Marking History - Boston Foundation: Global Economic Boat

 

Marking History – Boston Foundation: 

Global Economic Boat

Hello, and welcome to article 3 of marking history.

We will explore the timeframe between 1630 and 1815, during the Discovery Age. Colonialism characterised this period, when European powers explored the world. They conquered territories on almost all continents, in the Americas, Oceania, Africa, and Far and Maritime Southeast Asia. They maintained lands through force and trade, using designated companies with their own military provisions.

In 1630, Boston was colonised, setting the world’s trajectory for hundreds of years. Through trade and industry, Boston would become the British empire’s hub, increasing British prosperity on the world stage. Boston’s founding catapulted a Competition Age as European powers would fight for territories.

Before this age was fully ushered in however, we must view the background of how it developed…

Mysterious Lands

Europeans colonised areas for centuries. Portugal and Spain began this in the 1400s, colonising West African countries such as Portuguese Madeira in 1420. Columbus’ 1492 journey to the Americas under Spain’s orders to the modern Bahamas was a landmark, as it was the first opportunity Europeans had to experience the New World. Other expeditions involved trading and settling all over the Americas, in what was then the West Indies. Over the colonial period, goods such as sugar, cotton and tobacco were produced, amongst others. Iberian exploration extended to Maritime Southeast Asia where they violently colonised East African regions as well Persia and India.

Colonial capitals solidified their presence such as Portuguese Goa, India in 1530. India was popular throughout colonialism as it provided many invaluable goods such as textiles, precious stones, and military manpower. Establishing colonial capitals was central to Europe’s military and economic success. Portugal gained its African capital Luanda, Angola, in the west, which was founded in 1576 for slavery. Spain traded silver with Japan, a self-declared isolationist state, therefore rare of them to engage with foreigners.

The Dutch copied this strategy when colonising later, setting up its capital Batavia in modern Jakarta, Indonesia in 1619. Through this it dominated the spice trade, especially after starting the Dutch East India Company. Regional companies benefitted Europeans. Dutch colonists in the Americas founded New York while settling the area in 1626.

While Iberia thrived in the south, France started a hub in modern Canada, starting settlements such as modern Montreal. Here, they pioneered the fur trade, resulting in one of the biggest colonial competitions against Britain.

Competition was inevitable. The Dutch rivalled Portuguese territories, including Goa in 1603 and Brazil, in 1624. Portugal would steal also, such as taking France’s Guanabarra Bay in Brazil in 1567.

Meanwhile, Britain reaped West Indies’ benefits. It also started the Levant Trading Company to gain Ottoman trade and traded separately with Russia. The British East India Trading Company, founded in 1600, enhanced commerce. It also saw competition, such as assaulting Spanish ships to steal goods, and stole Bombay from Portugal in 1615.

While competition was abundant, this was little compared to events that skyrocketed the colonial world forward…

Ideal Territory

The cause of this rapid competitive increase was Boston.

Starting in 1630, when future Boston was found with quality drinking water and transportation, it became the most economically successful North American colony in 1632 through its natural geography being easily utilised.

Boston had easy access to woodland for harvesting and transporting lumber, benefitting the 1640s timber industry.

Boston’s timber went to natural harbours for vessel construction, aiding the empire’s economy by transporting goods. This was helped by its central position in the colonies, such as the rest of the West Indies and India. These amounted to 200 merchant ships by 1660, and 100s being manufactured every year by the end of the 17^th century, maximising British profits. The British navy also used these vessels for army transportation.

But the problem with being at the top, is that everyone else wants to be there – and this was rapidly staged…

Competitive Eruption

A century after Boston was founded, Britain colonially exploded as it gained many Indian territories such as Bengal and Madras. Also, it resumed competition by taking Bombay and Tangier from Portugal in 1661. It additionally expanded in the Americas, colonising the Bahamas, taking Jamaica from Spain, and renaming former Dutch New Amsterdam New York.

The 1713-1714 colonially related Ultrecht Treaty resulted from the Spanish War of Succession which occurred due to conflicting interests regarding the next Spanish monarch. This supersized Britain’s prosperity as it attained Canadian territories such as Newfoundland and Hudson Bay, allowing Britain to compete in the fur trade with the Hudson Bay Company. It was also allowed Spain’s slaves.

Attempting to keep up, the Dutch expanded East Indies territories with Java and stole Portuguese territories in Brazil, India, and Africa, including Goa in 1644, and Luanda in 1641.

Iberian countries competed too with Portugal increasing Brazilian and African lands in the 1600s and Spain joined in, tackling British Gibraltar in 1727.

France, meanwhile, founded New France in Canada, and extended to Louisiana in 1682. It attained Indian trade and land, holding 6 ports by 1690 and taking Madras from Britain the following century.

This huge burst in competition derived from Boston advancing the British and forcing others to catch up. However, with these times approaching so closely to the modern day and colonialism reaching right up to the end of the 1900s, it is crucial to review the continuation of this competitiveness as far as it occurred.

