Source Collection: Imperial Expansion, Competition, and Resistance
Source Collection: Imperial Expansion, Competition, and Resistance c. 1450 to 1750
Compiled and annotated by Eman M. Elshaikh, additional edits by Terry Haley
This collection explores how empires changed and expanded during this period, and also how they were challenged by other empires and their own subjects. It represents the voices of European colonial officers, as well as the voices of Indigenous people, both colonized people and European peasants, showing how empire touched the lives of people all over the globe as various empires sought to extend their reach.
Introduction to this collection
This collection explores how empires changed and expanded during this period, and also how they were challenged by other empires and their own subjects. It represents the voices of European colonial officers, as well as the voices of Indigenous people, both colonized people and European peasants, showing how empire touched the lives of people all over the globe as various empires sought to extend their reach.
Guiding question to think about as you read the documents: What were the causes and effects of imperial expansion from 1450 to 1750?
WHP Primary Source Punctuation Key
When you read through these primary source collections, you might notice some unusual punctuation like this: . . . and [ ] and ( ). Use the table below to help you understand what this punctuation means.
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ELLIPSES words … words |
Something has been removed from the quoted sentences by an editor. |
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BRACKETS [word] or word[s] |
Something has been added or changed by an editor. These edits are to clarify or help readers. |
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PARENTHESES (words) |
The original author of the primary source wanted to clarify, add more detail, or make an additional comment in parentheses. |
Contents
Source 1 – Nzinga Mbemba’s letters to King John III of Portugal, 1526 (0:55)
Source 2 – Memoir Joan Maetsuycker, 1650 (4:55)
Source 3 – A Memento for Holland, 1652 (9:40)
Source 4 – Pedro Naranjo’s Narrative of the Pueblo Revolt, 1680 (11:30)
Source 5 – Report on Trade to Africa, 1708 (17:15)
Source 6 – The Edicts of Pugachev, 1773–1774 (21:10)
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Source 1 – Nzinga Mbemba’s letters to King John III of Portugal, 1526 (0:55)
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Title Nzinga Mbemba’s letters to the King John III of Portugal |
Date and location 1526, Kingdom of Kongo (modern-day Angola) |
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Source type Primary source – letters |
Author Nzinga Mbemba (c. 1456–1542 or 1543) |
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Description Nzinga Mbemba, also known as King Afonso I, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo from 1509 to 1542. In his letter to Portuguese King John III, Mbemba pleads with King John to intervene and prevent Portuguese merchants from continuing their harmful practices. |
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Key vocabulary remedy wares voracious keenly |
desirous vassals licentiousness sacrament |
Guiding question
What were the causes and effects of imperial expansion from 1450 to 1750?
Excerpt
Sir, Your Highness should know how our Kingdom is being lost in so many ways that it is convenient to provide for the necessary remedy, since this is caused by the excessive freedom given by your agents and officials to the men and merchants who are allowed to come to this kingdom to set up shops with goods and many things which have been prohibited by us, and which they spread through our Kingdoms and Domains in such an abundance that many of our vassals, whom we had in obedience, do not comply because they have the things in greater abundance than we ourselves. …
And we cannot reckon how great the damage is, since the mentioned merchants are taking every day our natives, sons of the land and the sons of our noblemen and vassals and our relatives, because the thieves and men of bad conscience grab them wishing to have the things and wares of this Kingdom which they are ambitious of, they grab them and get them to be sold; and so great, Sir, is the corruption and licentiousness that our country is being completely depopulated, and Your Highness should not agree with this nor accept it as in your service. And to avoid it we need from those Kingdoms no more than some priests and a few people to teach in schools, and no other goods except wine and flour for the holy sacrament. That is why we beg of Your Highness to help and assist us in this matter, commanding your factors that they should not send here either merchants or wares, because it is our will that in these Kingdoms there should not be any trade of slaves nor outlet for them. Concerning what is referred to above, again we beg of Your Highness to agree with it, since otherwise we cannot remedy such an obvious damage, Pray Our Lord in His mercy to have Your Highness under His guard and let you do forever the things of His service, I kiss your hands many times.
