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1. IntroductionThe term “colonial rivalry” denotes the competitive struggle for hegemony in Europe and other regions of the world, conducted by the European states, following their “discovery” of America (America, Discovery of) and in the course of the European expansion that followed it (Expansionism) by means of the acquisition of colonies and the construction of colonial empires. It is a phenomenon specifically of European early modern history: although non-European states such as China (see C…

When Martin Luther, making his translation of the New Testament (1522), rendered the “ magi ab oriente” (“magi from the Orient”) in the Nativity story (Mt 2,1) as “Weise vom Morgenland” (“wise men from the morning-land”), he cannot have known that he was coining a term that would continue to be used in Germany for the next five hundred years. In geographical terms, “Morgenland” thus originally denoted the regions to the east of the biblical Holy Land, but it soon came to refer, like “Orient” in other European languages, to whatever lay in the direction of the “rising sun” (Latin:  oriens) f…

Tordesillas, a small Spanish town on the Duero in the Castilian Meseta, gave its name in 1494 to one of the most important early modern treaties in the context of European imperialist expansionism and the emergence of the Atlantic world.In 1493, immediately after Christopher Columbus returned from his first voyage, on which he believed he had reached the Indies beyond the Atlantic Ocean (America, discovery of), the Spanish monarchs Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon had taken steps to exclude their rival Portugal and ot…

1. Concept Decolonization in general denotes the withdrawal of colonial powers from territories in which they formerly ruled over an indigenous population. From the perspective of the colonial powers, this is a process of dissolution in the sense of a setting free; from that of the colonized peoples, it is a process of release from the colonal power with the aim of liberation and state sovereignty. Decolonization thus also refers to the end of the European colonial empires that had beco…

1. Concept and meaningAs a manifestation of the world system, “world empire” is a historiographical organizational concept of an entity that (1) encompasses much of the known world and an ethnically and culturally diverse body of subjects, as characteristic of an empire (Reich), that (2) forms a territorial domain based on political power, the real (often military) threat of force, and cultural hegemony, with concomitant self-image and perception of supremacy, that (3) influences the regions…

1. Geographical rootsThe Spanish and Portuguese used the term “Indio” to refer to the indigenous peoples of Central and South America. Columbus’s expedition was in search of India, and since he believed that Watling Island, which he reached on October 12, 1492, was actually an offshore island of India in Asia, he called the population encountered there “Indios.” With his famous letter of February 1493 [2. 140]; [9], the term took hold in the Spanish kingdoms. The Spanish continued to refer to the newly discovered regions (America, Discovery of) in general as  Las Indias (“The Indias”)…

1. DefinitionThe term Columbian Exchange describes the process of interaction between Europe and the Americas that took place following the voyages of discovery of Christopher Columbus (1492), the extent of which went unnoticed by contemporaries. In 1972, the American historian Alfred W. Crosby Jr. showed that Columbus' expeditions to the New World had just as profound an impact in biological as in cultural respects, if not greater [2]; cf. [1].Since then, the expression Columbian Exchange has been used to describe the enormous and diverse exchange between…

1. IntroductionThe Latin American Wars of Independence (1808/10-1826/30) belong to the context of the revolutions and liberation movements of the 18th and 19th centuries [17]. They grew out of an interaction between the growing alienation of members of colonial elites born in the Americas - American Spanish and American Portuguese (the so-called Creoles) - from their ancestral European countries, the development of a patriotism focused on the local region in the colonies rather than on the distant “homeland,” and …

1. Introduction The voyages of discovery, sponsored by the Spanish kings from the late 15th century, which took seafarers to the parts of the world that came to be named America or the New World were originally not intended to discover new countries. The original aim was to win the race to India against the Portuguese, who had chosen the southward route around Africa. The Spanish plan was to take the supposedly shorter direct path across the Atlantic and then to find a navigable passage to India a…

1. Definition The term Haitian Revolution refers to the 1791 slave revolt in the French colony of Saint-Domingue and the events that followed it (Slavery). After the American Revolution of 1776, it was the second such uprising in the New World, and its outcome, in 1804, was the foundation of the first independent modern state in Latin America [6]. The constitution of this state, called Haiti, by former slaves had a fateful impact on the direction of the Latin American wars of independence.Hans-Joachim König 2. Racial conflicts Ever since the Treaty of Rijswijk (1697), whic…

