Chapter 8 Part II The World of the Emerging West, 1500-1763

The two countries of the Iberian Peninsula, Spain and Portugal, were at the forefront of European expansion in the 16th century.At first glance, this may seem counterintuitive. For hundreds of years before the 16th century, the Iberian Peninsula was a Muslim stronghold.With many Moors and Jews living in the area, ethnic and religious diversity is a residual legacy of Muslim rule.Moreover, it is well known that after the sixteenth century the Iberian state declined rapidly and remained insignificant throughout modern times.So, how to explain the short but brilliant expansion of Spain and Portugal in the 16th century?This chapter first discusses the origin of Iberian expansionism, then discusses the establishment of empires in the East and the American continent, and finally explains the reasons and symptoms of the decline of the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the 16th century.

Religion was an important factor in Europe's overseas expansion, but nowhere more so than in the Iberian Peninsula.The Spaniards and Portuguese are still animated by the fresh memory of their long anti-Muslim jihad.To the rest of Europe, Islam was a distant threat, but to the Iberians it was a traditional, ever-present enemy.Most of the peninsula was once under Muslim rule. Even in the 15th century, Granada in the south was still a Muslim stronghold.Moreover, Muslims controlled the nearby coast of North Africa, and Turkey's growing naval power felt its influence throughout the Mediterranean.Whereas other Europeans joined the Crusades for a moment of pleasure, devout, patriotic Iberians saw the struggle against Islam as an unshakable duty—a combination of religious duty and patriotic necessity.

Prince Henry the Navigator first became famous in 1415 for his bravery in capturing the city and fortress of Jondal on the west coast of the Strait of Gibraltar.Similarly, Queen Isabella, inspired by strong religious convictions, resolved to destroy the Muslim stronghold of Granada and to push the war into the enemy's possessions in North Africa, as the Portuguese had previously done at Zhongda.Isabella began her crusade against Granada in 1482, advancing village by village until her final victory in 1492.After the victory, the Spaniards immediately crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and occupied the city of Melilla. In 1492, the queen also issued a decree requiring all Jews in Spain to either accept Catholicism or leave Spain; 10 years later, a similar decree was issued for Muslims who remained in Castile.

When the great geographical discoveries revealed that there were more Muslims to be exterminated and new pagans to be rescued from blind worship, the crusade of the Iberians spread across the ocean.The Portuguese governor of the Indian colony, Alfonso de Abuquerque, encouraged his soldiers with these words of praise when he besieged Malacca: "We will do a good service to our lord to remove the Moors from this region expulsion, and put out the fire of Mohammedanism, so that it may never again be reignited." Similarly, Bernard Diaz, one of the conquistadors who followed Cortes to Mexico, recorded in his memoirs: "We abolished the God bless our efforts, after having eliminated the idolatry and other abominations among the Indians, we baptized the men, women, and all children born after the conquest, whose souls might otherwise have gone to hell. "

There were also four island groups that tempted the Iberians to go overseas—Madeira, the Canary Islands, the Cape Verde Islands, which ran southward along the coast of Africa, and the Azores, which ran westward across the Atlantic Ocean.The islands were attractive not only because they were fertile and productive, but also because they provided strategic bases and harbors for ships.The Portuguese began to colonize the Madeira Islands in 1420. They first obtained high-quality timber and then produced lucrative sugar.When the Brazilians competed against them with low sugar prices, they imported white grapes from Crete; the unique sweet wine of Madeira is still made from this grape to this day.

Madeira was undoubtedly part of the Portuguese, in contrast to the Canary Islands, which were claimed by both Spain and Portugal.After appealing to the Pope and fighting fiercely there, the Portuguese dropped their claim to the Canary Islands, while the Spaniards recognized the other three islands as Portuguese.This solution forced the Portuguese to sail far south into the Atlantic to avoid Spanish privateers based in the Canary Islands.Therefore, their first port of call was the Azores.They methodically explored the Azores, and by the mid-fifteenth century they had reached the westernmost island; getting there was about a quarter of the way across the Atlantic.

Throughout the 15th century, sailors continued to discover islands in the far reaches of the ocean.Naturally, they imagined that there were many more islands yet to be discovered and developed.To provide stepping stones to the East, Atlantic nautical charts are populated with such imaginary islands. In 1492, an agreement between Columbus and Isabella stipulated that he should lead an expedition "to discover and acquire the islands and continents of the great sea." However, it was Portugal, not Spain, that took the lead in overseas ventures in the fifteenth century.Spain was late to the party, and its ventures abroad were often a reaction to Portuguese initiative.Portugal is in the lead for two reasons.One is that the territory is not large, and it is located on the Atlantic coast, surrounded by Spanish territory on three sides.This effectively protected the Portuguese from being tempted to waste their financial resources on European wars.Thanks to Prince Henry's leadership, they began to devote themselves to ocean-going careers.The second is that Portugal has more navigation knowledge, mainly obtained from the Italians.Lisbon was on the sea line of communication through the Strait of Gibraltar between the Genoese and the Venetians and the Flemish; the Portuguese took advantage of this opportunity to acquire knowledge of the sea by employing Italian captains and navigators in the Royal Navy.Prince Henry took it a step further, and assembled a fine and able crew of sailors, including Italians, Catalans, and even a Dane.Moreover, after Henry's death, "the king continued Henry's work, making the Portuguese the most knowledgeable of all Europeans in navigation and geography. Thanks to the guidance and support of this stable and consistent government, Portugal Man gained a decisive advantage over his Spanish neighbors and competitors.

After the capture of Ceuta in 1415, Portugal's interest in exploration grew rapidly.Muslim prisoners of war leaked information about the ancient and profitable trade across the Sahara with the black kingdoms of the Sudan (see Chapter 5, Section 1). slaves and gold in exchange for various manufactures and salt. Owing to the extreme scarcity of gold and silver in Western Europe at that time, and Portugal in particular, the possibility of developing this gold trade aroused the interest of Prince Henry. According to his deputy Di Gomez said that Henry had heard of "the passage of merchants from the coast of Tunisia to Timbuktu and Canto in the Gambia." Gomez also said that this news "made him 'Henry' want to explore these places by sea." place". In other words, Henry's initial targets were limited to Africa and did not extend to the East.

In 1445 the early Portuguese expeditions took a great step forward, for in this year Prince Henry's captains passed the desert coast and discovered a new, leafy region beneath it; other beautiful green trees, and even the plains there".By the time of Henry's death, the Portuguese had explored along the coast as far as Sierra Leone and had established numerous coastal stops, enabling them to attract at least some of the caravan trade they wanted.Later, until 1487, the Portuguese set up a commercial agency abroad in Wodan, an inland cargo distribution center, so that they could obtain a larger part of the north-south caravan trade.

