THE HISTORY OF THE western hemisphere begins rather with South America than with North America. Students of United States history are familiar with the life of Christopher Columbus and his finding of the New World. Although he pointed the way for European nations to found valuable colonies in North America, there was an interval of a hundred and fifteen years between Columbus’s discovery in 1492 and the first English settlement in 1607. In this period much history was made in South America. Spain and Portugal established rich colonies on the southern continent. They built cities and developed a valuable commerce that not only enriched Spain and Portugal but created commercial and political centers in South America rivaling in importance many of the cities of Europe. Students naturally ask how it happened that Spain and Portugal gained such an advantage in the sixteenth century over England, France, and the other European nations and why it was that they established colonies in South America rather than in North America.
In the fifteenth century, many cities on or near the Mediterranean Sea developed a rich trade with India, and goods brought from Asia were sold throughout Europe. This commerce made these cities rich and powerful. But in the last half of the fifteenth century the Turks captured Constantinople. Moors had long before conquered the southern part of Spain. Having also taken possession of western Asia, through which the trade lines ran between Europe and India, the Turks made it exceedingly difficult for the cities of southern Europe to continue their commerce with the East. This caused distress to Europe and forced the traders to seek other routes to India.
Through the encouragement of Prince Henry of Portugal, daring seamen sought to reach India by going around the southern end of Africa. Others thought that India might be arrived at by sailing westward and circumnavigating the globe. Christopher Columbus, thanks to the aid of the king and queen of Spain, was the first to attempt to reach India by sailing due west. Instead of reaching India, he discovered the New World (1492). However, he thought that he had reached Cipango or Japan; nor did he, to the day of his death, know that he had discovered a new continent. Six years later (1498), Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese, succeeded in reaching India by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope. Thus, a water route to India was found by Portugal and a new world was discovered by Spain. These nations, being, more familiar with long-distance navigation than the northern Europeans and having better vessels, were in a position to develop a commerce with the Orient.
Why was South America colonized before North America?
Christopher Columbus, after landing on one of the Bahama Islands, in October, 1492, and later on the shores of Cuba, founded his first colony on the island of Haiti. He christened it Hispaniola, which means Little Spain, and there set up the first European settlement in America. Returning to Spain, he let his success be known to the world.
This queerly-shaped island of Haiti, lying almost in the middle of the chain of West Indies, between Porto Rico and Cuba, is the second largest of these islands. It contains 2,800 square miles, which is about the area of the states of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. At the time of Columbus’s discovery, the population was thought to be nearly 2,000,000. The island was rich in natural resources. There was much gold, and the fertile soil produced many things. The Spaniards, eager for wealth, sought to make the natives their servants, forcing them to work in mines and till the soil. As a result, the Indians became hostile and massacred the first colonists. But on his second voyage Columbus brought about 1,500 followers, and the colony, within a few years, increased so greatly that the Spaniards were able to subdue the island. In time they killed out the natives. Since the latter did not make good laborers, negro servants were introduced from Africa, beginning as early as 1512; this slave labor became most profitable. Thereafter, blacks were imported in such swarms that soon the number of negroes on the island was greater than that of Spaniards and Indians together.
In 1496 the town of Santo Domingo was founded; it became the capital of the island and of the Spanish dominions in the New World. Within a short time its streets were alive with adventurers, who flocked thither seeking wealth. For some years it was not only the center of Spanish control in America, but a city of much commercial importance; the island of Haiti was Spain’s most valuable colony. Here in 1501 came Vasco Nunez de Balboa, a bankrupt young Spanish nobleman, who had decided to mend his fortunes in the New World. He did not linger in Santo Domingo, but sailed for the Isthmus of Darien, where he made friends with the Indians, established a colony, and discovered, the Pacific Ocean.
It was at Santo Domingo that Hernando Cortez landed in 1504, and from that place he led an expedition into Cuba and thence to Mexico, where in 1519 he captured Montezuma, the ruler of Mexico, and obtained enough gold to make Spain rich.
