England Triumphs Over Spain and Portugal

[PoliticalChic]

Why was America English instead of Spanish, or Portugese?

Today....that will be made clear.




1. When the age of imperialism began, every nation had the opportunity to be 'Number One.' In fact, early betting would have chosen Spain or Portugal as the ultimate empire builder: most are familiar with the Spanish Armada, a symbol of naval might.


2. Far fewer realize that little Portugal was, in fact, first.
"The [Portugese colonial] empire spread throughout a vast number of territories that are now part of 53 different sovereign states. It was the first global empire in history.Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries it was only matched in size by the Spanish Empire.... Portuguese sailors began exploring the coast of Africa in 1419, using recent developments in navigation, cartography and maritime technology such as the caravel, in order that they might find a sea route to the source of the lucrative spice trade. In 1488,Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1498,Vasco da Gama reached India.
In 1500, either by an accidental landfall or by the crown's secret design,Pedro Álvares Cabral discovered Brazil..."
Portuguese Empire - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia


a. Visit the nightclubs of Portugal, and one is exposed to the exquisite music called 'Fado.'
Many claim that the sadness in the music can be traced to the loss of empire, of its imperial majesty.....

Listen to the tears:








Why does the above say that Portugal's claim to Brazil was "either by an accidental landfall or by the crown's secret design"?
Here's why:

3. While all of Europe bowed to the Pope, Catholic nations benefited materially. In 1494, the Pope divided all of the yet-to-be-discovered world between Spain and Portugal. "TheTreaty of Tordesillas.... signed at Tordesillas (now in Valladolid province,Spain) on 7 June 1494 and authenticated at Setúbal,Portugal, divided the newly discovered lands outsideEuropebetweenPortugalandSpain..."
Treaty of Tordesillas - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

At this point, all of the territory west of the mid-Atlantic should belong to Spain.



So....at this point in the story....America, it would seem, would belong to Spain....

 

[Moonglow]

Well at least you can cut and paste...

 

[PoliticalChic]

Well at least you can cut and paste...

Sad that you can't read.

 

[PoliticalChic]

4. It would be a mistake to ascribe England's ascendancy to the Protestant religion, to Henry's wresting control from the Pope. As is always the case, technology played a major role.


a. "William Levett(ca. 1495 – 1554) was an English clergyman. An Oxford-educated country rector, he was a pivotal figure in the use of theblast furnaceto manufacture iron. With the patronage ofthe English Crown, furnaces inSussexunder Levett's ownership cast the first ironmuzzle-loader cannonsin England in 1543,a development which enabled England to ultimately reconfigure the global balance-of-power by becoming an ascendant naval force."
William Levett Rector of Buxted - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia




5. "One of the first large convents seized by Henry VIII was turned into an armory.....a parish priest pioneered the art of casting iron cannons. Until then bronze was preferred because iron tubes had a nasty habit of blowing up in gunner's faces. But English iron did not, probably because Sussex ore was rich in phosphorous and low in sulfur.....cast iron's greater rigidity to make longer barrels that imparted more range and velocity to cannon balls....Henry VIII began mounting cannons on the ships of England's first sailing fleet."
McDougall, "Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History: 1585-1828," p.30-31



a. "King Henry VIII has been credited by some as being the father of the English navy because he started the conversion of the clumsy tubs into effective fighting craft. His special drastic innovation came in 1514, when he introduced heavy cannon into the hold of theGreat Harry, having holes cut in the sides of the ship so that the cannon could be fired against the enemy ship. .... may have marked the beginning of the broadside, which became the principal naval force for more than four centuries." Historic Ships

 

[PoliticalChic]

6. But 'one swallowdoes notmake a summer,' so, as advanced as Henry's warships were, they didn't, 'rule the waves.'


So, the inventers of capitalism, the English, still had to rely on the earlier Intercursus Magnus, a treaty with Spain.

"The Intercursus Magnus was a major and long-lasting commercial treaty signed in February 1496 by Henry VII of England[1]and Philip IV, Duke of Burgundy..... The treaty granted reciprocal trade privileges to English and Flemings and established fixed duties.