Many of our people, keenly desirous as they are of the wares and things of your Kingdoms, which are brought here by your people, and in order to satisfy their voracious appetite, seize many of our people, freed and exempt men, and very often it happens that they kidnap even noblemen and the sons of noblemen, and our relatives, and take them to be sold to the white men who are in our Kingdoms; and for this purpose they have concealed them; and others are brought during the night so that they might not be recognized. …
Citation
Paiva-Manso, Visconde de. Historia de Congo. In The African Past: Chronicles from Antiquity to Modern Times, translated by Basil Davidson. Boston: Little, Brown, 1964.
Source 2 – Memoir Joan Maetsuycker, 1650 (4:55)
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Title Memoir Joan Maetsuycker |
Date and location 1650, Dutch Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka) |
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Source type Primary source – memoir |
Author Joan Maetsuycker (1606–1678) |
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Description Traders who travel by water see great value in certain islands, and Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka) was a money- maker for whoever controlled it. Dutch Ceylon existed from 1640 until 1796 and was established by the Dutch East India Company, founded in 1602. Joan Maetsuycker was the Governor of Ceylon during the Dutch period in Ceylon and Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1653 to 1678. Naturally, he supported Dutch colonial settlements because they were very profitable. In this excerpt from his memoir, he describes the Dutch’s fight to control the island, which meant competing with the Portuguese, indigenous rulers, and Muslim merchants. |
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Key vocabulary wares aforementioned |
heathenism canker |
Guiding question
What were the causes and effects of imperial expansion from 1450 to 1750?
Excerpt
… The Portuguese, who, having established themselves in Colombo [in Sri Lanka] since the year 1518 and being inflamed by the taste of the profits which the Island afforded, sought to enjoy them peaceably. … In which condition they continued till the year 1638 … when, in the month of May, Admiral Adam Westerwolt … who was returning from the blockade of Goa, landed in the Island … [and] captured the fortress of Batticalo from the Portuguese. …
[Control of the cinnamon lands] was finally accomplished in 1645, both as regards this and the Negombo districts, through the conclusion of the treaty between us and the Portuguese at Goa. … We have committed to lower officers the civil and judicial administration of these districts in all minor matters of daily occurrence and have also placed under them the Singhalese militia divided under their Araches or chiefs … totaling at the present moment 962 strong. In addition to the aforementioned Singhalese militia, the Hon’ble Company has at present in this Island, both here and in Negombo, not fewer than 1426 Dutch soldiers. …
… [F]or our greater peace and security, we have ordered for some time past that all the chiefs … should reside and maintain themselves within the fortifications, … In addition to this means of securing the chiefs, we have always. endeavored to bind them to the Hon’ble Company by favors, and most of them, especially the most important of them, are so well provided for at present that they have no cause to desire another Government.
Your Excellency should all the more pay attention to this point as there are many among us who regard them with prejudice, maintaining that these black dogs, as they insultingly and none the less unchristianly call them, should not be allowed to enjoy so many favors and honors. …
… [T]he cinnamon, which is found nowhere else in the world in the same good quality and quantity as in this Island of Ceylon, and the obtaining of which commodity is above all recommended to Your Excellency. For the peeling of the cinnamon a certain class of people of this Island has been set apart called Chjalias, a despised people among the inhabitants but to be made much of by us owing to the profits which they bring the Honorable Company and the fact that no cinnamon can be obtained except through them, wherefore they are provided with good holdings and maintenance.
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We have established a certain number of schools in these districts with the object of propagating the Christian doctrine among the inhabitants, promoting God’s glory and the salvation of the souls of the poor folk (whereby the Company’s position is at the same time assured), rooting out heathenism, and checking the consuming canker of the Mohammedan heresy. …
Citation
Maetsuycker, Joan, Jacob van Kittensteyn, and E. Reimers. Memoir of Joan Maetsuycker: President and Commander-in-Chief Delivered to His Successor, Jacob van Kittensteyn, on the 27th of February 1650. Ceylon: Ross Cottle, Govt. Printer, 1927.
