Page 195 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

1972 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

although Andeans, armed with clubs, deployed like heightened the threat to Spanish America.Technological
Spaniards in massed formations that provided concen- and tactical developments in Europe were often mirrored
tration of force and firepower. in the Americas, but many American campaigns included
Portuguese colonization of Brazil began in 1500.The guerrilla-style tactics as well as the fixed ranks character-
combination of disease, weapons technology, and tactics istic of battle on the European peninsula. Small perma-
ensured the defeat of yet another group of indigenous nent American garrisons were often supplemented by
Americans. Concerned about French forays into Brazil, militia units that also quelled internal rebellions.
Portuguese King João III redoubled colonization efforts British forces captured the Caribbean port city of Por-
in the 1520s. A final French incursion into present-day tobelo, in present-day Panama, immediately following the
Rio de Janeiro was ejected by 1567. Latin America was outbreak of the War of Jenkins’s Ear between Britain and
divided between the overseas empires of Spain and Spain in 1739.This conflict became enveloped in the War
Portugal. of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748).The heavy for-
tifications of Cartegena de Indias, in present-day Colom-
Latin America in the Wars bia, withstood a British siege in 1741. Another British
of the Colonial Powers squadron cruised the Pacific coast of Spanish America
Spain and Portugal were concerned about preserving and then crossed to the Philippines.There it captured the
their American colonies and especially the bullion wealth annual Manila galleon, outbound from Acapulco and
that they produced, just as their rivals were interested in loaded with silver bullion, interdicting for the only time
gaining access to them. Although it was not a major the- the world’s first global trading network.
ater of operations during the Thirty Years War (1618– During the Seven Years War (1754–1763) Spain
1648), England and Holland at times carried the war to pushed Portugal out of Uruguay and went on to capture
the Western Hemisphere. Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state in present-day
Armed ships of the Dutch East India Company for- Brazil. Britain captured Havana, Cuba, by taking the har-
ayed into the Pacific in 1614.That foray spurred improve- bor fortifications from the landward sides.Also falling to
ments to fortifications of key Spanish harbors. Dutch and British power was Manila, which prior to 1821 was
English activities in the Caribbean resulted in like efforts administratively subordinate to Mexico City. Spain ceded
there. Dutch incursions into Brazil were eventually Florida to Britain in exchange for Havana’s return. Spain
ejected, and the Dutch capture in 1641 of Luanda, also received all French territory west of the Mississippi
Angola, was soon reversed, removing the threat to the River in North America, but at the price of the ejection of
transatlantic slave trade that had become the principal its French ally from the continent. Portugal later reestab-
source of Brazilian plantation labor. The defensive pos- lished its town of Colônia in Uruguay but lost it again
ture assumed by the Iberian powers was for the most part during the war that led to the independence of the United
successful, although a Dutch squadron captured a Span- States (1776–1783). Spain provided monetary support
ish treasure fleet off Cuba, and weakly defended Spanish to the rebels in North America and launched a successful
Jamaica was lost to England. campaign against the British that recovered Florida.
The European powers fought a series of wars around
the world throughout the eighteenth century, and the Rebellions and
wealth of the Americas remained a central concern. Por- Independence Struggles
tugal had gravitated into an alliance with Britain at the The Bourbon kings of Spain implemented political
turn of the eighteenth century. The War of the Spanish reforms that included heightened tax burdens on Ameri-
Succession (1701–1713) placed a French Bourbon can subjects. Animosity increased between American-
prince on the Spanish throne. Expanding British power born white Spaniards and those born on the Iberian