About the same time another Spanish soldier, Francisco Pizarro, full of the spirit of adventure, landed at Santo Domingo and later joined Balboa on the Isthmus of Darien. From Panama he led an expedition down to Peru, conquering the Inca, the ruler of that country. He, also, shipped enormous quantities of gold to Spain.
As a result of the activities of these and thousands of other Spaniards, Central and South America were explored and vast amounts of the precious metals were sent to Europe. The route down into South America seemed to be lined with gold, but little of it was found in North America, outside of Mexico. For that reason the northern continent for a hundred years after the discovery was considered of small value.
Spain suddenly became great by reason of her territories in the New World. But Spain had one enterprising commercial rival, her neighbor, Portugal. England at that time was a small, struggling nation, hardly able to maintain its independence. France was not a commercial nation of prominence. Portugal, however, after Portuguese seamen sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and opened up a trade route with India, rose to great importance. The Portuguese government wished to secure a share of the wealth of the New World. In 1500, Pedro Alvarez Cabral, a Portuguese nobleman of illustrious family, set sail for America and took possession of the shores of Brazil, which had already been discovered by Pinzon, a companion of Columbus.
Henceforth, the rivalry for the possession of South America lay between Spain and Portugal, and for nearly a century these two nations vied with each other to see which could profit more by the wealth of the New World. Spain at first used the island of Haiti as a base from which to plant her colonies in Mexico, Central America, and along the northern and western coasts of South America.
Eventually, as rich colonies developed, Haiti came to be almost deserted. It fell a prey to savage Indians and negroes, and to pirates that lurked along its coast.
On the return of Cabral, the Portuguese government at once sent to South America a large expedition under the command of Amerigo Vespucci, who made a careful study of the coast from the Amazon to the Plata River. On the first day of January, 1501, he sailed into a beautiful bay which he thought to be a river. He, therefore, called it Rio de Janeiro, or “River of January.” He was unable to find much gold and silver, but he did discover a very valuable dyewood of bright red. This Vespucci called “brazilwood,” which means “wood the color of fire.” It was so valuable that the land was called “The Country of Brazilwood,” and finally Brazil. Hundreds of vessels, not only from Portugal but from other lands, sailed to Brazil, and fortunes were made by trading in dye-wood, which was greatly wanted in Europe.
Amerigo Vespucci declared that if there were such a thing as an earthly paradise it could not be far from the Brazilian coast. Returning home, he wrote an account of his voyage, with maps, and published it. Many people throughout Europe read it and marveled at the wonderful country he pictured. When they spoke of the New World, they called it the land of “America,” that is, the land discovered by Amerigo Vespucci. Thus we have the name America.
The struggle was now fairly under way for possession of South America. Other nations watched with jealous eyes the stream of wealth flowing from Central and South America to Spain and Portugal, but they were unable to stop its flow or to profit much from it, save by making war here and there in a piratical manner and robbing vessels as they sped along with rich cargoes. The great contest for world supremacy in that period lay between Spain and Portugal.
The Spaniards offered ships to those who would sail along the northern and western coasts in search of gold. The Portuguese planted sugar cane in Brazil and gave land to all who would settle in this fertile country and cultivate sugar. The Spaniards went into Mexico, took the wealth from Montezuma, and shipped great treasures to Spain. The Portuguese sent shiploads of dyewood and sugar back to Portugal. The Spanish built cities, enslaved Indians and negroes, and forced them to work in the mines. The Portuguese established rich plantations, brought in slave labor, and developed great cane-fields and sugar factories, which laid the foundation of a rich commerce.
The Spaniards moved down the west coast of South America and robbed the natives of their wealth. The Portuguese occupied the east coast and cultivated native plants that were useful to Europe. The Spaniards discovered the alpaca sheep on the western slopes of the Andes and, carrying its wool to Spain, gave royalty new fabrics. The Portuguese found the cotton plant in the valley of the Amazon. This plant has since become the principal material of dress of all the world.
While the Spaniards were seeking the Fountain of Youth, where it was believed old men might bathe and regain youthful vigor, the Portuguese were searching for the Amazons, a race of female warriors said to guard the city of El Dorado, the wealth of which was declared to surpass anything in. the East.
