1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created (76 page)

  52
Expansion into Laos: Author’s interviews and e-mails, Jefferson Fox (East-West Center, Hawaii), Yayoi Fujita (University of Chicago), Horst Weyerhaeuser (National Agricultural and Forestry Research Institute, Vientiane), Klaus Goldnick and Weiyi Shi (GTZ, Luang Namtha), Yunxia Li (Macquarie University). Shi 2008 (subsidies); Fujita 2008 (Sing District); Vongkhamor et al. 2007 (2010 total, 6); Fujita et al. 2006; Rutherford et al. 2008:15–16. Sing District covers more than six hundred square miles, but most of it is unusably steep and roadless.

  53
Increase in runoff, erosion, water depletion: Ziegler et al. 2009; Guardiola-Claramonte et al. 2008; Stone 2008; Cao et al. 2006 (fog); Wu et al. 2001. See also, Mann 2009.

  54
Flights, highway: Fuller 2008; author’s visit, interviews with airlines in Bangkok and Vientiane. The road is only two lanes, but that’s more than ever before in the region.

  55
Potential
M. ulei
disaster, lack of progress on blight: U.S. Department of Defense 2008 (biological weapon); Lieberei 2007 (“dieback of trees,” 1); Onokpise 2004 (collection from Brazil); Garcia et al. 2004 (potentially resistant clones); Vinod 2002 (narrowness of genetic base, difficulties of improvement); Weller 1999:table 2 (biological weapon); Davis 1998:123–41 (“synthetic tires,” 136).

CHAPTER
8 /
Crazy Soup

    1
Chapel: Alegría 1990:71–77 (first church); Porras Muñoz 1982:130, 399 (Eleven Thousand Martyrs); Gerhard 1978:453–55; Herrera y Tordesillas 1601–15:vol. 1, 344–45 (Dec. 2, bk. 10, chap. 12; Herrera confusedly calls him “Juan Tirado”).

    2
Garrido’s upbringing, time in Iberian Peninsula: Alegría 1990:15–22; Icaza 1923:vol. 1, 98.

    3
Restall is skeptical: E-mails to author, Restall; Restall 2000:174, 177. As evidence, Alegría cites Saco’s history of American slavery (1879:44), but Saco simply observes that one Portuguese adventurer who made two trips to Africa in the 1480s brought some free Africans to Lisbon. In addition Portugal did not permit free non-Christians to enter the country, so Garrido would have had to convert, probably from Islam. See also, Blackburn 1997:78–79.

    4
Tens of thousands of slaves: The classic estimate by Domínguez Ortiz (1952:9) is at most 100,000 for the whole peninsula, “a phenomenon of considerable size, with notable sociological, economic and even ethnic consequences”; later Cortés López estimated about 58,000 in Spain alone (1989:204).

    5
Garrido’s arrival: Garrido’s
probanza
(testament) of 1538 says “more or less twenty-eight years ago I crossed over to the island of Hispaniola,” implying an arrival in 1510, too late to accompany Ponce de León to Puerto Rico in 1508. Alegría believes it most likely that he came between 1503 (the beginning of larger-scale slave importation) and 1508 (the conquest of Puerto Rico). My thanks to Scott Sessions for providing me with a copy of the
probanza
and his translation. A transcription appears in Alegría 1990:127–38.

    6
Garrido in Caribbean: Alegría 1990 (Puerto Rico, 29–30; Florida, 37–41; punitive expeditions, 46–47; Cortés, 59–65). Alegría suggests that Garrido sailed with Pánfilo de Narváez, who came to Mexico a year after Cortés; Garrido may be the African called “Guidela” whom Díaz del Castillo (1844:vol. 1, 327) recalls supporting Cortés’s takeover of Narváez’s force.

    7
Attack on Tenochtitlan: The best modern history I have come across is Hassig 2006 (failure of first assault, 111–19; 200,000 native allies, 175). Of the four contemporary accounts, the most important is Díaz del Castillo (1844).