During this period, even before Henry's death, the Portuguese had begun to aspire not only to Africa but also to India.At that time, Europe's access to the East was blocked by Muslim forces controlling the entire North Africa and the Middle East. For Europeans, the Mediterranean Sea was a prison rather than a road (see Chapter 2, Section 7).Therefore, in addition to the Venetians who were profiting as middlemen, the Europeans were eager to find a new way to "go to the East Indies, where spices are produced".Prince Henry did not have India in mind when he first began his plans of action, but as his fleet advanced farther and farther along the African coast, his horizons naturally expanded from the caravan trade in Africa to the East Indies spice trade.From then on, the discovery and control of the spice routes became the primary purpose of Portuguese policy.It is worth noting that when Abu Kwai encouraged the besieging tribesmen of Malacca to "put out the Mohammedan fire", he also emphasized the prospect of material gain.He said: "I am sure that if we take the trade of Malacca from them (the Moors), Cairo and Mecca will be completely destroyed, and Venice will have no spices unless its merchants go to Portugal to buy them."

Considering the pioneering work done by Portugal in the theory and practice of ocean navigation, it seems counterintuitive that the first great discovery, that of the American continent, was made under Spanish patronage.What seems even more paradoxical is that this result was achieved because the Portuguese were more advanced than the Spaniards in geographical knowledge and correctly estimated that Columbus' calculations were wrong. Any educated person in the 15th century knew that the earth was round.The problem is not the shape of the Earth but its size and the relationship of the continents to the oceans.Columbus based on Marco Polo's estimate of the east-west width of Asia (an overestimation), the traveler's report that Japan was 1,500 miles from the continent of Asia (an overestimation), and Ptolemy's An estimate of the Earth's circumference (an underestimation) deduces that the ocean separating Europe and Japan is less than 3,000 miles wide.He therefore considered the quickest route to Asia to be by a short transatlantic voyage; and this was the proposal he proposed to the courts.The Portuguese, thanks to Prince Henry, had more practical experience and a better grasp of the most advanced knowledge of the time.They were convinced that the Earth was larger than Columbus had believed, the oceans were wider, and that the shortest way to the East was around Africa rather than across the Atlantic.For this reason, when Columbus asked the King of Portugal for funding in 1484, he was rejected.Two years later, Columbus came to the Spanish court and was initially rejected, but finally won the support of Mistress Isabella. On August 2, 1492, Columbus set sail from Cape Palos with three galleons manned by reliable sailors and weather-beaten able crew.By September 6, the expedition had left the Canary Islands behind and sailed into the vast ocean.Luckily, the voyage was smooth, but as the days and weeks passed, the people on board became restless.To assuage their worries, Columbus published false news about the voyage he had traveled. On October 7, birds were spotted, but still no land on the horizon.Even Columbus became anxious. By this time he had sailed far west and, according to his calculations, should have seen Japan. On October 9, he promised to return if he did not see land again within three days.Just before the expiration of the three days, the Observatory discovered a small island in the Bahamas, which Columbus named San Salvador.This is a moment that heralds the destiny of the entire human race. In one of the great ironies of world history, Columbus died convinced that he had reached Asia.He was convinced that San Salvador was very close to where Japan was, and that the next step was to find Japan.When he sailed southwest to the American continent, he believed he was somewhere near the Straits of Malacca.Columbus's adherence to his delusion had major consequences: it inspired further exploration of North and South America, until great fortunes were found in Mexico and Peru.But if the Spaniards had realized from the outset that they had only stumbled upon a new world far from the Asian mainland, it is entirely possible that they would have left what at first seemed neither an attractive nor profitable wasteland. .In that case, the American continent might have been left alone for decades, not least because Portugal's Vasco da Gama had in the meantime established the extremely favorable sea route around the Cape of Good Hope to India. The Spanish monarchs loyally supported Columbus, investing large sums in equipping him with three other expeditions.However, it wasn't until 1518 that the Spanish stumbled upon the wealthy Aztec Empire in Mexico.During the nearly quarter of a century between the first expedition of Columbus and this accidental discovery, came time