The Spaniards discovered on the plains of Peru the llama, the Peruvian sheep, with head like a camel, wool like a sheep, legs like a deer, and neigh like a horse. The Portuguese found in the Amazon an animal, half cow and half fish, the cow-fish, and, in the forests, the anaconda, a snake sixty feet long, as big round as a tree, and with a head like a dragon. They also discovered birds of beautiful plumage which excited the admiration of kings and queens.
All these stories of gold and silver and dyewood and sugar cane and cotton fields and strange animals and beautiful birds gave Europe a new lesson in animals and plants and precious metals. There had been nothing like it in the Old World, and European adventurers turned their eyes toward America as to a fairy region of riches and marvels.
The nations of Europe loved gold because it was the chief money of all civilized peoples. The nobles adorned themselves with it and churches and palaces were ornamented with it; but the sugar of Brazil brought as much joy to the world, perhaps, as did the gold and silver of Mexico and Peru.
South America was the great wonderland. The tales of adventure there were as marvelous as the Arabian Nights; every adventurer returning home could entertain his friends for weeks with delightful stories. So many people wished to hear of the discoveries, made not only in South America but in India as well, that news bulletins became popular, and newspapers may be said to have had their beginning in this public demand for knowledge.
Gold and silver from South America flowed in a continual stream into the treasury of Spain. More money than the world had ever known before was suddenly thrown into circulation. As a result, banks sprang up and grew into important institutions: every progressive nation founded them to help in the commerce of the world. It became possible to carry on business on a large scale because money was more plentiful and credit easier to obtain than ever before; great commercial companies arose.
Europe was awake to the fact that a vast continent, wealthy beyond the dreams of the past, lay less than 3,000 miles to the westward. It was easy to reach America, but the voyage took a long time and so large were the cargoes that had to be carried and so numerous were the adventurers and settlers who voyaged that the tiny vessels then in use were not big enough. Ships began to be made larger and better for the trade of South America. Besides, stronger ships armed for war were needed now, for the selfishness and greed of the European nations caused them to prey. on each other’s commerce. A new era in ship-building resulted, therefore, from the discovery and colonization of South America.
These treasure ships from South America drew to American waters adventurers from other nations of Europe, who also were learning to build better ships. It was not considered very wrong then for sailors of one nation to capture, by fair means or foul, the merchant ships of other nations. This piratical warfare went on in times when the nations themselves were at peace. A host of pirates, or buccaneers, skulked along the bays and rivers, waiting for these treasure ships; sometimes they even captured towns along the coast. The treasures of the New World were fair spoil for any who could take them. It was an age when bold sailors often made a fortune at a stroke. Such was the land and such were the adventurers that caused Europe almost to forget for the time the wealth of India and look westward. The continent that gave Europe a new lesson in the sixteenth century has a new lesson for the United States today.
In this great contest for possession of the New World, Portugal strengthened her colonies in Brazil and developed an important empire.
But what became of Haiti? The center of Spanish control passed from that historic island to Panama and thence to Peru. The story of this development will be told in following chapters. Unhappily, the later history of Haiti is a tale of cruel tyranny, misrule, and savage warfare.
The Spaniards, lured on in their quest for gold, wellnigh deserted the island which might have become the center of a great nation and a prosperous people. Even the city of Santo Domingo was allowed to decay. The Spaniards in their greed almost forgot that the remains of Columbus and his son lay sleeping beneath its walls. The little island that had once aroused the interest of the Old World became, within a few decades, the stamping-ground of pirates and buccaneers and the football of nations desiring a hold in the New World. Spain established more prosperous colonies in Panama, Mexico, and Peru, and had so little thought of Haiti that it lay almost unprotected: France without much difficulty took possession of it. Later the negroes, who had increased so greatly that they far outnumbered the white or mixed races, rose in 1791 under the leadership of Toussaint l’Ouverture, and finally overthrew French rule and established an independent government. This was the second negro republic in the New World. The other was in the interior of Brazil, where the negroes greatly outnumbered the Portuguese.
