Source Collection: Imperial Expansion, Competition, and Resistance
Document 1
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Author |
Nzinga Mbemba (c. 1456–1542 or 1543) |
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Date and location |
1526, Kingdom of Kongo (modern-day Angola) |
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Source type |
Primary source – letters |
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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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Citation |
The African Past: Chronicles from Antiquity to Modern Times, translated by Basil Davidson. Little, Brown, 1964. |
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… and so great, Sir, is the corruption and licentiousness that our country is being completely depopulated… 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.
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Glossary Convenient: easily used for someone’s needs, purposes, or comfort |
Document 2
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Author |
Joan Maetsuycker (1606–1678) |
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Date and location |
1650, Dutch Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka) |
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Source type |
Primary source – memoir |
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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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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. Ross Cottle, Govt. Printer, 1927. |
Control of the cinnamon lands] was... accomplished... through the conclusion of the treaty between us and the Portuguese... We have committed to lower officers the civil and judicial administration of these... totaling at the present moment 962 strong. In addition to the aforementioned Singhalese militia, the Hon’ble Company has at present in this Island... not fewer than 1,426 Dutch soldiers…
Your Excellency should all the more pay attention to this point as there are many among us who regard [the indigenous people] 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 in good quality and quantity as in this Island of Ceylon, and the obtaining of which commodity is above all recommended... For the peeling of the cinnamon a certain class of people of this Island has been set apart... 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... rooting out heathenism, and checking the consuming canker of the Mohammedan heresy…
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Glossary Hon’ble: a contraction (shortening) of the word “honorable” |
Document 3
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Author |
Pedro Naranjo and a Spanish scribe |
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Date and location |
1680, Pueblos of modern-day New Mexico and Arizona |
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Source type |
Primary source – testimony |
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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. |
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Citation |
Hackett, Charles Wilson, and Charmion Shelby. Revolt of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Otermín’s Attempted Reconquest, 1680–1682. The University of New Mexico Press, 1942. |
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...
As soon as the Spaniards had left the kingdom an order came from the said Indian, Pope... 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. He said that this is the legitimate cause and the reason they had for rebelling…
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,...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,... 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.
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Glossary Rosaries: strings of beads used by many Catholics to count prayers and show their devotion |
Document 4
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Author |
Anonymous British official |
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Date and location |
1708, England |
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Source type |
Primary source – state report |
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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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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. 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 |
‘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…
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 Teeth 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.
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…
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Glossary Depreciate: to lower the value of something |
Document 5
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Author |
Thompson, Andrew |
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Date and location |
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Source type |
Secondary source |
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Description |
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Citation |
Thompson, Andrew. “Imperial Globalization – The Presence of the Past and the Crucible of Empire.” Published on March 2, 2014 by CIGH Exeter https://imperialglobalexeter.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/colonial-trade-routes.jpg |
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Glossary Crucible: A physical container used for mixing metals at high heat; can also describe a time and place where great change begins |
Document 6
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Author |
Unknown |
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Date and location |
Sixteenth-century, South America |
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Source type |
Primary – illustration |
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Description |
Sixteenth-century Aztec drawings of victims of smallpox. |
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Citation |
Michael B. A. Oldstone. Viruses, Plagues, and History: Past, Present and Future, Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 60. |
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Glossary Viruses: tiny infectious germs that cause diseases in humans, animals, and plants |
Document 7
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Author |
Olivier Landone |
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Date and location |
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Source type |
Map – secondary source |
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Description |
Map showing the flow of goods and enslaved people across the Atlantic between Europe, Africa and America in the triangular trade between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. |
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Citation |
Landone, Olivier. “Transatlantic Triangular Trade Map.” Horgan, John "Columbian Exchange." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified May 19, 2022. https://www.worldhistory.org/Columbian_Exchange/. |
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Glossary Transatlantic: connecting societies across the Atlantic Ocean |