after time as the Spaniards explored the seemingly unpromising islands of the West Indies. disappointment. On his first voyage, Columbus explored Cuba and Haiti before returning home. In 1493 he left Spain again with a formidable fleet of 17 galleons.The purpose of his voyage was to establish a colony in Haiti, and use it as a base to continue sailing to nearby Japan and India.In spite of diligent exploration of the West Indies, he failed to discover any country resembling the Eastern kingdoms he sought.Worse still, Columbus was a botched administrator despite being a skilled navigator.He was unsuccessful as governor of the new colony of Haiti; when he returned to Spain in 1496, the natives rebelled and the colony was in turmoil.Two years later, Columbus embarked on a third voyage, and this time he discovered Trinidad and the mouth of the Orinoco River.However, when he was replaced as governor by renewed unrest in Haiti, and his successor sent him home in chains, his sovereign supported him and sent him on his fourth and final voyage in 1502.He explored a long stretch of coastal land in Honduras and Costa Rica, but still saw no sign of China.The Spanish monarch wisely refused to support him further; he died in 1506, though not impoverished, but full of resentment. Columbus's great discovery at first seemed like a major failure.Thousands of adventurers flocked to the West Indies, only to find, disappointingly, small amounts of gold.The discovery of the American continent did, however, provoke an immediate response of great significance, prompting the Portuguese to circumnavigate Africa and reach India directly by sea. During this period, the Portuguese had been reaping considerable profits from their trade along the coast of Guinea in Africa.Coarse pepper, gold, ivory, cotton, sugar, and slaves had now entered European trade through Portugal.The slave trade alone supported sixty or seventy merchants in Lisbon.It is worth noting that when Dias the Conqueror saw the slave auction in the Aztec capital, he couldn't help commenting: "The scale of this slave market is as large as the Portuguese slave market in Guinea." Prince Henry's successors continued Henry's development of the West African coast. In 1487 amazing progress was made; for in that year, while Bartolomeu Dias was exploring along the coast, he was met with a strong wind, which for thirteen consecutive days drove his fleet south With no land in sight, and when the wind died down, Dias headed for the West African coast, only to find that they had already passed the cape without knowing it.He landed at Mossel Bay in the Indian Ocean and wanted to explore further, but his weary and frightened crew forced him to turn back.On the way back, Dias saw this large cape for the first time and named it Cape Wind Tao; after he returned, the King of Portugal renamed it Cape of Good Hope. In 1487, the King of Portugal sent Pero da Covilha, a linguist, soldier, spy, and diplomat, to India by land; to gather intelligence about the country.Koviria, who spoke Arabic, followed the traditional merchant route to Cairo and Aden, then sailed on an Arabian dhow to Calikut, India.He scouted the ports on the west coast of India, the Malabar coast, and returned to East Africa on another Arabian ship.In East Africa he visited many Arab towns, returned to Cairo, and ended his journey in Abyssinia, where he spent the last thirteen years of his life; Write the results of your investigation into a priceless report and send it back to Lisbon. These expeditions, along with several others by land and sea, made the Portuguese the most knowledgeable about world geography and trade routes in Europe.However, due to political and financial difficulties, they were unable to proceed after Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope.As a result, as mentioned earlier, Columbus became the first person to reach the American continent, although he insisted on claiming that America was the East.Although the more knowledgeable Portuguese were skeptical from the beginning, they also stepped up to open up and occupy the sea route around the Cape of Good Hope to India at this time. On July 8, 1497, Vasco da Gama set sail from Portugal with four sailing ships and entered the port of Calicut at the end of May 1498.This nautical feat is less than the greatness of Columbus.Da Gama was able to stop at various trading posts in Portugal during the southern voyage, and he knew the Arab cities along the coast of East Africa through various sources.He stopped at one of the port cities, Miliandi, where he met the famous Arab pilot Ahmad ibn Madjid, who guided him across the Indian Ocean.Because of the consequences of this voyage, Ibn Madjid regretted what he had done; he died with a bad reputation and is still cursed by those of his sect. Da Gama did not receive a warm welcome in Calicut.Naturally, the Arab merchants who lived there, horrified at the threat to their traditional monopoly, did their best to thwart the European interlopers.In addition, Portugal's trade goods are