    8
Smallpox (text and footnote): Hassig 2006:124–30, 186–89; Mann 2005:92–93, 127–29; Crosby 2003:45–51 (a classic account); Restall 2000:178 (“scapegoating”); Durán 1994:563. The evidence for the role of Eguía or Baguía is examined skeptically in Henige 1986.

    9
Ambush: Hassig 2006:165–66; Durán 1994:552–54 (“upon it,” 553; “then and there,” 554); Díaz del Castillo 1844:vol. 2, 82–90 (“distance,” 84).

  10
Garrido’s chapel as graveyard: Díaz del Castillo 1844:vol. 2, 102.

  11
Garrido’s jobs: Restall 2000:191 (“guard”); Alegría 1990:92–97, 105–07 (expedition); Porras Muñoz 1982:109–10.

  12
Garrido’s wheat: Alegría 1990:79–85; Gerhard 1978:455–56; López de Gómara 1870:vol. 2, 365 (“much benefit”); Tapia 1539:vol. 2, 592–93 (three kernels); González de León, J. 1538. Statement, 11 Oct. (?). In Alegría 1990:132–33 (experimental farm); Salvatierra, R. 1538. Statement, 4 Oct. (?). In ibid.:134–36 (Garrido’s wheat as foundation of Mexican crop). Tapia’s figures are different from those of López de Gomara, but the idea is the same. My thanks to Scott Sessions for the translations; I added the exclamation point, which seemed to me to express the chronicler’s tone.

  13
Folk knowledge: Farmers in central and southern Mexico have told me this several times. I have not seen evidence to prove it.

  14
Humankind mixing: I take this point from Crosby (1986:2–3).

  15
Migration figures: Eltis et al. 2009–; Horn and Morgan 2005:21–22 (European totals); Eltis 2001; Eltis 1983 (“nineteenth century,” 255; European totals, 256). If one includes indentured servants, the ratio of free to unfree becomes even more lopsided (Tomlins 2001:8–9). For a review of Indian numbers, see Denevan 1992a, b; a popular description is Mann 2005.

  16
Foundational institution: Here I summarize ideas from a host of scholars, among them Ira Berlin, C. R. Boxer, David Brion Davis, Eugene Genovese, Melville Herskovits, Philip Morgan, Stuart Schwartz, Robert Voeks, Eric Wolf, and Peter Wood (to name only English-language researchers). As Davis (2006:102) puts it, “[B]lack slavery was basic and integral to the entire phenomenon we call ‘America.’ ”

  17
Garrido’s last years: Alegría 1990:113 (1640s), 127–38 (Garrido’s
probanza
); Icaza 1923:vol. 1, 98 (poverty, three children).

  18
Military leaders leave Jerusalem as fighting ends: Albert of Aachen 1120:374–75.

  19
Crusaders take Muslim sugar plantations: Ouerfelli 2008:38–41; Ellenbaum 2003; Boas 1999:81–83; Mintz 1986:28–30; Phillips 1985:93–95.

  20
Sugarcane genetics: Irvine 1999.

  21
Early sugar processing: Galloway 2005:19–21; Daniels 1996:191–92 (500
B.C.
), 278–80, 284–96.

  22
Sugar in Middle East: Ouerfelli 2008:31–37; Galloway 2005:23–27.

  23
“life to it”: Pollan 2001:18.

  24
Crusaders love sugar, decide to sell it: Ouerfelli 2008:3, 75–76 (sugar in Europe); William of Tyre (
A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea
[1182]), quoted in Phillips 1985:93 (“of mankind”); Albert of Aachen 1120:305–06 (“its sweetness”).

  25
Plantation definition: Craton 1984:190–91.

  26
Wage-earning workers: Ouerfelli 2008:287–306 (Sicily, 302–04); Blackburn 1997:76–78. Captive labor was only used in fifteenth-century Cyprus, where Muslims captured by pirates were put in the fields (Ouerfelli 2008:290).

