EUROPEAN EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA (Western Colonialism)

At the end of the fifteenth century, technological developments in shipbuilding and the search for new commercial markets and spices combined with unique configurations of crusade, curiosity, and adventure to take Europeans across the Atlantic. Christopher Columbus’s (14511506) four voyages of discovery are the most famous of these explorations, and their motivations and characteristics were continued and developed throughout the sixteenth century across the South American continent.

When Columbus caught sight of land (which he named San Salvador) in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, he believed that he was close to Japan and a valuable westward route to the spice trade of Asia. He subsequently sailed on to Cuba and Hispaniola, naming and recording his brief encounters with native people before hurrying back to Spain to register his discoveries with the Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand II (1452-1516) and Isabella (1451-1504). By the time of the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) with Portugal, Columbus was already on his second voyage, during which he discovered the destruction of his settlement of Navidad on Hispaniola by native people. Columbus returned to Spain in 1496 to defend himself against the complaints of bitter colonists whose dreams had yet to be realized. Columbus’s third voyage (1498-1500) took him to Trinidad and the fresh water delta of the Orinoco River, which he speculated might lead to the Earthly Paradise in a vast new continent (it was Amerigo Vespucci [1454-1512], following in Columbus’s wake, who received the credit for formulating this idea). In 1500 Pedro Alvars Cabral (14681520) landed on the Brazilian coast near Porto Seguro in Bahia on Portugal’s follow-up voyage to Vasco da Gama’s (1460-1524) successful sea voyage to the Indian Ocean. On his fourth voyage (1502-1504) Columbus’s mystical and religious leanings thrived on his bitterness at ill-treatment by his colonists. He traced the coastline of Central America from Honduras down to Panama, on the way being captured by native people. He escaped. By now Columbus was more interested in millenarian prophecies of using New World gold to finance a crusade on Jerusalem than in augmenting his own personal fortune.

After Columbus’s death in 1506, exploration of the circum-Caribbean was fuelled by two factors: the desire to capture more Indian labor to replace those native people who died of disease or abuse, and the adventurous instincts of Spanish men hoping to make their fortunes in the New World. Puerto Rico was conquered in 1508, Jamaica in 1509, and Cuba in 1511. Juan Ponce de Leon (1460-1521) discovered Florida in 1513. These islands provided the basis for further explorations. In 1513 an expedition was sent out from Spain under Pedrarias Davila (1440-1531) to conquer the Isthmus of Panama. A survivor of an earlier slave-raiding expedition in 1509, Vasco Nunez de Balboa (1475-1519), crossed the isthmus first and claimed the waters of the Pacific Ocean for the Catholic monarchs in September 1513. Davila quarrelled with Balboa and had him executed.

In this engraving (circa 1521), the Italian-born explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, (1454—1512) for whom the American continent was named, stands at the bow of his ship, surrounded by fantastic sea creatures and deities.

Once begun, discovery and conquest developed their own momentum. Hernan Cortes (1484-1547) came to epitomize the bold fortune hunter. Diego Velazquez (1465-1524), governor of Cuba, sent out two expeditions to explore the coast of Mexico in 1517-1518. In 1519 Cortes took advantage of the findings of these expeditions by launching the conquest of what he came to label New Spain, without authorization from Velaazquez. During the next three years Corteas dedicated himself to the conquest of the empire ruled by Montezuma II (1466-1520) from the great city of Tenochtitlan. Cortes exploited, and was himself used by, pre-existing conflicts between native people. He launched major military campaigns against those who opposed him. At the same time he wrote Cartas de relacion to Charles V (1500-1558) back in Europe, appealing over the heads of colonial officials for recognition of his extralegal conquests. Cortes’s example further heightened the momentum of adventure, ambition, and exploration. Pedro de Alvarado (1485-1541), who had served under Cortees, spent ten years in the conquest of Guatemala and El Salvador before reaching expeditions sent up from Panama by Davila. Francisco de Montejo (1479-1553) attempted the conquest of the Yucatan in 1527, which was resisted by the Maya until their rebellion was violently suppressed in 1542.

Panama was the base for exploration of the Pacific and, eventually, the discovery and conquest of Peru. Francisco Pizarro (1475-1541) and Diego de Almagro (1475-1538) obtained permission to this end from Davila in 1524. Returning after repeated difficulties, Pizarro was convinced that he could found a personal empire on the wealth of the rumored kingdom of the South. In 1530 he set out from Panama with about 180 men. Using Cortes’s dealings with Montezuma as a model, in 1532 Pizarro captured the Inca emperor Atahualpa (1502-1533) and exploited the subsequent stumblings of the Inca empire to manipulate local factions and grievances. Atahualpa was executed in 1533.