mostly small items and woolen fabrics, which are not suitable for the Indian market.In fact, the Portuguese completely underestimated the level and sophistication of Indian civilization.This is clearly seen in the variety of gifts Vasco da Gama offered to the Calicut rulers—wool fabrics, hats, strands of coral beads, washbasins, and jars of oil and honey; Such gifts will certainly not give a good impression.Therefore, Da Gama had difficulty in doing business with Calicut not only because of the hostility of Arab merchants, but more importantly, because Portugal (and Europe as a whole) could not produce anything at that time that would impress the peoples of the East. something of interest.European manufactures are generally of lower quality and more expensive than Eastern products.One of Vasco da Gama's companions said: "We have not been able... Thirty reals, and thirty reals is a lot of money in this country." Vasco da Gama collected a shipload of pepper and cinnamon with great pains, and departed for home, arriving home in September 1499.The value of this shipment was equivalent to 60 times the cost of the entire expedition.A dizzying view unfolded before the delighted Portuguese as King Manuel accepted the title of "Lord of Conquest, Navigation and Trade of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia and India."The acceptance of these titles is taken quite seriously.The Portuguese were determined to monopolize trade along the new sea route to the exclusion not only of other Europeans but also of Arabs and other Eastern peoples who had been trading in the Indian Ocean for centuries.To uphold these demands, the Portuguese resorted to relentless terrorism, especially when confronted with the Muslims they hated.On a later voyage, da Gama spotted several unarmed ships returning from Mecca.He captured the ships, and, in the words of one of his Portuguese companions, "after emptying them of their cargo, forbade all to bring out any Moors on board, and ordered the ships to be burned." Another The contemporary Portuguese declared: Such was the nature of this epochal meeting that brought the two cultures of Eurasia face to face for the first time after thousands of years of regional isolation.Europeans were aggressive invaders.They seized and held the initiative until gradually but irresistibly rose to master the world.This unprecedented domination of the world is at first glance incomprehensible.Why was Portugal, with a population of about 2 million, able to impose its will on highly civilized Asian countries with much larger human and material resources? One reason was that the Portuguese were extremely lucky to be able to take advantage of the huge supplies of gold and silver that soon began to pour in from the American continent.Large quantities of gold and silver came from the coffers of the Aztec and Inca empires, as well as from the silver mines of Mexico and Peru; and they came at just the right time, giving Portugal enough money to trade with the East.Had it not been for this blessed windfall, the Portuguese would have been very severely limited, for they had neither natural resources nor manufactures of interest to the peoples of the East.The fact that Portuguese-made shirts cost 10 times as much as Indian shirts, as Vasco da Gama discovered, suggests that the Portuguese would have struggled to find what they could exchange for the spices they needed.This was supplied by the silver mines of America.The East was always eager to receive gold and silver.When Da Gama left India, King Calicut asked him to forward a short note to the King of Portugal, which read, "I am very happy that Mr. Vasco da Gama of your dynasty has come to our country. Our country is rich in cinnamon. , cloves, ginger, pepper, and precious stones. In exchange for these I beg you to have gold, silver, coral, and scarlet cloth.” America supplied the gold and silver the king needed, and thus the trade around the Cape of Good Hope was fully developed .Therefore, someone commented: "Columbus's voyage is an essential supplement to Da Gama's voyage." Another reason for the Portuguese success was the disunity of the Indian subcontinent.When the Portuguese arrived, North India was under the control of new Mughal invaders, interested in conquest rather than trade; South India, especially the Malabar coast, was under the control of some minor Hindu feudal lords , they are at odds with each other.In contrast, the Portuguese and their European successors had a single, consistent purpose that more than offset their inferiority in resources.Europeans are clearly not united; they are fraught with political and religious strife.However, they agreed on one point - the need to expand eastward to profit and defeat Islam.In pursuing this end the Europeans showed a greater determination to succeed than did the nations of Asia to resist.Throughout the fifteenth century, the Portuguese expended a great deal of energy and wealth, sending out one expedition after another; this kind of constant expeditionary movement was not found