[5]These certainties greatly aided English export of wool, and thus both Henry VII's treasury[6]and Flemish and Brabantine industry,[7]whilst also providing freedoms to the Hollandic and Zeelandic fisheries."
Intercursus Magnus - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia



So the English continued the status quo....but that didn't mean that they sat on their hands....

 

[konradv]

a. "William Levett(ca. 1495 – 1554) was an English clergyman. An Oxford-educated country rector, he was a pivotal figure in the use of theblast furnaceto manufacture iron. With the patronage ofthe English Crown, furnaces inSussexunder Levett's ownership cast the first ironmuzzle-loader cannonsin England in 1543,a development which enabled England to ultimately reconfigure the global balance-of-power by becoming an ascendant naval force."
William Levett Rector of Buxted - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

No kidding? Government aided in the development of what was essentially a commercial empire!!! Do the libertarians know about this?

 

[PoliticalChic]

a. "William Levett(ca. 1495 – 1554) was an English clergyman. An Oxford-educated country rector, he was a pivotal figure in the use of theblast furnaceto manufacture iron. With the patronage ofthe English Crown, furnaces inSussexunder Levett's ownership cast the first ironmuzzle-loader cannonsin England in 1543,a development which enabled England to ultimately reconfigure the global balance-of-power by becoming an ascendant naval force."
William Levett Rector of Buxted - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

No kidding? Government aided in the development of what was essentially a commercial empire!!! Do the libertarians know about this?

No, private enterprise, not government....

7. Ecclesiastes 1:9 "...there is nothing new under the sun."


And that applies to the way commerce was handled then just as it does to the way it is handled now.



Just as China has made leaps in advancing its technology, by industrial espionage, so England advanced in a similar fashion.


Sixteenth century English merchants ordered their merchants to purchase or steal maritime intelligence from the Iberians, French and Dutch.
And they did.

One pilot returned from Seville with a copy of Spain's textbook for sailors. It was translated in 1561 as "The Arte of Navigation, and was "one of the most decisive books ever printed in the English language. It held the key to the mastery of the sea."
"The Art of Navigation in England in Elizabethan and Early Stuart Times," by David Watkins Waters, p.104

 

[PoliticalChic]

Next, this illegality......privateers!


8. Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) as Queen of England, daughter of Henry VIII, and Anne Boleyn, changed English maritime history by copying the French:

She "encouraged the development of this supplementary navy.
"Over the course of her rule, she had "allowed Anglo-Spanish relations to deteriorate" to the point where one could argue that a war with the Spanish was inevitable.

By using privateers, if the Spanish were to take offense at the plundering of their ships, Queen Elizabeth could always deny she had anything to do with the actions of such independents. ....In the late 16th century, English ships cruised in the Caribbean and off the coast of Spain, trying to intercept treasure fleets from the Spanish Main."
Privateer - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia




The title of the thread, 'Why was America English instead of Spanish, or Portugese?'


Privateers, naval superiority, cannons, nor commerce....none of these are the answer.

Care to guess as to the explanation?

 

[PoliticalChic]

'Why was America English instead of Spanish, or Portuguese?'

The answer: the English used the Common Law to end the powers of the Treaty of Tordesillas.


9. One of Elizabeth's captains, Privateer Francis Drake, captured some half million pounds sterling in Spanish bullion, making the world note the English maritime reputation. The Spanish protests resulted in the first legal opinion that impacted colonialism.

Elizabeth responded as follows:

" The Spaniards have brought these evils on themselves by their injustice towards the English, whom, contra ius gentium, they have excluded from commerce with the West Indies [that is America].

The Queen does not acknowledge that her subjects and those of other nations may be excluded from the Indies on the claim that these have been donated to the King of Spain by the Pope, whose authority to invest the King of Spain with the New World she does not recognise. . .
.
This donation of what does not belong to the donor and this imaginary right of property ought not to prevent other princes from carrying on commerce in those regions or establishing colonies there in places not inhabited by the Spaniards. Prescription without possession is not valid."
"The Elizabethans and America," by A. L Rowse, p. 31-32



So much for the Treaty of Tordesillas: possession alone confers ownership!

Common Law: why America was English, rather than Spanish.