Source 3 – A Memento for Holland, 1652 (9:40)
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Title A memento for Holland: or A true and exact history of the most villainous and barbarous cruelties used on the English merchants residing at Amboyna in the East-Indies |
Date and location 1652, London |
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Source type Primary source – pamphlet |
Author James Moxon (1627–1691) |
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Description During the seventeenth century, the Dutch East India Company and English East India Company were major rivals. They often accused each other of violence, piracy, and other crimes. One famous incident is the Amboyna Massacre of 1623. The British claimed that people from the Dutch East India Company tortured and killed dozens of English, Japanese, and Portuguese men in present-day Ambon, Indonesia. This was after an unfair trial. This conflict intensified the rivalry over the spice trade in South and Southeast Asia. This story is hard to corroborate, and it started from a suspected conspiracy and grew into a massacre. The English printed pamphlets and posters decrying this violence. This source is an illustration featured in one of these pamphlets which was printed by James Moxon. It is unclear whether Moxon was the author or just the printer. |
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Guiding question
What were the causes and effects of imperial expansion from 1450 to 1750?
Excerpt
Citation
A Memento for Holland or A True and Exact History of the Most Villainous and Barbarous Cruelties Used on the English Merchants Residing at Amboyna in the East-Indies, by the Netherland Governor and Conncel [Sic] There. Wherein Is Shewed What Tortures Were Used to Make Them Confess a Conspiracy They Were Never Guilty of; by Putting Them on the Rack, and by a Water Torture, to Suffocate Them; and by Burning Them under Their Arm Pits, and Soals [Sic] of Their Feet, till Their Fat by Dropping Extinguished the Candles. London: James Moxon, 1652.
Additional materials
For further reading and primary sources, see Clulow, Adam. “The Amboyna Conspiracy Trial.” Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, 2016 (https://amboyna.org/) and Games, Alison. Inventing the English Massacre: Amboyna in History and Memory. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Source 4 – Pedro Naranjo’s Narrative of the Pueblo Revolt, 1680 (11:30)
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Title Pedro Naranjo’s Narrative of the Pueblo Revolt |
Date and location 1680, Pueblos of modern-day New Mexico and Arizona |
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Source type Primary source – testimony |
Author Pedro Naranjo and a Spanish scribe |
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Description This source—an excerpt from the testimony of political prisoner Pedro Naranjo—was documented at a time when Indigenous people who lived in the southwest region of North America had come under Spanish colonial rule. The Spanish forcibly relocated people into new settlements and forced them to convert to Christianity. They also forced them into labor. In 1680, the Pueblo people revolted against Spanish soldiers and missionaries, destroying Churches and other colonial property. It is notable as history’s most successful Indigenous American revolt against European empires. They achieved freedom for a decade, but ultimately would lose their territory in 1690. Naranjo was an imprisoned rebel. When he was interviewed about the revolt and asked what motivate him and his people, the narrative of his testimony was documented in this way. |
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Key vocabulary signify prematurely baptismal sacraments sorcerers |
rosaries idolatry maize calabashes |
Guiding question
What were the causes and effects of imperial expansion from 1450 to 1750?
Excerpt
Asked whether he knows the reason or motives which the Indians of this kingdom had for rebelling … and why they burned the images, temples, crosses, rosaries, and things of divine worship, committing such atrocities as killing priests, Spaniards, women, and children … he said … they have planned to rebel on various occasions through conspiracies of the Indian sorcerers. … Finally, in the past years, at the summons of an Indian named Pope who is said to have communication with the devil, it happened that in an [Indian temple] of the pueblo of Los Taos there appeared to the said Pope three figures of Indians … They gave the said Pope to understand that they were going underground to the lake of Copala. … They told him to make a cord … and tie some knots in it which would signify the number of days that they must wait before the rebellion. He said that the cord was passed through all the pueblos of the kingdom so that the ones which agreed to it [the rebellion] might untie one knot in sign of obedience, and by the other knots they would know the days which were lacking. … The said cord was taken from pueblo to pueblo by the swiftest youths under the penalty of death if they revealed the secret. Everything being thus arranged, two days before the time set for its execution, because his lordship had learned of it and had imprisoned two Indian accomplices … it was carried out prematurely that night, because it seemed to them that they were now discovered; and they killed religious, Spaniards, women, and children. This being done, it was proclaimed in all the pueblos that everyone in common should obey the commands of their father whom they did not know, which would be given through … Pope. … As soon as the Spaniards had left the kingdom an order came from the said Indian, Pope, in which he commanded all the Indians to break the lands and enlarge their cultivated fields, saying that now they were as they had been in ancient times, free from the labor they had performed for the religious and the Spaniards, who could not now be alive. He said that this is the legitimate cause and the reason they had for rebelling. …
Asked for what reason they so blindly burned the images, temples, crosses, and other things of divine worship, he stated that the said Indian, Pope … ordered in all the pueblos through which he passed that they instantly break up and burn the images of the holy Christ, the Virgin Mary and the other saints, the crosses, and everything pertaining to Christianity, and that they burn the temples, break up the bells, and separate from the wives whom God had given them in marriage and take those whom they desired. In order to take away their baptismal names, the water, and the holy oils, they were to plunge into the rivers and wash themselves with amole, which is a root native to the country, … with the understanding that there would thus be taken from them the character of the holy sacraments. … They thereby returned to the state of their antiquity … that this was the better life and the one they desired, because the God of the Spaniards was worth nothing and theirs was very strong, … [Pope] saw to it that they at once erected and rebuilt their houses of idolatry … living thus in accordance with the law of their ancestors, they would harvest a great deal of maize, many beans, a great abundance of cotton, calabashes, and very large watermelons and cantaloupes; and that they could erect their houses and enjoy abundant health and leisure.