1. ConceptThe “lines of amity,” in the context of European overseas expansion and the emergence of the Atlantic world, were demarcation lines between Europe and overseas. In 1634, Richelieu wrote in a memorandum of “lines of the amities and alliances” (French  lignes des amitiés et des alliances) [4. 187]. A better name, however, would have been “lines of enmity,” as they dated from the 16th and 17th centuries when far-reaching legal disputes over the status of overseas regions were played out by force or the threat of force. English te…

1. ConceptThe Spanish term conquista in general means “conquest,” and in particular, in the context of early modern history (specifically of European expansionism), the violent conquest of vast territories and empires in the Americas by the Spaniards, the so-called Conquistadors, who followed immediately in the wake of the discovery of America (America, Discovery of) in 1492, to some extent even overlapping with it. Conquista in general use (especially outside Spain) is associated with the thirst fo…

1. Definition and backgroundThe Requerimiento (Spanish “demand,” “admonition”) was a document composed by the Spanish crown jurist Juan López de Palacios Rubios in 1513 on the legal status of Spanish rule in America.The violent Conquista of the newly discovered territories in the New World by the Spanish conquistadors and the brutal treatment of the Indigenous population (the so-called Indios) by the first colonists on the one hand and the Spanish claim to be the bearers of civilization (Civilization process) on the other tri…

1. Definition The term Bourbon reforms denotes the reform undertaken in Spain by which the Bourbon dynasty in the 18th century reshaped the structures it had inherited from its Habsburg predecessor in the fields of trade, economy, political, government, and the military.Hans-Joachim König 2. Historical context After the decline of the Spanish Empire under the last Habsburg king, Charles II (d. 1700), a process that reached its nadir with the Spanish War of Succession (1701-1713/14), the new Bourbon Dynasty began, hesitantly at first under …

1. IntroductionFrom the mid-16th century, the term “New World” denoted the Americas. This was not, however, the case from the outset, as the Portuguese and Spanish discovered new lands in the 15th century as they expanded into the Atlantic world, or when Columbus in 1492 added something completely new to European world perception by discovering America (America, discovery of).Even in Greco-Roman antiquity, authors like Strabo and Pomponius Mela used the expression “other/new world” (Greek  álle oikouméne; Latin  mundus/ orbis novus) for all newly-discovered regions of t…

1. BasicsFrom the 2nd century on, numerous legends grew up around Mary, the mother of Jesus, whose life is only briefly sketched in the NT. Especially after the divine sonship of Jesus Christ was defined dogmatically in the 4th and 5th centuries, she was venerated privately and liturgically. Particularly in the Middle Ages, a growing number of Marian feasts were established and distributed throughout the church year, while churches and pilgrimage sites (Pilgrimage, local) were dedicated to the Mother of God (see 2.2. below).In the Middle Ages, she was also seen as an exempl…

1. General surveyIn the early modern period, resistance to government (Sovereign power) should be understood as a corrective to the exercise of familial, economic, ecclesiastical, and political authority. In a way, it was a substitute for later correctives like the control of government by Parliament and the control of institutions, churches, and enterprises by their own internal organs, some of which came into being through democratic processes, while others functioned as authorities. There were …

1. Europeanization of the world?Until long into the 20th century, western historians and scholars investigating European expansionism and the creation of colonial empires outside Europe spoke as a matter of course and without hesitation of the “Europeanization of the world.” Historians and cultural scientists today use this term with considerably more refinement or refrain from using it altogether – not only because “Europeanization” is no longer a fact since the completion of decolonization …

1. Atlantic expansion and its impact on the European states 1.1. Discovery of America, prior history and consequencesThe voyage of discovery of Christopher Columbus, who on 12 October 1492, while searching for a westerly route across the “Ocean Sea” to India, became the first European to sight islands on the western edge of the Atlantic Ocean, heralded a new phase of history, both for Europe and for the continent hitherto unknown to Europeans: a phase of global interaction. From now on, the history of the two si…

1. Introduction and concept The history of the early modern period is the history of the first modern global society. It is still commonplace to interpret it as a period of untrammeled European expansionism. This, however, is uncritically to project the ascendancy of the highly industrialized states of Europe and the United States back into earlier periods, ignoring the fact that this ascendancy only came about in the late 19th century (Industrialization). Through haste and generalization, the slave…

1. DefinitionsThe term  world system is used to denote major historical units of an economic and political nature, with geographical and historical boundaries. They need not embrace the entire world in the geographical sense, but represent a self-contained world with a special self-perception. Clearly several “worlds” of this sort can exist side by side (e.g the Atlantic world, Chinese world, Southern African world). The system constitutes a self-contained unit – that is, a zone or large reg…