The history of Haiti, since the republic came into being, is the story of a people’s falling back to barbarism while struggling to erect something resembling civilized government. The first act of the negroes in western Haiti, on setting up their state, was to murder all the white people in that part of the island. The eastern portion of the island was largely Spanish, but the mixture of races and the threatening negroes to the west kept it in a state of turmoil and insurrection. The old civilization was fast passing away. The remains of Columbus and his son had been removed to Spain. Bandit warfare took the place of law and order. The negroes in the interior, no longer supported by civilization, went back to savagery and even to cannibalism, and the black rites of voodoo magic swept away the last traces of Christianity. The life of the African jungle appeared in the New World.
In 1844, the republic of Santo Domingo, which embraces about two thirds of the island, was created, leaving the negro republic of Haiti to occupy the western third. The people of Santo Domingo are more Spanish than negro. They speak the Spanish language and are more capable of self-government than the Haitians. The inhabitants of Haiti are mainly of negro blood and speak a dialect of their own, hardly understood by the people of any other nation. The people of Santo Domingo are hostile to the Haitians, and the two nations have frequently been at war.
So low did the two governments in the island of Haiti fall, such a menace did they become to all nations trading in the waters about the island, so lost were they to the sense of right and justice, that the United States in 1915 was compelled to take over both of them in order to restore order and teach the people how to govern themselves. Thus the first attempt of the Spanish to found a colony in the New World resulted in failure, and the island of Haiti, instead of becoming a factor in world progress, is a serious problem in social and political control. If the United States takes its hands off Haiti, will it revert again to complete barbarism?
WITHIN A FEW YEARS of Columbus’s discovery of America, Spanish adventurers were coming to the New World by thousands to seek fortune. One of the most notable of these was Vasco Nunez de Balboa. As was stated in the previous chapter, he arrived at Santo Domingo in 1501 and obtained land in the neighborhood, on which he tried to cultivate sugar cane with little success, and it became necessary for him to leave the island secretly in order to avoid imprisonment for debt.
Learning that two vessels would sail for San Sebastian for the purpose of carrying provisions to that newly-founded settlement, Balboa hid in a box of provisions and had the box carried from his farm to the ship. When he was discovered at sea, the captain of the vessel thought of sending him back to Santo Domingo, but Balboa begged to be allowed to go on with the party, and his request was granted. On reaching San Sebastian, the voyagers found the settlement in ruins. They then decided to sail for the Isthmus of Darien. This was in 1510.
Little was known at that time of the narrow strip of land connecting North and South America. Many Spaniards had touched the coast there at several points, but no one had gone inland. Balboa himself was as familiar with this section as any other Spaniard, since he had visited the isthmus on an exploring expedition a few years earlier. After the party landed a new colony was set up; but quarrels broke out; the captain was deposed, thrown into prison and finally sent back to Spain, and Balboa came to rule in his stead.
Being now in control of the colony, Balboa began to extend his power over the surrounding country. By his bravery, courtesy, kindness of heart, and just dealing with the Indians, he gained the friendship of several of their chiefs. From them he heard for the first time of the great ocean on the other side of the mountains and of the marvelous stores of gold in Peru. Peru, however, could be reached only by sailing down the western coast of South America, which had not then been visited by any Spaniard. While these stories were taking hold of Balboa, an order came for him to return to Spain and answer for the part he had played in the rebellion that had resulted in his becoming the head of the Spanish colony on the Isthmus of Panama. In his despair over this command, Balboa resolved to attempt some great enterprise, the success of which, he trusted, would win the sovereign’s pardon.
On September 1, 1513, he set out with one hundred and ninety Spaniards and several hundred natives to discover the great ocean of which he had heard. After finding that, he planned to lead an expedition down into Peru. The natives had told him tales of cities, with palaces ornamented with gold, where food was served on golden plates.