Citation
Hackett, Charles Wilson, and Charmion Shelby. Revolt of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Otermín’s Attempted Reconquest, 1680–1682. Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico Press, 1942.
Source 5 – Report on Trade to Africa, 1708 (17:15)
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Title Report on Trade to Africa |
Date and location 1708, England |
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Source type Primary source – state report |
Author British official |
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Description The British Royal African Company had a monopoly on trade in West Africa. In the late seventeenth century, independent traders were permitted to trade in the region alongside charter companies, which were commercial organizations that were given special privileges by the state (Great Britain). The Council of Trade investigated trade in the region, reporting on British interests and holdings. The report shows the mercantilist ideas and goals of the British at this time. |
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Key vocabulary alleged depreciate vessels |
joint stock charter company |
Guiding question
What were the causes and effects of imperial expansion from 1450 to 1750?
Excerpt
‘Tis alleged by the Company that the Natives enjoy the whole benefit of the Trade taking advantage of different Traders to advance the Prices of Negroes and their own Goods, and to depreciate our [Merchandise], and they say the Price of Negroes … is now about £10 per Head in [Africa] whereas it was formerly not above three pounds. …
They believe Negroes are not so dear1 in those places where the Separate Traders do not interfere with the Company, as on the Coast of Angola, Calabar and other places towards the Cape of Good Hope. …
The Company [claimed] that the French had built a fort … within [gunshot] of theirs, but … the Company [could not] oppose the Doing it without Engaging in a War with that King …
It is hard to make a true Value of Imports either by the Company or Separate Traders on regard such Imports consist mostly of Gold as well as Elephants Teeth2 and Red wood, and it is yet the more difficult to come near the Truth thereof on the part of the Separate Traders, for that most of the Masters of their Vessels bring home their private adventures in gold.
It cannot be doubted but a Trade so very profitable in itself, and so absolutely necessary for the support of the Plantations, ought to be preserved and put on such a foot that it may be carried on and improved to the full extent.
It may reasonably be apprehended should this Trade be confined to a Company by a joint Stock exclusive of all others that such Company will contract the Trade within the gold Coast or such narrow Limits in [Africa] as may best turn to their own Profit without Regard to the good of the Plantations or of the Public which may be presumed from the ways of their having carried it on for the time Past.
It will of consequence very much to lessen the Number of Ships now Employed in the Trade, to the great [discouragement] of our Navigation, for since there has been an open Trade, the separate Traders have sent three Ships for one employed by the Company.
Should so extensive a Trade be confined to an Exclusive joint Stock, the Plantations may suffer for want of sufficient number of able Negroes at reasonable Rates, those Markets being best supplied where there are most Sellers. …
Citation
“America and West Indies: January 1709.” In Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies: Volume 24, 1708-1709, edited by Cecil Headlam, 193-214. London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1922. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol24/pp193-214