Pizarro entrusted the exploration of the northern provinces of Quito to Sebastian de Benalcazar (14951551). He had to compete with a rival expedition under Pedro de Alvarado (1485-1541) who arrived from Guatemala. During the 1530s Benalcazar progressed north into the Cauca Valley. Near the capital of the Chibcha, Bogota, he encountered two expeditions that had traveled down from the Caribbean coast, led respectively by Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada (1495-1579) and Nikolaus Federmann (1505-1542). The groups avoided armed confrontation, and their combined findings encouraged belief in the existence of a city of gold, El Dorado, which would itself act as the spur to further explorations of New Granada and Venezuela. The consolidation of European rule in Peru foundered on rival claims to wealth and political influence. Further south, Pizarro’s attempt to build a personal empire for his family and descendents was resisted by rebellions led by the Inca heir Manco Inca Yupanqui (1516-1545) during 1536-1539, and by his own bitter subordinates. Civil war between the followers of Almagro and Pizarro in 1537 and 1538 ended with Almagro’s execution and a subsequent chain of bloodletting that encompassed Francisco Pizarro who was killed in 1541. In the same year his brother, Gonzalo (1502-1548), led an expedition from Quito, the consequence of which was Francisco de Orellana’s (1490-1546) discovery and navigation of the river he named the Amazon because of the female warriors who attacked him during the exploration.

In addition to the Amazon, the New World provided a new lease of life for medieval legends including golden cities, fountains of youth, paradise on earth and, of course, great wealth. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (1490-1560) survived an 1528 expedition to Florida and journeyed overland until he reached Mexico City in 1536. His stories inspired other adventurers to explore new lands; Cabeza de Vaca himself later journeyed through the Brazilian interior to Paraguay, where he was briefly governor of Asuncion (1542). In 1540 Francisco Vasquez de Coronado (1510-1554) explored New Mexico and Arizona in search of the mythical Seven Cities of Cibola, traversing through Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Another of Pizarro’s men, Hernando de Soto (1500-1542), sought his fortune in 1541 on an expedition through Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana, leading to the discovery of the Mississippi River. Francisco Pizarro’s advances led to many subsequent expeditions using Peru as a base. Pedro de Valdivia (1498-1553) left Cuzco in 1540 and after crossing the Andes and the Atacama Desert, founded Santiago de Chile in 1541. Valdivia was killed in battle with the Araucanians in 1553.

On the Atlantic coast, Portugal was distracted by its efforts on the route to India during the first half of the sixteenth century, but it began to explore and settle in Brazil to ward off potential French competition during mid-century, triggered by the exploratory voyages of the French Breton sailor Jacques Cartier (1491-1557). The Jesuit order was fundamental in collaborating with royal government to establish a strong central government in Brazil. The lack of immediate financial returns was a further reason delaying settlement and conquest on the Atlantic seaboard. Further south, the River Plate estuary was explored by Spanish adventurers in the hope that it might provide Columbus’s long-hoped-for passage to Asia. Juan Diaz de Solis (1470-1516) explored in 1516 and Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) four years later. Unsuccessful, Magellan travelled south in search of such a passage and in November 1520 discovered the straits that led him into the Pacific.

While desire for gold and silver was important, explorations were also orientated by dreams of power and social advancement, shaped by encounters with indigenous people, and developed their own momentum through the influence of charismatic figures such as Columbus, Corteas, and Pizarro, whose efforts were recorded and relayed throughout the new colonial world. But if exploration had only been motivated by plunder it would not have happened at all. While Columbus may have been a self-styled discoverer, the likes of Cortes and Pizarro looked beyond the short-term in the hope of establishing permanent settlements from which they and their families could extract permanent honor, influence, and wealth. The spread of religion was also an important factor in the configuration of exploration. In difficult moments Columbus and Corteas revealed their millenarian and crusading inspirations. Chivalric tradition is particularly evident in conquistador writings, and the desire to bring Christianity to the heathen must not be discounted from the encounter between Old and New Worlds, no matter how much it was besmirched by the often grubby and violent nature of physical conquest. Myths and legends suffused the exploration of South America by Europeans. Whether there were claims that indigenous people welcomed them as returning gods or dreams of noble savages and cities of gold, exploration was closely linked to colonization, settlement, and conversion. Indeed adventure, exploration, and quests for honor through travel remained important themes through subsequent centuries. Exploration led inextricably to empire.