On the isthmus Balboa had married the daughter of an Indian chief. Through her he learned of the nearest way across the mountains. He followed this Indian route. The party pushed its way with great effort across streams, through dangerous jungles, and over steep mountain ridges. The isthmus is only about thirty-five miles wide at its narrowest point, but it is such a mass of twisted mountain ranges that crossing it proved to be a most difficult feat. This narrow chain of high mountains seems to be meant to weld the two continents together. After a terrible journey, on September 25, Balboa, standing on the summit of a mountain, saw the measureless stretch of a great ocean; and four days later, on September 29, he arrived on the shore. Rushing down into the water and waving the flag of his country over his head, he claimed the “Great South Sea,” as he called it, and all the land touched by it, in the name of his sovereign, the king of Spain. Later (1519), Magellan in his wonderful voyage around the world named the ocean “Pacific” because of its calm surface. The name Pacific has largely taken the place of the first name of South Sea.
Balboa and his men remained on the Pacific coast for several days. There he heard again of the wonderful country of Peru to the south, and he was filled with a desire to build and equip some vessels to conquer it. The Indians on the Pacific coast had many ornaments of gold, from which fact it seemed likely to the Spaniards that they were on the eve of finding vast treasures.
Many years before, the Spaniards came to the New World, the territory on the Pacific coast of the isthmus had been peopled by a race of Indians that mined much gold and silver. In their tombs were to be found golden images, golden ornaments, golden bells, and other articles of great value. Consequently, the Spaniards readily believed the stories told them of a superior race of Indians to the south, whose rulers lived in golden-covered palaces, bathed in basins lined with gold, and were served on vessels of solid gold.
Balboa collected many gold ornaments, which he carried back to his colony on the eastern coast of the Isthmus of Darien. Some of these he sent to his king, together with the news of his great discovery. The king was so well pleased that he forgave Balboa for his past offenses and named him admiral of the South Sea and governor of the colony. Being thus granted legal authority, Balboa planned to build vessels on the Pacific coast and head an expedition into Peru.
When the story of the great discovery was heard in Spain, the Spaniards began to lose interest in Haiti. They desired to explore the country from which the gold had come and visit the region washed by the South Sea. The number of colonies on the isthmus increased rapidly. The leaders grew hostile to each other, and more than once armed conflicts occurred. While Balboa was planning his expedition to Peru, Pedrarias Davila with a considerable force landed on the isthmus. Balboa and Pedrarias soon became jealous of each other. Balboa was finally arrested by Pedrarias on the charge of treason and thrown into prison. Pedrarias, now having his rival in his power, put him on trial for treason and forced the judge to condemn him to death. Balboa was publicly executed in 1517.
His great discovery, however, had opened the way for the flow of wealth to Spain. Spaniards continued to arrive on the isthmus in increasing slumbers and soon they had a well-made road across the mountains. Within two years of Balboa’s death (1519) , a town was built on the Pacific coast by Pedrarias, which was called Panama, or “The Place of Fish,” because of the abundance of fish found in the little bay on which the settlement was situated. This was the first city founded by Europeans on the American continent. The country around the town of Panama was fertile, and, as the number of settlers increased, great cattle farms and sugar plantations developed. Soon Panama became the most prosperous Spanish colony in the New World. Being on the Pacific coast, it was untroubled by the pirates, who swarmed in the Caribbean, and the people could live without fear of foreign invasion.
In the centuries that have passed since the founding of Panama, this city has had many changes of fortune and has been in turn rich and powerful, poor and small, and again prominent. During the sixteenth century it was, with one exception to be mentioned in a later chapter, the strongest Spanish fortress and most important city in the New World. The harbor of Panama was filled with vessels built to ply along the coast, and through the streets of Panama flowed enough wealth on its way to Spain to support a vast empire. Here came great galleons, laden with gold and silver, from the countries to the south. Much of the gold and silver remained in Panama to enrich the inhabitants and adorn the city with costly palaces and cathedrals. As the city grew, it was laid off in truly Spanish style, having a wide plaza or open court around which were grouped the government buildings and palaces and cathedrals.