1 dear means valuable in this context
2 Elephant’s teeth: tusks, made of valuable ivory.
Source 6 – The Edicts of Pugachev, 1773–1774 (21:10)
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Title The Edicts of Pugachev |
Date and location 1773, Russian Empire |
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Source type Primary source – decree |
Author Yemelyan Pugachev (c. 1742–1775) |
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Description Many of history’s rebels take power by deposing the king, but Yemelyan Pugachev simply claimed to be Emperor Peter III, who had actually died. This source excerpts some of the decrees Pugachev issued during his two-year, self-appointed “reign”—for he was ultimately captured and executed in 1775. Pugachev’s Rebellion, also called the Cossack Rebellion, of 1773–75 was a major revolt in a series of popular revolts against Empress Catherine II of the Russian Empire. Peasant unrest and war with the Ottoman Empire made this particular rebellion initially successful. He set up an alternate government in the territory between the Volga River and the Urals. Notably, Pugachev proclaimed an end to serfdom, a system of forced labor. |
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Key vocabulary autocratic sovereign decree edict endowed henceforth |
bounteous aforementioned Cossack Kalmyks Tartars |
Guiding question
What were the causes and effects of imperial expansion from 1450 to 1750?
Excerpt
THE EDICTS OF PUGACHEV
No. I. The First Edict of Pugachev, 17 September 1773
Of the autocratic Emperor, our great sovereign Peter Fedorovich of all the Russias, etc., etc., etc. as you, my friends, have served former tsars to the [last] drop of your blood, [like] your fathers and grandfathers, so you will serve me, the great sovereign emperor Peter Fedorovich, for your fatherland. Moreover, when you will resist for your fatherland, your Cossack glory will not expire from now either in your lifetime or with your children. You, Cossacks, and Kalmyks and Tartars, will be rewarded by me, the great sovereign. … I bestow on you: the river from the heights to the mouth, and land, and meadows, and money payment, and lead, and powder, and grain supplies. …
No. 5. Edict of Pugachev of 1 December 1773
… after they have served, I will leave nobody without reward for their services. … I have already endowed you all with this reward: land, fishing rights, woods, hives, beaver hunting rights and other advantages, also freedom. Moreover, I promise with the authority given to me as if from God, that you will henceforth suffer no oppressions.
And whosoever does not give any regard to my bounteous charity, such as: landlords, these breakers of the law and general peace, evildoers and opponents of my imperial will, deprive of all life, that is, punish them with death, and take their homes and estates as a reward.
And since the possessions and riches of those landlords, also their food and drink, are at the expense of the peasants, thus they have enjoyment, and you hardship and ruin. …
And whosoever receives this my gracious decree in his hands, he should immediately send it from town to town, from settlement to settlement, and explain the mercy afforded by me to all mankind. …
No. 6. Edict of Pugachev to the Peasants. 31 July 1774
… With this personal decree we bestow with our monarchical and paternal generosity all those formerly in the peasantry and subject to the landlords, be true slaves to our crown, and we reward you with the old cross and prayer, heads and beards, freedom and liberty, and they may be Cossacks forever, without demands for recruit levies, poll and other money dues, possession of lands, woods and meadows and fishing rights, and salt lakes without tax and payment and we free all from the evils caused by nobles and bribe-taking town judges of the peasants, and taxes and burdens placed on all the people … which we have tasted and suffered from the aforementioned villainous nobles exile and considerable poverty. …
… [T]hose who were formerly nobles in their estates, these opponents of our authority and disturbers of the empire and destroyers of the peasants catch, execute, and hang and treat in the same way as they, not having Christianity, have dealt with you, the peasants. With the eradication of these opponents and villainous nobles, each may feel peace and a quiet life, which will continue forever.
Citation
Bridges, R.C., Paul Dukes, J.D. Hargreaves, and William Scott, eds. Nations and Empires: Documents on the History of Europe and on its Relations with the World since 1648. London: Macmillan and Co, Ltd., 1969.
Additional materials
Alexander Pushkin recounted the events of the uprising in his novel The Captain’s Daughter (1836).
Eman M. Elshaikh
Eman M. Elshaikh is a writer, researcher, and teacher who has taught K-12 and undergraduates in the United States and in the Middle East and written for many different audiences. She teaches writing at the University of Chicago, where she also completed her master’s in social sciences and is currently pursuing her PhD. She was previously a World History Fellow at Khan Academy, where she worked closely with the College Board to develop curriculum for AP World History.
Image credits
This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0 except for the following:
Cover: The execution of Emilian Pougatchiff in Moscow Jany. 10th 1775, a pretender to the throne in the reign of Catherine the 2nd (printed ca. 1865). © HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.