lisbon saw the buying and selling of slaves in addition to gold, which was the primary commodity in commerce. Henry imposed a 20 percent tax on the commerce, using the proceeds to finance more expeditions. Following the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, Muslims controlled all known routes to the spices and other Asian items that Europeans sought. The Venetians and Genoese, who had been given commercial privileges by the Ottomans, had long been the focus of resentment among other Europeans due to their monopoly on the spice trade. There was now even more motivation to discover new paths to the Eastern regions. This is the reason Christopher Columbus set out into the Atlantic in 1492 to find a naval passage to India while working for Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain. The Treaty of Tordesillas, which Spain and Portugal signed in 1494 after Columbus landed in the Caribbean, affirmed Pope Alexander VI's decree that all non-Christian lands west of a line drawn 100 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa, which Portugal already claimed, belonged to Spain. Portugal was granted non-Christian regions east of the border. After circumnavigating the Cape of Good Hope, another Portuguese navigator named Vasco da Gama became the first European to sail all the way to India four years later. Da Gama landed in the port of Calicut (Kozhikode), in what is now the state of Kerala, in the southwest coast of India in 1498 after sailing north along the east coast of Africa and then across the Indian Ocean. In search of an all-water route to Southeast and East Asia—the region that produced spices, silks, porcelain, and other Asian goods—Da Gama had been to India. These kinds of luxury have been available to Europeans for generations, but they were costly. The quantity that could be transported to Europe was restricted by the need to transport them overland, and in addition, a number of middlemen had to handle them in order to go from their place of origin to their European customers. Eliminating these issues meant finding an all-water path to the source, and the country that succeeded in doing so stood to gain enormous wealth. To the envy of merchants worldwide, northern Italians, particularly the Venetians, had monopolised commerce with Asia before to the Portuguese expeditions. Da Gama intended to alter this. Da Gama was particularly interested in spices out of all the items he sought. They were utilised as components in medications in addition to being used in cooking, and their perfumes were used to cover up unpleasant smells. A little quantity of pepper and other spices might fit in the hold of this kind of Portuguese ship, known as a caravel, and yet bring in a sizable sum of money in Europe. There were several benefits to using a caravel. They were heavier armed, bigger, and more durable than the majority of the vessels that navigated the Indian Ocean. They were also comparatively swift and stable in rough waters. The commanders of the caravels barred entrance to Indian ports so that Arab and Persian merchants could not trade if Indian merchants refused to sell to the Portuguese at the cheap prices the Europeans established. Future voyages were prompted by Da Gama's achievement in reaching India and the value of the commodities he returned with. Pedro Alvares Cabral obtained trade agreements with the local kings of Cochin (Kochi) and Kannur, both in Kerala, and founded a factory, a trading station with offices and warehouses, at Calicut in 1500 to trade for pepper. Cabral ordered his forces to take control of Muslim commercial ships in the harbour, empty their contents, and set them on fire in order to destroy any competition. He then shelled the port. Six hundred Muslim seamen are thought to have perished. at retaliation for the attack on the Muslim traders, Indians assaulted the Portuguese factory at Calicut. When da Gama returned in 1502, relations between the Portuguese and the native kings did not improve. When the order to remove all Arabs from Calicut was not followed, he launched the same kind of bombardment on the city that Cabral had. The Portuguese attempted to divide and conquer by forming alliances with certain local rulers at the expense of others, a tactic made simpler in later decades by the Mughal Empire's decline. They thus established a pattern that they and other Europeans eventually reproduced throughout India. The zamorin, the hereditary king of Calicut, attacked Cochin in retaliation after the Portuguese formed an alliance with the Cochin ruler. The fleet that went once a year from Calicut to Egypt to trade spices for the zamorin was destroyed by the Portuguese as payback. The Portuguese also made an effort to boost their income starting in 1502, by requiring merchant ships operating in the Indian Ocean to carry a cartaz, a document emblazoned with the Christian cross. The Portuguese government also wanted to boost trade for its merchants in the ports it controlled by making ships travel to a Portuguese post in India in order to acquire one. The money paid for this document went into the Portuguese royal treasury. The cargo of ships that failed to transport the cartaz was confiscated, and those ships were sunk. The requirement to carry a passport with the Christian cross was opposed by Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu captains, and all non-Portuguese people were against Portugal's aspirations to control commerce in the Indian Ocean. A broad and strong coalition of adversaries came together to oppose these Portuguese attempts in order to save their economic interests. The Muslim traders of Calicut and the Hindu zamorin of Calicut looked to Egypt for assistance when his fleet of spice ships was destroyed. Not only was that territory under the authority of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt at the time, but also most of the Arabian Peninsula and the Levant, or larger Syria. (The Mamluks were a renowned band of warriors who had been held as slaves before they overthrew the Abbasid caliphate and came to dominate Egypt.) This region was the epicentre of the spice trade with Europe in the early sixteenth century, which had been conducted by Venetian merchants at the port of Alexandria before to the Portuguese arrival in India. Venice responded to the request for help from Egypt's Sultan AlAshraf Qansuh al-Ghawri by sending ships and artillery. Simultaneously, motivated