  27
Colón’s marriage: Colón 2004:32–33.

  28
Rabbits in Porto Santo: Zurara 1896–99:245–47 (“owing to the multitude of rabbits, which are almost without end, no tillage is possible there,” 247).

  29
Donkey slaughter: Abreu de Galindo 1764:223.

  30
Madeira fire: Ca’ da Mosto 1895:26 (two days); Frutuoso 1873:61 (seven years), 353, 460–71.

  31
Refashioning Madeira for sugar: Vieira 2004:42–48 (factor of more than a thousand, 48; prices, 62–63); Vieira 1998:5–9; Crosby 1986:76–78; Craton 1984:208–09; Greenfield 1977:540–43.

  32
Iberian slavery: Blackburn 1997:49–54; Cortés López 1989:esp. 84–88, 140–49, 237–39; Domínguez Ortiz 1952:esp. 17–23 (“sumptuary article,” 19).

  33
Madeira as springboard for plantation slavery: Vieira 2004:58–74 (“starting point,” 74); Curtin 1995:24; Crosby 1986:79; Phillips 1985:149; Craton 1984:209–11 (although he argues that São Tomé and Príncipe had “the most potential as pure plantation colonies”); Greenfield 1977:544–48 (Madeira “provided the link” between sugar in the Mediterranean and the American plantations, 537); Frutuoso 1873:655. Fernández-Armesto (1994:198–200) agrees that Madeira’s growth was “spectacular” but argues that the Cape Verde Islands, which had more slaves, were where “a new model was introduced: the slave-based plantation economy.”

  34
São Tomé mosquitoes: Ribiero et al. 1998.

  35
São Tomé colonization: Disney 2009:vol. 2, 110–12 (female slaves, 4; Europeans, 111); Magalhães 2008:169–72; Seibert 2006:21–58 (Dutch, 29; bishop, 32; “go out,” 52); Thornton 1998:142 (exiled priests); Craton 1984:210–11; Gourou 1963 (two thousand children, 361). The Dutch took the island a third time in 1637 and managed to hang on for a decade.

  36
São Tomé sugar: Disney 2009:112–13; Seibert 2006:25–27; Varela 1997:295–98; Vieira 1992:n.p. (31; in 1615 there were just sixty-five plantations); Frutuoso 1873:655–56 (I am citing notes from the editor, Alvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo).

  37
Lack of yellow fever, malaria, mosquitoes: See, e.g., Capela 1981:64 (absence of vectors); Davidson 1892:vol. 2, 702 (“Malaria is entirely unknown in Madeira.… Yellow Fever has never visited this island”); La Roche 1855:141; James 1854:100.

  38
Madeira switches from plantation slavery: Disney 2009:90–92; Vieira 1992:n.p.(29–32, 41–42); Rau and de Macedo 1962 (not monoculture, foreign owners, 23–25); Brown 1903:e21, e32 (“fever, etc.”).

  39
São Tomé resistance: Seibert 2006:35 (thirty mills); Varela 1997:298–300. See also Harms 2002:283–92.

  40
São Tomé’s fate: Disney 2009:113–15; Seibert 2006:30–58 passim; Frynas et al. 2003:52–60; Eyzaguirre 1989.

  41
Cortés’s estate: Barrett 1970:fig. 1. My thanks to Peter Dana, who digitized Barrett’s map of the estate to produce the area estimates cited here. See also, Von Wobeser 1988:esp. 38–55.

  42
Cortés’s activities, return to Spain: Chipman 2005:46 (king’s fear of conquistadors); Riley 1972; Barrett 1970:9–13 (mines, ranches, shipyard); Scholes 1958 (tapestries, clothes, 12; investing, 17; shopping mall, 19; gold panning, 20–21; ranches and hog farms, 23; shipbuilding, 26–27); Voltaire 1773:vol. 6, 46 (“cities”).

