Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
By the middle of the 16th century con-
tracts had been assigned to slave traders
operating along the west coast of Africa.
Most of these traders were Portuguese who
drew upon their connection with African
rulers in the interior of the continent. Their
captives were brought to the so-called Slave
Coast and sold there to traders, who deliv-
ered them to the American colonies. With
the deterioration in Spain's relations with
Portugal these arrangements had broken
down by the late 1600s, after an estimated
800,000 enslaved persons had been deliv-
ered to the markets of America.
The asiento was transferred to France
during the early 1700s and then to Britain
as part of the settlement made in 1713 at
the conclusion of the W AR OF THE S PANISH
S UCCESSION . Although the asiento had pre-
viously included various concessions of
the right to provide commodities such as
tools, clothing, and weapons in addition to
slaves, English traders illegally ignored the
fact that their asiento rights were limited to
conveying African slaves. Many of them
smuggled a wide range of goods into Span-
ish colonial waters, and by the 1730s
Anglo-Spanish disputes led to actual war-
fare between the two countries (1739). At
various times, specifically in the later 18th
century, the term asiento was also applied
to the right granted to various individuals
and companies, some foreign some Span-
ish, to extract and transport certain cate-
gories of natural resources from Spain's
American colonies. These included pre-
cious metals, coral and other marine
resources, tobacco, herbs, sugar, and cer-
tain types of wood.
A series of temporary concessions was
followed by the general decline of slavery
in the New World growing out of the spread
of enlightened ideas. With the collapse of
the Spanish-American empire in the 1820s
and international agreements to eliminate
the slave trade, the asiento system was at an
end in 1834, although slavery within the
surviving colonies of C UBA and P UERTO R ICO
remained legal until 1875.
Asturias
A picturesque mountainous region of
northwestern Spain made up of some 4,000
square miles, Asturias's chief claim to fame
is her dramatic resistance to the Moorish
invasion that swept over the peninsula in
the early eighth century. Almost alone
among Spanish Christians in the first years
of the Muslim conquest, Asturias, under
the noble warrior Pelayo, routed the intrud-
ing armies, who turned aside to seek easier
prey. Pelayo and his victory at the Battle of
Covadonga (718) became an iconic inspira-
tion for the subsequent 700-year-long
R ECONQUISTA . Asturias, a small kingdom,
was eventually absorbed into L EÓN and
then into C ASTILE . In 1838 she was redesig-
nated as the administrative district of
Oviedo (her principal city). The proud
Asturians have, however, continued to
assert their own identity, notably in the coal
miners' revolt in 1934, crushed by the Sec-
ond Republic, and in the resistance to the
Franco forces during the S PANISH C IVIL W AR .
Poets and other intellectuals insist upon the
status of Asturian as a separate language
and contribute to its distinctive literature.
Since the late Middle Ages the title prince
of Asturias has been borne by the heir to
the throne of Castile and then of Spain. In
May 2004 Philip, Prince of Asturias (heir to
King J UAN C ARLOS ) married Letizia Ortíz, a
native of Asturias.
 
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