1. Concept While in the German language there is a verbal noun Zivilisierung in addition to the term  Zivilisation (Civilization), other languages comprise only the latter term (e.g. Engl. civilis/zation, French civilisation). The program of civilization stands for the evolution of “barbaric” or “savage” societies, progressing to a condition of a more advanced “civilized quality”, especially in a world history of successive civilizations; it also refers to the result of this development in the sense of culture, humanity, Bildung, urbanity and so on. Zivilisierung, on the other…

1. Forcible territorial acquisition Conquest (French  conquête, German  Eroberung), in international law and general usage alike, denotes the forcible acquisition of territory from another state by warlike means [7]. The forcible acquisition of territory by organized communities is one of the most constant and frequent phenomena of history, not only in Europe, but also on other continents. Voluntary transfers of territory were the exception rather than the rule. Conquests of enemy territory accompanied and followed wars throughout early modern history [5. 49–72] (Example…

1. Introduction In the age of American liberation movements (e.g. the American Revolution) at the transition from the 18th to the 19th century, vast territories in both Northern and Southern America underwent a first systematic exploration, celebrated as America’s “new” or “second discovery” already by contemporaries. The exploits of America’s “second” discovery, comparable in significance to the explorations of James Cook (Voyages of discovery), are closely connected with Alexander von…

1. Definition and state of researchIn discussing the  Newe Zeitungen – print media that emerged around 1480 in German-speaking Europe – we must distinguish between the contemporary generic term and the use of the phrase as a title. The former refers to non-periodic news sheets of the 16th and 17th centuries, which appeared with news of specific events. The noun Zeitung (“Newspaper”) was already in use in the sense of news or tidings;  Newe Zeitung thus means “new news” or “new tidings.” In generic usage, it is not absolutely necessary for the title to contain th…

1. ConceptLike “Orient” (cf. Orientalism), the term “Occident” shifted in meaning in the course of early modern global cultural contact and encounters between the so-called Christian West and Islam, and of European expansionism and colonialism, from a geographical term without political freight to a value category of cultural politics. Derived from the Latin  occidens [ sol] (“setting [sun]”), it originally denoted the evening and those regions lying towards evening, that is in the west or a westerly direction, in accordance with the Roman co…

1. Introduction During their expansion drive (Expansionism) into the New World the Europeans did not discover an uninhabited continent. They came across unknown civilizations which seemed to be different not only from those of any peoples then known, but were also socially, culturally and linguistically divergent among themselves and were located in regions that were characterized by varying climates as well as geographical features (American peoples, indigenous).To the Europeans all of them appeared to be equally alien, weird, even barbaric (Barbarian). The t…

1. Concept and meaningThe term “world perception(s)” is used here to describe how people in the period of European expansionism that began in the late 15th century conceived of the world, and in particular how they apprehended it and integrated new and strange discoveries into the context of what they already knew. “World perception” is thus an artificial analytical term, and unlike “world view” (Latin  imago mundi), it was not used by people at the time. Whereas “world view” denotes a comprehensive concept of the world based on philosophical and scientific learning [32], and whe…

1. Introduction The term “free-trade imperialism” was coined to reflect the fact that European expansionism in the first half of the 19th century was motivated by the desire not so much to acquire colonies as to establish informal control on the basis of superior production of goods in the Age of Industrialization, the resultant financial muscle, and modern naval and military technology. This policy of informal control was pursued outside Europe by Great Britain in particular, but also by other European Great Powers.The most important instruments were trade agreements (whic…

1. IntroductionSocieties in which slavery and the slave trade were of significance are generally classified as either “societies with slaves” or “slave societies.” There were only a few instances of the latter in the early modern period. Their defining characteristic was that their social structure and economy were founded on slavery, and had to be secured by means of the slave trade, slave reproduction, and various forms of coercion.The systemic function of a slave society is most clearly apparent in the accusations that emerged as slavery came to an end. F…

1. Introduction 1.1. Trends in researchThere need no longer be any suspicion of Eurocentrism in study of the European colonial empires. Even the national histories of former colonial powers today treat the expansion beyond Europe, and the glorification of the project of civilization process, with critical distance. Seeing the year 1492 as an epoch-making step in the cultural progress of America is questioned, and the alternative proposal that it marked the beginning of colonialist exploitation is instead made [2].This was not always the case. In 1555, for instance, the…