by the intention of opposing the Muslims residing in the Indian Ocean, the Portuguese ruler dispatched a fleet to India. Portuguese ships and Egyptian ships under the command of the Mamluk sultan engaged in combat at the harbour of Chaul on the west coast of India in 1508. The Mamluk fleet was too severely wounded to pursue, and despite the loss of the Portuguese captain and his flagship in the engagement, the rest of the Portuguese fleet managed to evacuate to the port of Cochin. A joint Egyptian-Gujarati-Calicuti fleet was soundly destroyed by the Portuguese in 1509 at the port of Diu, one of the principal ports of the Sultanate of Gujarat. Although the Portuguese did not seize possession of Diu, the Muslim merchants in the city gave them permission to open a trade station there in exchange for a sizable sum in gold. In the years that followed, the Portuguese seized control of more land in India, including the western coast city of Goa. Portugal dubbed its possessions in the Indian Ocean the Portuguese State of India, with Goa serving as its capital. When Portuguese troops, traders, and sailors arrived in these ports, Jesuit missionaries went with them and started converting the local Indian population to Roman Catholicism. Lower-class Hindus who sought to rise in society by converting to Portuguese religion converted to the Portuguese faith, despite the fact that the majority of Indians continued to practise Islam or Hinduism. In the same way that some earlier generations of merchants may have thought it prudent to convert to Islam in order to conduct business with the Portuguese, some may have also thought that they might do business with the Portuguese by becoming Roman Catholics. Once again taking advantage of conflicts among native monarchs, the Portuguese also acquired converts and supporters on the island known to them as Ceilão, or Ceylon in English (modern-day Sri Lanka). After his brother, the monarch of Sitawaka, an ally of Calicut, was slain in 1551, the Buddhist heir to the throne looked to the Portuguese for support in retaining his position. Along with building a fort on Ceylon, the Portuguese also converted a portion of the populace —including the new king of Kotte—to Roman Catholicism. As a result, the king of Portugal inherited Kotte's realm after the former monarch passed away. In the War of the League of the Indies, Muslim rulers of the Deccan Plateau teamed up with the zamorin of Calicut, the king of Sitawaka, and the sultan of Aceh (Indonesia) in 1565 to try to drive out the Portuguese once more. They also appealed to the Ottoman Empire for assistance. The Ottomans were prevented from taking part in the Ottoman Fleet's aid because they had to put down uprisings on the Arabian Peninsula and fight the city-state of Venice. This helped offset Portuguese domination of the seas. European settlers from other countries were inspired to search for their fortunes in the Indian Ocean by tales of the incredible wealth of Portugal and India. The British East India Company (also known as the English East India Company or the East India Company) was given a monopoly on commerce in the Indian Ocean by Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1600. As a joint stock business, the British East India business allowed a number of merchants to pool their funds to finance trading expeditions and split the earnings. Few people could afford the huge financial investment needed for an expedition to India, and even those who could risk losing everything they had in the event of a failed mission. None of them had to risk everything they possessed by pooling money. East India joint stock corporations were also established by Dutch and French traders. France fought England and Portugal for control of India's riches, while the Dutch concentrated mostly on the Indonesian islands. Charles II of England leased Bombay (now Mumbai) to the British East India Company in 1661 after receiving it as part of his Portuguese bride Catherine of Braganza's dowry. In response, France opened a commercial post in 1668 in Surat and others in the years that followed. Indian traders who were looking for fresh investment prospects outside of the subcontinent frequently formed partnerships with Europeans. The Bengali Mughal governor raised levies on English commerce in the area in 1685. In addition to refusing to pay, the British East India Company attempted to remove the Mughals from power. English ships interfered with Mughal trade and the movement of Muslim pilgrims en route to Mecca by blockading Mughal ports on India's west coast. In retaliation, the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb took custody of the company's assets and started a blockade of Bombay in 1689, which effectively starved the English into submission. Before their trade licences were restored, company officials were required to pay a sizable fee. The Mughals looked to the French for support as they sought to thwart English advance. France and Britain, who were already trading competitors, were involved in a battle in North America in 1754 for sovereignty of the continent. French and Indian War, as it was originally known, quickly extended to Europe, where hostilities started in 1756. Indian armies and fleets fought against other as part of the Seven Years' War, a conflict that is now known worldwide. France formed a coalition with the Mughal Kingdom. The king of Bengal was under pressure from the French, who had increased their trade with the area significantly, to assault the British Fort William close to Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1756. The British retaliated the next year, winning the Battle of Plassey against French and Bengali soldiers, paving the way for unhindered British commerce in Bengal. The French post of Pondicherry was destroyed by the British in 1761 (Puducherry). After years of conflict between the Mughals and the Marathas, as well as with Afghan invaders and approaching Europeans, both groups had grown weaker, and minor northern Indian provinces broke away from their dominion and acknowledged British authority in return for recognition of their claims to power. The ensuing confusion aided the British in their attempt to take over India. In this fashion, the British progressively took over India through a mix of military conquests, alliances, and the exploitation of pre-existing splits amongst the country's kingdoms and rulers.