The Spaniards lived in the city, but they enslaved the Indians and imported negro slaves to work on the sugar plantations and cattle ranches or dig in the mines. They were cruel masters, desiring the service of laborers at the least possible expense. Therefore, few nations have made a worse reputation for cruelty than is theirs.
The difficulty of carrying gold and silver across the isthmus to the vessels on the eastern coast was another cause contributing to the prosperity of Panama. It will be recalled that Balboa and his men were nearly a month making the first journey to the Pacific. Even the earliest settlers in Panama saw the necessity of digging a canal across the isthmus. The difficulty of doing this, however, was too great at that time, though a road was built over mountain passes, across streams, and through dangerous swamps and jungles filled with all sorts of reptiles, wild beasts, and insects. Travel between Panama and Europe went that way, except in those rare instances when an adventurer made the journey around Cape Horn. Moreover, all supplies coming from Spain were unloaded on the eastern shore and carried over on horse or mule-back to the Pacific coast. Immense quantities of goods were thus transported across the isthmus for a long period of time. When the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts and established the first colony on that rock-bound coast, Panama was a hundred years old and had the appearance of a city situated on one of the famous highways of the world. Lines of caravans, made up of horses, mules or oxen, were constantly coming and going over a road worn deep by the unceasing traffic of a century.
In the earlier days this great commerce tempted numbers of pirates to lurk along the northern coast of South America, lying in wait for the galleons freighted with gold and silver and other products going to Spain. Many schemes were formed to capture Panama, but the city seemed to be too secure to be taken. If a prize is large enough, however, someone will usually be found bold and daring enough to make any venture. Panama, however, was one hundred and fifty years old before it was even seriously threatened by the buccaneers who had made such daring raids on the Atlantic and Caribbean coasts of South America.
In 1670, Henry Morgan, a Welshman, and the boldest buccaneer on the high seas, set to work to capture the city. An irregular war had been going on for some time between the English at Jamaica and the Spaniards, and Morgan held a sort of commission from the governor of Jamaica. Morgan sailed for the isthmus and ran his vessels up the Chagres River as far as possible: then with two thousand men, he began his journey across the isthmus. He had to avoid the old trade route in order to take the city by surprise. It was a risky march.
The men were lost in the tangled woods and floundered around in swamps until they nearly starved to death. They carried few supplies, expecting to take food from the natives and from the Spanish plantations. It was easy for pirates to fight and capture ships, but impossible for them to escape the miseries caused by hunger, poisonous insects, and dangerous swamps. As a result, many of them died in the woods. But the old buccaneer, Morgan, knew that great booty lay just ahead and he urged his followers forward.
Traders passing across the isthmus saw the vessels and heard of the large number of men that had disappeared in the wilderness. The inhabitants of Panama were warned. But the city had been secure for so many generations that little fear was felt at first. Then word came that the buccaneers were approaching. At this news the people were at length aroused. The entire male population was called out to defend the city. There was excitement and confusion little order. The officials called out the Indian and negro slaves and secured all the cattle that could be driven in. The slaves were formed into companies and threatened with death if they did not remain in front. About a thousand cattle, on which slaves were mounted, went ahead. Behind them the Spaniards were lined up to rush on the pirates after the slaves, riding on the cattle, had charged them and thrown them into confusion.
The Spaniards expected the cattle to stampede the pirates. They did not care what happened to the slaves. But the pirates proved to be too quick for them. They made a sudden assault on the column of cattle cavalry and frightened the slaves out of their wits. The shouts of the buccaneers, the deafening noise from their guns and their charge terrified the cattle, which, turning around in a panic, broke into the Spanish lines, creating confusion and consternation. The pirates charged behind the bellowing animals and gave no quarter, slaughtering all in their path.
The Spanish soldiers fled in every direction and were slain by hundreds. The inhabitants of Panama were terror-stricken. Some hurried into the swamps, others took to the vessels lying at anchor at the wharves. Women and children ran about the streets, helpless and deserted. Valuables were thrown into wells, carried out into the swamps, or placed on vessels and sent to sea. The pirates pursued the inhabitants and even made some who had sailed out to sea return. These fugitives were put to death.