in Asia.When da Gama returned from his historic voyage, the Portuguese court was ready to expand rapidly.It drew up detailed plans for organized trade, including the establishment of foreign agencies in the ports of Malabar and the dispatch of several fleets each year with royal charters. The Portuguese succeeded also because of their superior naval power.This was partly due to the Portuguese's knack for arranging ships in formations, rather than relying on the ships that formed the fleet to fight individually.More important is the Portuguese naval artillery and shooting skills.The Western Europeans were developing new and effective naval artillery that would allow them to use their ships as mobile batteries rather than transports to accommodate troops (see Chapter 2, Section 4).Artillery, rather than infantry, was now the primary tool of naval warfare, and artillery was used to attack enemy ships rather than their crews.It was thanks to these new developments that the Portuguese were able to crush the Muslim naval power in the Indian Ocean and thereby control the spice trade. Of course, it does not follow from this that the Portuguese were able to impose their will on land beyond the control of their naval artillery.In fact, the Indians soon began hiring Italians and other Europeans to reinforce their primitive cannons.Some 12 years later, a Portuguese commander commented: "We are fighting against a people that is no longer what it used to be . manpower, with no hope of conquering a land empire.They recognized this early on, and adjusted their goals and strategies accordingly. Their goal was to monopolize the spice trade and, where possible, defeat Muslim enemies and spread their religion.To achieve these goals, it was necessary to exclude the Arab middlemen who had traditionally transported spices from their origin to the ports of the Levant.This was not an easy task as the Arabs had run this trade for hundreds of years, with deep roots establishing many colonies throughout the region from Alexandria to Malacca.Moreover, the Arabs are peaceful and decent inhabitants.They provided valuable services economically to the regions in which they settled; they made no attempt to seize political power as long as they were treated fairly by the local rulers.Thus, with each community of aliens enjoying freedom of custom, religion, and trade, a scene of mutual tolerance prevailed in most areas. After a Persian traveler visited Calicut in 1442, just half a century before the arrival of the Portuguese, he reported an ideal, laissez-faire style of rule: Given the above background, it is understandable that the Portuguese, claiming a monopoly of trade as "masters of the sea," would have been regarded as intolerably barbaric and presumptuous.The Portuguese therefore had to contend not only with the hostility of the Arab merchants but also with the hostility of the majority of the local Hindu maharajas.Despite opposition, the Portuguese managed to build a wide-ranging Asian empire that made them very rich over the decades. The founder of this empire was the eminent Alfonso de Abuquerque, governor of Portugal's Indian colony from 1509 to 1515.His strategy was to crush the Arab trade networks by seizing control of the narrow sea lanes to and from the Indian Ocean.He captured the islands of Socotra and Hormuz, the gateways to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf respectively.In India, he attempted and failed to capture Calicut, and took the city of Goa in the middle of the Malabar coast.He used Goa, which was a Portuguese dependency until 1961, as his main naval base and home base.In the east, he conquered Malacca and controlled the Strait of Malacca, which must pass through the trade with the Far East.Two years later, in 1513, the first Portuguese ship to arrive at a Chinese port sailed into the port of Canton.This was the first documented European visit to China since the time of Marco Polo.The Portuguese, at first at odds with the Chinese government, had fled to Peking to sue the brutal, barbaric Europeans because the rulers of Malacca had recognized Chinese suzerainty.In time, however, the Portuguese were granted the right to establish warehouses and settlements in Macau, downstream from Canton, from where they continued their trade in the Far East (see Chapter IV, Section 4). The Portuguese empire in Asia was insignificant in its actual extent, comprising only a handful of islands and coastal strongholds.However, these possessions occupied an important strategic position, allowing the Portuguese to control merchant shipping routes halfway around the world.Every year, the Portuguese fleet sails south along the coast of West Africa, which is densely covered with trading posts that supply food and repairs to ships. After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, it sails into another Portuguese territory, the port of Mozambique in East Africa; and then crosses the ocean by the monsoon Sail to Cochin and Ceylon, where the ships are loaded with spices procured from surrounding