1. Concept and introductionAny narrative giving an account of factual or fictional events as a contribution to the construction and cohesion of a nation may be called a national myth. Every ruling organization produces “consolidated histories” (“fundierende Geschichten”) [13. 52] attesting to its heroic origins and a past marked by tough challenges successfully passed, and prophesying a great future. In this way, power structures acquire the appearance of a higher necessity, and rulers and ruled become integrated into a unique and…

1. Europe 1.1. Definition and international lawIn the early modern period, the term tribute (from Latin  tributum; “contribution,” “levy”) was used to describe a variety of situations, reflecting its heterogeneous use in classical Latin sources. Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon (1745) cites first the general meaning  Anlage, Schatzung, Land-Steuer (outlay, taxation, land tax), then a reference to the origin of the term in Roman constitutional law: tribute as levy imposed on Roman citizens primarily to meet the demands of an emergency [1]. The term was also common in its bi…

1. Theory 1.1. IntroductionStarting with the 1978 study by the Palestinian-American literary scientist Edward Said [27] and its rapid reception in the early 1980s, the term “Orientalism” has become nothing short of a vogue expression, at the core of a frequent approach to research. Since this time, the term has remained as ambiguous as it has always been in the history of its European usage, from its first appearances in dictionaries (French  orientalism e [3]; [6]) at the turn of the 19th century. It carries many connotations today, from the perception of the Orie…

1. Concept and terminologyViolence (Latin violentia, “violence,” “impetuosity”;  vis, “hostile force”) is the use of force to inflict injury or damage or to intimidate. To use force is to exercise physical power to overcome resistance (although from the perspective of the victim, it represents an infringement of or interference with the physical integrity of the person). Modern discussions among scholars of social and cultural science thus treat specific acts of violence in the sense of Latin vis. There is increasing criticism of extensions of the concept of violence…

1. Introduction 1.1. Early modern and modern colonialismAnalysing early modern colonialism within the context of European expansionism is of necessity an attempt to highlight the differences between early modern colonialism and its successors of the late nineteenth and early 20th centuries. As a rule the term colonialism tends to be more widely associated with its varieties of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.This kind of colonialism, especially its late 19th and early 20th century brands, differed from the early modern type as a result of the increa…

1. Introduction The understanding of history and the resultant historiography depend for the most part on a European self-image that was concerned to impose a certain interpretation and order on the past in accordance with European norms and categories (Eurocentrism).Outside Europe, however, such concerns had no part to play for much of the early modern period. Rather, many different views of history held sway, distinct not only from the European, but also from each other. Although European techniques and conventions were certainly a…

1. Introduction The beginnings of a project to “conquer nature” that became apparent in European science and technology from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and the sense of superiority this engendered, distorted views of the accomplishments of non-European civilizations (World perception) [2. 81 ff.]. This was particularly true of perceptions of and attitudes towards the countries of Asia and the “Orient” as a whole (Orientalism). During the 16th and 17th centuries, this region of the world had found its way to an albeit volatil…

1. Introduction 1.1. European expansion in the context of world historyEuropean expansion from the mid-16th century is rightly regarded as a key event of world history in the early modern period and of epoch-making significance. It is of relevance to Europe itself, doing much to shape its power structures, economy, politics and world view. The explorations that began along the west coast of Africa, then proceeded with the discovery of the New World and the ensuing occupation of important trading posts in …

1. Europe 1.1. Concept and researchThe verb “travel” in the sense of “go from one place to another” or “make a journey,” is unique to English, deriving from the Middle English  travailen, which originally meant “to toil” or “to labor,” suggesting an association with the difficulty of travel in the Middle Ages. The Romance languages express the concept with terms derived from the Latin  via (road, way, travel; e.g. French  voyager; Italian  viaggiare). German evolved the verb  reisen from an original sense (OHG  reisa, MHG  reise; compare English “rise”) of “to get up and go,”…

1. Introduction 1.1. Concept The global exchange of knowledge is a diffuse concept that first and foremost depends on what is meant by knowledge. Exchange relations can affect very different spheres, from scientific knowledge of high specialization to the practical everyday knowledge of a broad population. Global exchange of knowledge thus includes several complexes of exchange and transfer, including technology transfer and industrial espionage, which cannot always be clearly distinguish…

1. Overview 1.1. Separate lines of developmentThe formation of states that took place in Central and Western Europe [3] and was summarized as an ideal-typical prototype by Max Weber (State; Authority) [1] was completed in its major variants by the end of the 19th century at the latest, but it became the model for the construction of many subsequent states. But there were formations of states and sovereignties outside Europe parallel to early modern Europe, which followed the logic of corresponding social and religious proce…