Colonisation
Hudson explored the new world. What a guy.
Northeastern passage didn’t work
In 1605 the Spice islands were conquered in the east indies. Ie. the moluccas. By the dutch.
They get nutmeg and shit
Then they get Batavia on Java. Today’s Jakarta.
Melacca is also a major establishment by the dutch. They stole Melacca from the Portugese.
Lots of dutch colonies in India also stolen from the Portugese.
The dutch were also in Taiwan, but were kicked out by a local ruler called Koxinga. Or Zheng Chenggong, Guoxingye.
They were also allowed to go to Deshima in Nagasaki.
The dutch also conquered cape colony in 1652.
They colonised new holland and new zealand, ie australia, new guinea and new zealand. Abel Tasan does this. Names Tasmania.
Piet Hein fonded the Silver Fleet in 1628 in order to fight the spanish. Privateering.
Gradually the dutch also declared war on Spain, and claimed the Dutch Antilles from that.
The Dutch still own many of these islands.
They also conquered parts of Brazil for a while. The Portugese eventually took them back.
They lost the new netherlands to England.
In British Guyana there were Flemish people I guess. The market of Georgetown is named after a municipality near Antwerp.
British particularities
Started off with colonisation quite slowly. Began with colonising Ireland using Plantations. The experience of colonising the irish led to new skills of English colonisation that came in the later decades.
Started competing with the Dutch, then the French, and then the Germans.
Most British settler colonies sent their entire families.
British also had the industrial revolution. Pretty good for them.
The British also shifted from luxury goods like the Dutch and went for mass-producing articles. They were more about conquering markets than creating monopolies. They were able to produce much cheaper textiles than everyone else, so could just conquer a market by trade rather than by force.
John Cabot in 1497 found Newfoundland. 5 years after Columbus.
Francis Drake found California.
Francis Drake also started doing privateering.
Henry Morgan in 1660s became the first governor of Jamaica after also having been a piratre.
Jamaica was five times more profitable than British north america. The brits didn’t care that much about north america. Caribbean planters were able to 8x the normal slave cost because the labour was so desperately needed at the plantations and made SO much money.
Jamestown was formed for tobacco.
They conquered new amsterdam and made new york.
Quakers formed a bunch of love cities.
All the 13 colonies were founded independently of each other, but later become BNA.
East India company had only 1/10th of the VOC
Cromwell ruled England and expanded the English naval fleet. Doubled in a decade. He also issued a number of acts restricting foreign ships from trading with England and its colonies. So only English ships could trade with english colonies.
Then they had a bunch of Dutch navigation wars.
17th century was Dutch, 18th century was English
France
We speak of two French colonial empires.
Whilst the UK fought over the oceans, France dominated continents. 2X larger size, and 3x larger population than UK.
Had little colonial interest often. Was more about prestige and trade. In indochina and Algeria there was quite a bit of colonisation, but it is generally true about most of France’s colonies.
At the same time as Hudson, Quebec was established.
Saint Domingue/Haiti, became very profitable.
Bengals was the most fertile region of India, everyone wanted trade posts there.
Austrian Ostend company, sent many ships to China.
The Seventy Years War 1744-1815
It’s not a widely accepted term. This is a collection of wars that is grouped together because they were with the same countries.
Starts with Austrian wars of succession and ends with napoleonic wars.
The second hundred years war also.
First part: nine years war, spanish succession war, and austrian succession war.
France occupied Madras but gave it back to Britain cause it was too much work.
Britain gained minorica and Gibraltar from Spain, and Acadia from France.
Second part: Seven years war, american independence war and napoleonic wars.
The Seven Years war is kind of the first world war because it was fought in all the colonies as well.
France and Austria fought. Britain had the largest navy and Prussia had the largest land force.
900 000 – 1.4m deaths.
Change in the balance of power.
Britain and Prussia became dominant.
The Britain fortified Calcutta in the context of a european war but did not consult the bengal nawah. He wanted to demonstrate his strength and so conquered Calcutta. The brits then succeed in reconquerin it in 1757.
Clive supports new and dependent Nawah, and the old is defeated at the battle of Plassey. Marks British conquest of Bengal.