areas.Further east is Malacca, which allowed the Portuguese to enter the East Asian trade, where they acted as middlemen and transporters.The Portuguese thus profited not only from trade between Europe and the East, but also from purely Asian trade, such as that between China, Japan, and the Philippines. With this network of trading posts and forts, Aberquay accomplished the goals he set out for his men during the siege of Malacca.He broke the traditional monopoly of Arab merchants over the Indian Ocean and, in doing so, competed with the Venetian merchants for the "spices" they used to get in ports in the eastern Mediterranean.The extent of Alberque's success can be estimated from the fact that in the four years 1502-1505 the Venetians acquired spices in Alexandria on average only £1 million a year, whereas in the last years of the fifteenth century they had Received an average of £3.5 million in spices per year.In contrast, Portuguese imports of spices rose from £224,000 in 1501 to an average of £2.3 million a year between 1503 and 1506. These statistics explain why the Egyptians, with the full support of the Venetians, sent a naval expedition in 1508 to help the Indian maharaja drive the Portuguese usurpers from the Indian Ocean.The Egyptian efforts failed, but the Turks, who had conquered Egypt in 1517, continued their campaign against the Portuguese, dispatching several fleets in the following decades.They were also unsuccessful, and the spices continued to flow around the Cape of Good Hope to Europe.However, this should not lead to the conclusion that the old routes through the Middle East are completely obsolete.In fact, after the initial chaos, they regained most of their lost trade. It turns out that not all advantages are on the side of the overseas routes.It is true that Portuguese ships were able to carry more cargo than the limited volume of caravans between the ports of the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Mediterranean.In addition, if the route around the Cape of Good Hope requires only one long-distance transportation, the route from the Spice Islands to India, then to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, and then to the ports of the Eastern Mediterranean requires multiple costly voyages. loading, unloading and reloading. But the long voyages around the Cape of Good Hope were costly and costly, and the Portuguese, having no commodities to exchange for profitable overseas goods, shipped gold and silver from the American continent to buy spices; The prices for the sale of spices were high enough to cover the cost of sailing overseas and inland.As a result, spices imported by the Portuguese were often not much cheaper in Western Europe than spices bought overland from the Middle East.Furthermore, it is widely believed that spices tend to lose their fragrance during long sea voyages.This may be a rumor spread by the Venetians, but it is likely to have some basis in fact.The Portuguese goods were carried in sacks and in leaky ships, and they had to pass through regions with severe climate fluctuations. Also, the Portuguese failed to establish a complete monopoly on ocean routes, because corrupt Portuguese officials were usually happy to let Arab ships sail into the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf for a reward.In the end, the Arabs and Venetians were far from being driven out of trade after da Gama's voyage; throughout the sixteenth century they successfully competed with the Portuguese.It was not until the emergence of the more capable and economically powerful Dutch and British in the Indian Ocean in the next century that the old Italian and Arab middlemen were squeezed out, and the traditional Middle Eastern caravan routes were overshadowed by overseas routes. The discoveries of Columbus and Vasco da Gama raised questions about the exclusive rights of the newly discovered areas.This question never troubled medieval Europe before, for the whole of Europe, with which its rulers had any real relationship, was occupied by states similar enough emotionally and institutionally to begin dealing with each other.When Europe began to expand, the nations of Europe tacitly adopted among one another the principle of convenience, namely, the right of Christian nations to appropriate the lands of barbarians and heathens without regard to the native peoples concerned.There was also a principle, recognized at least by Portugal and Spain, that the papacy had the right to assign secular exclusive rights to any area not owned by a Christian ruler.As early as 1454, Pope Nicholas V had issued a decree authorizing the Portuguese to occupy some of the territories they had discovered as they marched along the coast of Africa to India.The wording of this instruction is as telling as its clauses: When Columbus returned from his first voyage, confident that he had reached the East Indies, the Spanish court, fearing counterclaims from the Portuguese, urged Pope Alexander VI to recognize Spanish exclusive rights. 