Endless Race

Almost 200 years after Boston was founded, colonial competition was booming, but this was not just restricted to the early modern period as Boston’s impact was seen in the 1900s.

Britain united British Canadian territories in 1759. Trade benefited Britain as the Paris Treaty in 1763 gave Britain North American lands. Also, Britain attained Australia and South Africa over the 1700s and 1800s too.

Britain also took Chinese Hong Kong and declared Queen Victoria India’s empress.

France also turned to southeast Asia, taking Vietnam and Cambodia in the 1850s and 1860s. It ventured into Oceania too, creating French Polynesia in 1880 from former Tahitian islands. It even colonised coastal African regions. French African influence extended to the 1900s, controlling Morocco and Sub-Saharan territories.

Dutch and Iberian gain was largely restricted to the early modern period however as they suffered losses to Britain and France in conflict and diplomacy through treaties. Their heyday was over.

Despite these ends, colonialism had made its mark through competition Boston elevated, forming the basis for these countries in the modern day after colonial independence. Boston sparked this early in the war for the future United States of America – which we will explore…

Independent Prosperity

Colonial activity and competition was present until the end of the 1900s and competition in the form of decolonisation/ when colonies become independent, persisted for centuries, starting with the American revolutionary war.

Regarding Boston’s role, it was crucial economically for pressuring the British crown. Boston, as part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony along with other modern Eastern USA states such as Maine needed British revenue early on, but swiftly colonies acted well by themselves. This was evident with colonies stretching trade to other empires, including to Portugal and the West Indies.

Colonies’ ability to support themselves threatened Britain’s grip, therefore they tried to prevent it. The Navigation Acts, starting in 1651 were introduced, which forbid colonies to trade with non-British people. In 1664, Britain also placed English governors to overrule colonies in the Americas, such as Edmund Andros, preventing people from bettering their situation by depriving them of self-governmental representation.

To combat these enforcements, colonial merchants in areas such as Boston no longer complied with the 20% tax of gold and silver, as they needed this to expand. The Massachusetts Bay Colony which Boston was apart of also separated itself by creating their own currency in 1652, damaging British trade as they no longer had strong control over profits.

Britain attempted to recover losses through further taxes in 1765 to support the British military which was, however, debilitating the colonists’ progress by enforcing British measures. Tired with these restrictions, in 1773 Boston sparked the revolution as the Sons of Liberty protest group discarded hundreds of tea chests in Boston’s harbour, destroying invaluable profit. The infuriated British made advances by stopping Boston’s trade further by blocking the harbour. Also, in 1776 Boston colonists fought Britain in the Bunker Hill Battle and people from other colonies aided Boston, allowing them to take over the city.

These actions kickstarted the independence war, achieving independence in 1783. Boston continued being a trade powerhouse, resuming trade with other empires through the triangular network around Africa, the Americas and Europe. Within this, slaves would be shipped from Africa to labour on plantations in the Americas and then the goods produced would be transported to Europe for selling.  

Eventually New York overtook Boston, and Boston turned to manufacturing instead, but Boston’s contribution to the war for the colonists competing to gain independence and widely encouraging such fierce competition from the beginning was still unforgettable. But of course, the USA was by no means the only former colony that competed for independence…

Trend Following

200 years following US independence, many countries competed for liberty too, such as in the Americas, Africa, Maritime and Southeast Asia, and Oceania. People desired independence for economic liberty as they were dictated or felt inferior to their European counterparts. Countries such as Guatemala, Colombia, and Cambodia, once gaining independence and without European support, economically revived themselves through agriculturally cultivating land once used for goods such as sugar and tobacco.

Former colonies in what today are more advanced countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand which, due to natural climate and geography are not entirely reliant on agriculture, launched themselves into urban professional services.

The bulk of this decolonisation and subsequent economic development occurred in the 1900s. The powers of Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal, as well as newer empires such as Italy and Belgium were bound to lose territories. This is because so much political and social reshaping in the world, characterised by competition between foreign powers and their colonial counterparts, made colonial continuity impossible.

Now we will explore how this competition left behind previous times to move forward.

Reforming the Present

The European countries during Medieval times lacked knowledge of continents outside of Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as many benefits of Africa and Asia in regions they had not explored, such as the Sub-Saharan and East Asian regions which they would discover from late Medieval times.

This increased knowledge and utilisation of goods allowed European nations to burst onto the scene, starting the modern path of the countries in the New World that they colonised.

Boston caused this burst of activity in the mid early modern period with competition running at a pace unlike previously witnessed and set caused the world to collide with the future which was unfathomable beforehand.

Interesting Facts

-        At their heights, empires achieved masses of land and wealth. For example, British profits amounted to over £540 billion today and covered over 13 million square miles. In comparison, that land area is over quadruple the amount of the Portuguese empire, almost triple the Spanish empire, and around 13 times larger than the Dutch empire. Additionally, it was 5 million square miles more than the French colonial empire. Also, the British did eventually beat the French in ruling the fur trade.

-        A sadder fact was that the triangle trade saw 12.5million slaves transported from Africa to the Americas.

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