  43
Brief Account
: Las Casas 1992 (quotes, 57, 65)

  44
“Catholic faith”:
Inter Caetera
(2). Papal Bull of May 4, 1493. In Symcox ed. 2001:34–37, at 36–37. The bull is probably postdated from the summer. The pope issued three similarly worded bulls in response to Colón’s voyage, two of which were called
Inter Caetera.

  45
Little interest in evangelization: Simpson 1982:14–21; Konetzke 1958. Spain’s long fight against the Moors was a fight against a government, not a religion—“the subjugated Moorish people were guaranteed the free exercise of their Mohammedan belief.” Only after Spain’s final victory over the Moors in 1492 did “the missionary idea come to the fore” (Konetzke 1958:517–18), because Fernando II and Isabel believed that enforced religious unity would serve the political purpose of unifying their fractious kingdom. Even Colón was not an evangelizer; on his later voyages, at the monarchs’ insistence, he brought clergy, but made no effort at conversion.

  46
Colón’s slaves and Isabel’s actions: Simpson 1982:2–5; Las Casas 1951:vol. 1, 419–22; Herrera y Tordesillas 1601–15:vol. 1, 251 (Dec. 1, bk. 7, chap. 14) (Isabel); Cuneo 1495:188 (550); Colón, C. 1494. Memorial to the Sovereigns, Jan. 30. In Varela and Gil eds. 1992:254–73, esp. 260–61 (justifications).

  47
Encomienda
system founded: Guitar 1999, 1998:96–103; Simpson 1982:esp. chap. 1 (“In reality the encomienda, at least in the first fifty years of its existence, was looked upon by its beneficiaries as a subterfuge for slavery,” xiii). The system inadvertently reproduced elements from the Triple Alliance and Inka, which also took labor tribute from conquered peoples.

  48
Cortés’s Indian labor: Von Wobeser 1988:42–44, 55–57, 60 (mill); Riley 1972:273–77; Barrett 1970:86–89, table 11 (two hundred acres); Scholes 1958:18 (three thousand Indian slaves). Scholes’s estimate is for the immediate post-conquest period. A 1549 inventory is the only later source for Cortés’s Indian slaves (only 186 were left, because most had died in mines).

  49
“in the Indies”: Colmeiro ed. 1884:202–03.

  50
New Laws and reaction: Elliott 2006:132 (Mexico); Hemming 1993:256–59 (Peru); García Icazbalceta ed. 1858–66:vol. 2, 204–19 (text of laws). The New Laws also abolished the creation of new
encomiendas
and made the old ones not inheritable. The Mexican viceroy proclaimed “
obedezco pero no cumplo
”—I obey the law but do not enforce it.

  51
Cortés’s deal: Beltrán 1989:22; Riley 1972:278–79; Barrett 1970:78. Three bigger contracts were signed before Cortés’s deal, one of them for four thousand slaves. Relatively few slaves were sent across the Atlantic from these efforts (some turned up in Europe). Cortés’s deal was the first to
deliver
hundreds of slaves to American plantations (Beltrán 1989:20–24; Rout 1976:37–39).

  52
La Isabela teeth: Author’s interviews and e-mail, T. Douglas Price; Lyderson 2009. At the time of publication, the find had not been reported in a peer-reviewed journal.

  53
Instructions: King and Queen of Spain. 1501. Instructions to Nicolas de Ovando, 16 Sep. In Parry and Keith 1984:vol. 2, 255–58.

  54
“cannot be captured”: Herrera y Tordesillas 1601–15:vol. 1, 180.

  55
Import of Indians, desirability of Africans: Guitar 2006:46, 1998:270–74 (Indians), 278–79 (Africans); Morel 2004:103–04; Las Casas 1992:30 (Bahamas); Anghiera 1912:vol. 2, 254–55, 270–71 (Bahamas).