1493 年5月4日，亚历山大教皇在亚速尔群岛和佛得角群岛以西100里格处划一分界线，线以西地区授予西班牙，以东则授予葡萄牙。 1494年6月7日，西班牙和葡萄牙议定托尔德西拉斯条约，将分界线再西移270里格。这一改变的结果是使葡萄牙获得对美洲巴西的所有权。当时，西班牙人相信通达东印度群岛的路线是向西，以为自己在谈判中占了便宜。实际上，这一分界线使葡萄牙获得当时前往印度唯一可行的航线。 葡萄牙继达·伽马远航之后在香料贸易中获得的财富，使其他欧洲国家狂热地深寻别的通达东印度群岛的航线。哥伦布寻找中国的一次又一次的失败并没有毁掉向西航抵亚洲的希望。从到那时为止发现的种种荒凉地带之间穿过也许仍是可能的。西班牙冒险家瓦斯科·努涅斯·德·巴尔博亚在巴拿马地峡的达连勘探黄金时，看见太平洋；这一偶然发现促进了探航的希望。两片汪洋为一狭长陆地所分隔的这一新知识，鼓励着探险者们去寻找前往东方的无从捉摸的航路。 在这些情况下，一类新的职业探险家于16 世纪初出现。其中多半是意大利人和葡萄牙人（他们是当时最有知识、最富经验的探险家），所以，他们忠于本民族的精神不太强，为任何愿意资助他们的君主进行探险。意大利人中包括为葡萄牙和西班牙航海的阿美利哥·韦斯普夺，为法国航海的约翰·韦拉扎诺和为英国航海的卡伯特父子；葡萄牙人中则有胡安·迪亚斯·德索利斯、胡安·费尔南德斯和斐迪南·麦哲伦，他们都为西班牙航海。 只有麦哲伦找到了通往亚洲的航道。西班牙派遣他，是因为随着香料货物经常运至里斯本，西班牙认识到在围绕香料群岛的这场竞赛中自己正被打败。西班牙声称托尔德西拉斯条约中规定的分界线是笔直环绕全球的，遂派麦哲伦去开辟西往亚洲的航道，希望他至少能找到位于分界线的西班牙一边的香料群岛中的一些岛屿。 麦哲伦的远征是航海事业中一篇伟大的史诗。他率领一支由五艘均为100 吨位的帆船组成的船队，于1519年9月10日从塞维利亚启航。3月，他到达巴塔哥尼亚，在那里发生了一场叛乱，这可能是由葡萄牙奸细煽动起来的，因为葡萄牙激烈反对这种对它在东方的优势的挑战。麦哲伦设法镇压了叛乱，处死了反叛首领；至10月，抵达如今刻着他名字的海峡。大海汹涌澎湃，他足足花了一个多月才越海驶入太平洋。其间，一艘船失事，另一艘船被遗弃，他率领剩下的三艘船沿智利海岸向上方航行，至南纬15 o处时折向西北。 后面80天中仅见到两座杳无人迹的荒岛。一名船员生动地叙述了这数月间忍受的苦难。 3月6日，他们驶抵一座岛屿，可能是关岛，他们在那里得到了粮食。同月16日，他们到达菲律宾，麦哲伦和手下40名船员在当地一次战斗中被杀。残存的西班牙人靠当地领港员的帮助，航行到婆罗洲，再从那里抵达他们的目的地摩鹿加群岛即香料群岛，他们最后抵达香料群岛的时间是在1520年11月。葡萄牙人那时已在那里，他们毫不迟疑地进攻剩下的两艘西班牙船（还有一艘船已被离弃在菲律宾）。尽管遇到所有的障碍，西班牙人仍能获得丁香货物，然后，取道不同的航路启航回国。试图重越太平洋的一艘船因遇逆风而折回，被葡萄牙人捕获。另一艘船则成功地完成了一饮令人难以置信的航行；它先穿过望加锡海峡、越过印度洋，然后绕过好望角，沿非洲西岸向上方驶去。1522年9月3日，这最后一艘幸存的船——船体严重漏水、船员已大批死亡的“维多利亚号”，缓慢费力地驶入塞维利亚港。不过，这一船香料货物的价值足以支付整个远征队的费用。 西班牙人又派出一支远征队，它于1524 年到达香料群岛。但是，这次远征是一次惨败，因为葡萄牙人已在那里站稳脚跟，向他们挑战已无利可图。此外，西班牙国王当时正同法国交战，亟需金钱作军费。因此，1529年，西班牙国王同葡萄牙签订萨拉戈萨条约。通过这一条约，他放弃了对香料群岛的全部要求，并接受在香料群岛以东15 。处划定的分界线；作为回报，他得到35万个达卡金币。这一条约标志着地理大发现史上一个重要章节的结束。葡萄牙人对香料群岛的控制一直持续到1605年该群岛丢失到荷兰人手中之时，而西班牙人则继续对菲律宾群岛感兴趣并最后于1571年征服它们，尽管该群岛位于萨拉戈萨条约规定的分界线以东。不过，在这之前很久，西班牙已将注意力转向美洲大陆，因为在那里发现了其价值和东方的香料不相上下的大笔财富。 1519年是麦哲伦离开塞维利亚、开始著名的环球航行的一年，也是埃尔南多·科尔特斯离开古巴、发动对阿兹特克帝国的同样著名的远征的一年。科尔特斯在远征中，迎来了所谓的征服者时期。从1500至1520年这前20年，已是探险者时期；那时，许多航海者打着各种旗帜探查整个南北美洲的东西两侧，以寻找通路。在随后的30年代，数千名西班牙冒险家赢得了第一个庞大的欧洲海外帝国。 这些冒险家当为伊比利亚征伐传统的产物。他们成群结队地涌到美洲是希望发财，就象留在欧洲的冒险家受雇于外国统治者或去与穆斯林土耳其人或阿拉伯人作斗争，也是期待发财一样。这样的人不会成为西班牙在西印度群岛中的属岛的理想移民。他们太骄傲、太不安定，不适宜做持久的工作。他们互相争吵，虐待印第安人，并老想去寻找经常听说到的金矿。然而，恰恰是这些令他们与定居社会格格不入的品质，使他们能在侵占由美洲印第安人发展起来的两大文明中心方面立下惊人的功绩。 埃尔南多·科尔特斯就是这些运气颇好的战士中的一个。他出身于贵族家庭，曾是位学法律而未成功的学生。1504 年，他到达伊斯帕尼奥拉岛，5年后，参加了对古巴的征服。在这场征服战中，他战功卓著，遂当选为派往尤卡坦的一支探险队的总指挥，其任务是调查传说中生活在内地的文明城市的居民。1519年3月，科尔特斯在今韦拉克鲁斯附近的大陆海岸登陆。他只有600名部下、几门小炮、13支滑膛枪和16匹马。然而，凭借这支微不足道的力量，他将赢得巨大的财富，并成为一个异乎寻常、高度先进的帝国的主人。他能取得这一惊人成就的原因前面已提到过——是西班牙人的勇气、无情和优良武装，印第安人的不切实际的作战战术，以及科尔特斯能巧妙而又果断地加以利用的印第安人内部的不和。 科尔特斯上岸后先毁坏所有的船只，以向部下表明，如果他们失败，已无返回古巴的希望。接着，经过几次战斗之后，他与仇视阿兹特克霸主的各部落达成协议。假如没有这些部落提供的食物、搬运夫和战斗人员，科尔特斯原不可能赢得他所赢得的一些胜利。科尔特斯通过利用阿兹特克人的军事首领蒙提祖马的迷信，没有遇到抵挡就进入首都将诺奇蒂特兰城。他虽然受到蒙提祖马的礼遇，却奸诈地将蒙提祖马囚禁起来，扣作人质。这种厚颜无耻的欺骗不可能长久维持。印第安人在人数上占有巨大优势，他们的祭司鼓动他们起来反抗。西班牙人毁坏当地神庙的政策激起了印第安人的一次起义，起义期间，蒙提祖马被杀。科尔特斯在黑夜夺路逃出都城，出逃时，失去了三分之一部下和大半辎重。但是，他的印第安盟友仍保持忠诚，而且，他从古巴得到增援。数月后，他回来了，以一支由800名西班牙士兵和至少2，50O名印第安人组成的部队围攻都城。战斗十分激烈，并拖延了四个月。最后，1521年B月，残存的守城者交出了他们的城市，城市几乎已完全化为碎砖破瓦。如今，墨西哥城就坐落在它的位置上，原先的阿兹特克人的首都几乎没留下一处遗迹。 更为鲁莽冒险的是一支有180 人、27匹马和8门火炮的西班牙远征队对印加帝国的征服。远征队的总指挥是弗朗西斯科·皮萨罗。他是一个西班牙军官的私生子，目不识丁，当过流浪者。他在经过最初的几次探险、获悉印加帝国大体的位置后，于1531年同他的4个兄弟一起，动身进行伟大的冒险。皮萨罗在翻越安第斯山脉时耽搁颇久，之后，于1532年11月15日到达已荒废了的卡哈马卡城。第二天，对这些陌生的“蓄络腮胡子的男子”感到好奇的印加统治者阿塔瓦尔帕正式访问了皮萨罗。皮萨罗仿效科尔特斯，把这位手无寸铁的、轻信的皇帝监禁起来，并残杀了他的许多随从。皇帝为获得自由付出了一大笔赎金——占地长22呎、宽17呎、高达7呎的一堆金银物品。皮萨罗攫取这笔财物后，却以惯常的背信弃义和固执向阿塔瓦尔帕提供这样的选择机会：或者作为异教徒在火刑柱上被烧死，或者作为基督教徒受洗礼，然后被绞死。这位不幸的皇帝选择了后者。于是，印加帝国处于无领袖的境地，而印加居民已习惯于家长式管辖，所以，他们进行不了什么抵抗。数星期后，皮萨罗开进首都库斯科，将它洗劫一空。第二年，即1535年，他动身去沿海地区，在那里兴建利马城；利马至今仍是秘鲁的首都。 科尔特斯和皮萨罗的成功鼓舞着其他征服者进入南、北美洲大陆的广大地区，寻找更多的战利品。他们没有找到可与阿兹特克人和印加人的金银财宝相媲美的东西，但是，在这过程中，他们却掌握了整个南美洲和很大一部分北美洲的主要地形。到16 世纪中叶，他们已从秘鲁沿着亚马孙河抵达其河口。至这一世纪末，他们已熟悉了从加利福尼亚湾南达火地岛、北至西印度群岛的整个南美洲的海岸线。同样，在北美洲，弗朗西斯科·科罗纳多为了寻找传说中的锡沃拉的七座黄金城，跋涉数千哩，发现了大峡谷和科罗拉多河。曾在征服秘鲁过程中崭露头角的埃尔南多·德索托广泛探察了后来成为美国的东南地区。他于1539年在佛罗里达登陆，向北前进到南卡罗来纳和北卡罗来纳，再往西行进至密西西比河，然后，从密西西比河与阿肯色河的汇合处沿密西西比河抵达其河口。这些人和其他许多同他们一样的人为西班牙人开辟美洲大陆的方式，与后来的拉萨尔、刘易斯和克拉克为操法语和英语的诸民族开辟美洲大陆的方式一样。 到1550 年，征服者们已完成他们的工作。西班牙人继续发展其海外属地的道路这时已畅通。由于美洲大陆的土著居民不象亚、非两洲的土著居民那样密集或被高度地组织起来，伊比利亚人有可能大批地在美洲拓居并强行推广自己的文化。因此，他们建立起欧洲的第一个真正的殖民地帝国——一个完全不同于非洲和亚洲的纯粹商业帝国的国家。 这些恃强凌弱的征服者作为帝国缔造者是颇为能干的，但作为帝国行政官员则平庸无能。他们不能过安定的生活；他们陷于内讧中，在长期的争斗和目相残杀的战争中使自己的士兵大批死亡。例如，曾征服秘鲁的皮萨罗兄弟5 人中，只有一人历经这些战争而幸存，而且，他是在西班牙监狱里给束自己的一生。这些征服者如果不受干涉，也许本可以逐渐发展起建立在剥削土著劳力基础上的、分散的、实际上独立的封建社区。但是，西班牙王室无意让这样的事态得到实现。它已抑制了西班牙国内的封建倾向，不会容忍出现新的海外封建贵族。因此，征服者们被强行树立王权和王室公正原则的官僚所取代。 居于这一帝国行政结构顶端的是西印度事务院，它设置在西班牙，受到君主的严密监督。它负责作出一切重要的任命，并对殖民地事务行使一般管辖权。美洲的最高权力是委托给分别坐镇在墨西哥城和利马的两名总督。墨西哥城的总督领导新西班牙总督辖区，它包括北美洲所有的西属殖民地以及西印度群岛、委内瑞拉和菲律宾群岛。利马的总督负责秘鲁总督辖区，它包括南美洲剩下的西属殖民地。这两大总督辖区再分成较小的单位，由检审法院即地方议会统辖；检审法院是仿照以往为管理新从穆斯林手中解放的地区而在西班牙设立的机构建立的。这些检审法院配备的工作人员是专业律师，他们通常没有过多的家族自豪感或军事野心，因而成为理想的王室仆人。16世纪时，这种检审法院在美洲有10个。 西班牙在南北美洲的行政管理的一个基本问题是如何对待印第安人。征服者及其后裔要求拥有放手对付印第安人的权力。他们论证说，土著无能、不可靠、奸诈，唯一切实可行的解决办法是建立基于强迫劳动的、无拘无束的地方领主统治权。强大的天主教会强烈反对这种论点。天主教传教土——尤其是著名的多明我会修士拉斯· 卡萨斯——坚持认为，印第安人是君主的臣民，和西班牙移民一起享有同等的权利。他们坚决主张，希望居住美洲大陆的欧洲人应撇开印第安人过活，应靠自己的劳动养活自己。同时，印第安人将生活在他们自己的酋长的治理下，不过，他们得服从于仁慈的王室官员的权力，得接受传教士给予的帮助。 最后结果如同通常在这种情况下所发生的，是采取有点折衷的解决办法。君主准许以“保护者”即大授地主闻名的有功的征服者有权向指定的印第安村庄提取规定的贡物，还有权征集强迫劳动。作为回报，大授地主必须服兵役并支付教区牧师的薪水。征集强迫劳动的规定显然打开了酷待土著的大门。因而，在16世纪中叶得到修改。迫使土著劳动的做法仍能实行，但这种强制是来自政府机构而非私人权力，而且，须按官方工资标准向如此征求来的劳动者支付报酬。毋庸置言，这些保护措施并不总是得到执行。诸殖民地距马德里太远了，它们彼此间也过于隔绝。然而，事实依旧是，西班牙人严肃、认真地讨论了一个无先例可援的问题；虽然他们实施了一种肯定是剥削印第安人的制度，但不象西班牙的敌人所声称的那么严重。 对西班牙殖民地帝国的经济来说，最重要的事实是金银源源而来。首先，存在着以往由世世代代的土著匠人制作的无数金银物品，征服者们迅速地将它们熔成锭块。接着，西班牙人在墨西哥和玻利维亚发现了丰富的银矿，派土著劳力大量开采。他们必须向国王的官员登记自己的所有权，将所有贵金属运至官署加盖戳记，并按其价值的五分之一的比率纳税，即缴纳五一税。从历贴至1660年，西班牙从美洲得到了总计18，600吨注册的白银和200吨注册的黄金。未经注册、私运入西班牙的金银现被不同地估计为从占总数的10 % 至50%；较小的百分比可能更接近实情。 除了开矿外，拉丁美洲的主要生产事业是大庄园的农业和牲畜饲养业以及位于热带沿海地区的种植场的单一经营。大庄园雇用印第安劳力生产粮食，以供自己消费和出售给附近的城市及矿区。种植场则完全不同，主要使用从非洲进口的奴隶，而且仅仅生产一种供应欧洲市场的作物。最早的种植场是在大西洋诸群岛——亚速尔群岛、马德拉群岛、佛得角群岛和加那利群岛——种植甘蔗的过程中逐渐形成的。以后，这种经营方式又在巴西和西印度群岛的甘蔗种植场以及稍后南北美洲的烟草、棉花和咖啡种植场中得到进一步发展。 16 世纪时，伊比利亚国家在欧洲海外事业中遥遥领先，从东方的香料贸易和美洲的银矿中获得了巨大财富。但是，到这一世纪末，它们却从各自的领先地位急速倒退。法国、荷兰和英国正愈益成功地侵犯葡届东方帝国和西属美洲殖民地的权益。要找到伊比利亚国家的这一衰落的根源，就须简要地考察当时各国的政治和战争。因为正是伊比利亚国家卷入欧洲当时的冲突这一点，可在很大程度上说明它们精疲力竭和衰落的原因。 16 世纪欧洲政治的显著特点是王朝的竞争和冲突。15世纪时，西欧已有一些强大的民族君主国发展起来；16世纪时，这些王朝间的均势被通过联姻而惊人地崛起的西班牙王室所破坏。斐迪南和伊莎贝拉将他们的女儿胡安娜嫁给哈普斯堡王室的腓力。胡安娜和腓力的儿子查理继承了西班牙联合王国、西班牙在美洲和意大利（撒丁、西西里、那不勒斯）的殖民地以及哈普斯堡王室在中欧的世袭领地（奥地利、施蒂里亚、卡林西亚、卡尼奥卡等四个公园和蒂罗尔州）。另外，查理的祖母勃艮第玛丽还传给他勃艮第领地，包括弗朗什孔泰、卢森堡和富裕的尼德兰。为了给这座堂皇的大厦作最后点缀，查理不顾分别来自法、英两国年青的君主弗兰西斯一世和亨利八世的反对，于1519年当选为神圣罗马帝国皇帝。因而，查理五世在19岁当上统治者时，领有的地区比从早7世纪查理曼帝国崩溃以来任何一位君主所拥有的地区还要大。 西欧一度看来似乎会再一次以一个庞大的国际组织统一起来。但是，欧洲其他王朝，尤其是法国的瓦卢瓦王朝，决心阻止哈普斯堡王室的霸权。结果，爆发了长长一系列的哈普斯堡——瓦卢瓦战争；战争主要在法国人和西班牙人之间进行。弗兰西斯一世极想找到援助，便与穆斯林奥斯曼帝国的苏丹苏里曼一世结盟。这一结盟使当时的基督教徒大为震惊，他们谴责它是“邪恶的联盟”，是“百合花和新月的渎圣的给合”。然而，法国人和土耳其人继续协力反对哈普斯堡王室，从而反映了中世纪统一的基督教世界的观念已为王朝利益所取代的程度。应该记住，查理在进行这些战争时，主要耗费的是西班牙人的鲜血和西班牙的财富，特别是在意大利进行的战争中。 那时的欧洲不仅为王朝斗争，也为宗教斗争所分裂。正是在1517 年，马丁·路德开始公开反对教会的某些做法，从而导致一场后来使西方基督教世界永久地分裂成天主教和新教这两大阵营的运动。由于路德拒绝放弃其主张，查理于1521年宣布路德为歹徒。但当时，土耳其人正向多瑙河上游进逼，在1529年，他们实际上已包围并几乎攻占地处欧洲中心的维也纳城。查理不得不在土耳其人的猛攻面前首当其冲；这就阻止他迅捷对付新教异教徒。待到查理能抽身对付时，他们已与中世纪时期的其他各种异教徒运动迅然有别，强大得教人无法把他们消灭。经过旷日持久的反新教徒斗争之后，查理被迫于1555年接受奥格斯堡宗教和约；该和约允许德国各诸侯和城镇在天主教和路德教之间作选择。 第二年，查理五世退位，隐居于一家修道院，他失望了。他已对付不了那些极其巨大、使他无法控制的力量。他将奥地利及其属地传给其弟斐迪南（斐迪南还被选为继查理之后的神圣罗马帝国皇帝人将帝国余下部分——西班牙、意大利属地、美洲殖民地以及包括尼德兰在内的勃艮第领地———传给其于腓力二世。腓力同他父亲一样，是个谨慎、勤勉的统治者，但也注定要遭受挫折和失败。他不仅从父亲那里继承了同法国的王朝斗争，还继承了和新教的宗教斗争。奥格斯堡和约仅适用于德国，因此，当新教传播到北欧其他地区时，新的紧张局势和冲突发展起来。尼德兰的情况尤其如此，腓力试图强迫那里所有的臣民接受天主教。1567年，荷兰人反叛，由此产生的一场剧烈的斗争到1598年腓力去世之际仍在蔓延。此外，注意到以下这点是很重要的；这场旷日持久的战争，腓力几乎完全依靠西班牙的人力和财富来进行，而且，这场战争不仅在陆上进行，也在海上进行，不仅同荷兰人打，也和英国人打。 除这些王朝势力和宗教势力之外，16 世纪的欧洲还深深地受到经济竞争的影响。整个欧洲贪婪地注视着源源流入葡萄牙的香料和大量流进西班牙的金银。法国人、荷兰人和英国人都渴望打破葡萄牙人在东方的垄断，都希望同日渐发展的西属美洲殖民地通商，都想要建立他们自己的殖民地，尽管教皇亚历山大已将海外世界在西班牙和葡萄牙之间作了划分。因此，英国人论证说：“尚未实际占有的权利不起作用”——也就是说，领土要求只有在业已有效占据的地区才会得到尊重。同样，法国人坚决认为“在西班牙国王未曾占有的地带，他们（法国人）不该受到干扰，他们在海上航行时亦如此，他们也不会同意被剥夺海洋或天空。” 荷兰人进行叛乱的重要原因在于经济方面。腓力向尼德兰征收繁重的税，并为了西班牙的商业利益，对荷兰人的商业实行限制。同样，英国人援助荷兰人，不仅是出于宗教上的考虑，也有经济上的原因。他们预计，如果西班牙对尼德兰的控制被打破，西班牙殖民地就会更易受到英国海上力量的攻击。这对英国人来说是何等重要，可由以下事实表明：1562年，即荷兰人开始叛乱的5年前，约翰·霍金斯开始其著名的航行，非法将一船奴隶贩运到伊斯帕尼奥拉岛，回来时成为普利茅斯最富裕的人。1564年，他又将另一般奴隶贩运到委内瑞拉和巴拿马地峡，返回时成为英国最富裕的人。他的第三次远航因受到西班牙人的伏击，惨遭失败。但是，霍金斯作出了示范，以后数十年间，英国船长们在援助荷兰人的同时，还劫掠西班牙的西印度群岛。1588年，腓力为了报复，派遣无敌舰队远征英国。伊丽莎白的富有经验的船长们击败无敌舰队，从而打破了腓力欲使天主教西班牙统治欧洲的希望。10年后，腓力和他父亲一样，失望地去世了。西班牙再也没能从这一世纪人力物力过度的、无效的浪费中恢复过来。 现回顾起来，西班牙统治者的过分扩张，显然对他们来说是致命的。他们试图不仅在海上，也在陆上扮主要角色。这与英国后来实行的颇为成功的战略形成鲜明对照。英国的战略是，置身于大陆事务的外围，只有在势力均衡受到严重威胁的情况下才进行干涉。这种战略使英国人能全力以赴地保护、发展自己的殖民地。而西班牙则和法国一样，集中注意力于欧洲大陆，并不断地卷入欧洲战争。最终结果是，英国人能建立起一个世界范围的庞大帝国，而西班牙人却先后失去了对自己帝国的经济控制和政治控制。 虽然伊比利亚国家无可置疑地为国外纠纷所削弱，但致使它们长期衰落的一个更实质的原因是，它们经济上一向长期依赖西北欧。它们在开始海外扩张以前是这样，在那以后依然如此。结果，它们不能利用自己新赢得的帝国所提供的经济良机，相反，这些帝国同母国一样，作为母国的殖民地和半殖民地而受到西北欧国家的控制。 伊比利亚国家的经济从属性同中世纪后期欧洲经济中心从地中海盆地整个地转移到北方是有关系的。这一转移的原因在于，北欧的生产力不断加速发展（见第二章第三节），使波罗的海——北海地区新的大宗贸易（谷物、木材、鱼和粗布）能超越地中海传统的奢侈品贸易（香料、丝绸、香水和珠宝）。随着欧洲经济的发展和生活水平的提高，迎合一般平民的大宗贸易的增长速度远远高于投合少数富人的奢侈品贸易。 北方的贸易由汉萨同盟控制，汉萨同盟在波罗的海和北海起了威尼斯和热那亚在地中海所起的作用。16 世纪，荷兰人建立起一支庞大、有效的商船队，很快将他们的控制扩展到大西洋沿海一带，从而逐退了汉萨同盟。以往，大西洋贸易一向由随带奢侈品向北航行的威尼斯人和热那亚人控制，而如今，则由携带散装货朝南行驶的荷兰人控制。在这新的贸易格局中，伊比利亚国家的经济从属性在输出品方面表现得很明显，它们的输出品几乎全是原料——西班牙出口的是酒、羊毛和铁矿，葡萄牙出口的是非洲的黄金和塞图巴尔的盐。作为回报，它们得到了各种冶金产品、盐、鱼以及它们自己的羊毛——这些羊毛已由外国加工成织物。 这些经济落后的伊比利亚国家能率先从事海外扩张，仅仅是因为它们幸运地兼备有利的地理位置、航海技术和宗教动力。但是，这一扩张没有经济实力和经济动力作后盾，这就说明了伊比利亚国家为什么不能有效地利用它们的新帝国。它们缺乏从事帝国贸易所必需的航运业以及能向西属美洲殖民地提供其所需的制成品的工业。诚然，有数十年西班牙的工业由于海外制造品市场的突然发展而受到促进，然而，约156O年前后，工业的发展停止了，随即开始了长期的衰落。 似乎颇有停常理的是，一个原因在于大批金银财宝源源流入国内，引起了急速的通货膨胀。西班牙的物价大致上涨为北欧物价的两倍，西班牙的工资仅略微落后于剧增的物价，而欧洲其余地区的工资则控制得很低。这使西班牙工业处于严重不利地位，因为其产品过于昂贵，无法在国际市场上竞争。 至少与物价和工资的膨胀一样重要的是西班牙贵族即伊达戈对国民经济和国民准则的破坏性影响。虽然贵族和高级教士合起来还不到人口的2％，他们却拥有95一97%的土地。因此，约占西班牙人总数的95%的农民几乎全都没有土地。剩下的3%是教士、商人和专门职业者，其中不少人为犹太人；就任何经济或社会的意义来说，他们不能算一个中产阶级。比较起享有社会地位和声望的贵族，他们大大地黯然失色。因此，由于贵族看不起经营商业或从事工业的职业、认为它们有损于任何绅士的身份，这一偏见便成为国民准则。这也不仅仅是无谓的虚荣，因为伊达戈确拥有一切好处——荣誉、免税和地产；地产比商业或工业财富更可靠。所以，有成就的商人的志向是获取地产、购买陷入穷困的王室所出卖的爵位，从而抛弃自己的阶级，成为伊达戈。这种伊达戈精神的破坏性影响在经济的各部门——在对牧羊业而非农业所显示的偏爱里，在对勤劳的犹太人和穆斯林的驱逐以及议会对商业和工业利益所持的否定态度中——均可感觉到。因此，16世纪上半世纪中西班牙突然繁荣的经济最终衰退了。 这一衰退结束了克服伊比利亚传统的经济落后和对西北欧的经济从属的任何可能性。它也注定伊比利亚的殖民地陷于相应的落后和从属地位。先是荷兰人，接着是英国人，控制了同西、葡两国殖民地的大部分运输业。西北欧人不久还供应了巴西和西属美洲所进口的制成品的90 ％以及伊比利亚半岛本身所消费的制成品的大部分。虽然塞维利亚商会垄断着与殖民地的全部贸易，并以法律严禁外国人参与其间，但是，控制航运业并拥有殖民地所需的制成品的正是外国人。不可避免地，西班牙商人以他们自己的名义输出原属于外国商行、由外国制造的商品。此外，外国的商人和金融家还煞费苦心地编造一连串谎话，通过代理人来成为塞维利亚商会的成员。于是，合法成员为外国人经营的巨额代办交易很快就超过他们自己的合法交易。最终结果从当时一位西班牙人的以下这番抱怨话中可清楚地看出来：“西班牙人在经过漫长而危险的长期航行之后从西印度群岛运来的一切，他们以鲜血和努力获得的一切，外国人轻易、舒适地夺走了，运回自己的祖国。” 富有讽刺意味的是，西班牙海外事业的最后结果是进一步刺激西北欧迅速发展的资本主义经济，而在伊比利亚半岛，它仅仅提供了足够的财富，以阻挡早该实行的基本的制度改革的压力。这就是帝国繁荣数十年后随即突然地、无可挽回地衰落的根本原因。