Topic 1.7 Notes – Rivals on the World Stage

How Overseas Expansion Changed European Power Politics

Portugal and Spain got the early jump through 15th- and 16th-century exploration. What matters here is what that did to Europe. Overseas wealth helped states pay for armies, navies, and diplomacy, so colonial success could shift the balance of power back in Europe.

States usually thought in mercantilist terms. Trade looked zero-sum. If one rival controlled a rich colony or a key route, another rival lost profit, customs revenue, and naval advantage.

Empire-building used coercion and negotiation together:

• Coercion included conquest, naval attacks, seizure of ports, armed chartered companies, and forcing rivals out of trade.
• Negotiation included treaties, trade contracts, alliances with indigenous rulers, and deals with merchants or local authorities.

That combination shows up constantly. Cortés conquered by force, but he also needed indigenous allies. Peace treaties ended wars, but those treaties redistributed colonies and trading rights.

The map gives you the big picture. Overseas competition spread across the Americas, parts of Africa, and Asian trade routes, which is why colonial rivalry mattered so much inside Europe itself.

European overseas empires around 1800

The First Overseas Powers and Why Their Lead Did Not Last

Portugal and Spain led first. In the 17th century, France, England, and the Netherlands challenged them.

Treaty of Tordesillas

The Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 divided overseas claims between Spain and Portugal with papal backing. A line west of the Cape Verde Islands gave Spain lands to the west and Portugal lands to the east.

• Spain got most of the Americas.
• Portugal secured African and Indian Ocean routes and later Brazil.

The map below shows the Tordesillas line and the later line near the Moluccas, which helps you see that Spain and Portugal tried to divide claims on a global scale.

Treaty of Tordesillas and later demarcation lines

This is negotiation in action, but its limits matter. France, England, and the Dutch never accepted that Spain and Portugal could divide the world by themselves.

Spain’s empire and 16th-century dominance

Spain built colonies in the Caribbean, North and South America, and the Pacific.

• Cortés conquered the Aztec Empire.
• Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire.
• Cortés also relied on Tlaxcalan and other indigenous allies, which is a classic coercion-plus-negotiation example.
• Silver from Potosí and Zacatecas gave Spain huge resources.
• The Philippines and Manila galleon trade linked Spanish America to Asia.

Under Charles V and Philip II, that colonial wealth helped make Spain the dominant monarchy of the 16th century. The limit was that silver got drained by wars and debt, and rivals attacked Spanish shipping.

Portugal’s trading-post empire

Portugal built a looser empire of forts, ports, and trading posts in Africa, Brazil, and the Indian Ocean. It was more maritime and commercial than Spain’s big territorial empire in the Americas.

That system was vulnerable because Portugal did not have enough people or power to lock down such a huge network. Dutch and English merchants pushed into Indian Ocean trade and displaced Portuguese positions.

The Atlantic Challengers

France, England, and the Netherlands built colonies, companies, and navies to break Iberian dominance.

France

• Quebec was founded in 1608.
• French influence spread through the St. Lawrence, Great Lakes, and Mississippi Valley.
• French power depended on forts, missions, fur trade, and indigenous alliances.
• In the Caribbean, Saint-Domingue became extremely valuable.

England

• Jamestown 1607 and Plymouth 1620 anchored Atlantic coast settlement.
• England also built Caribbean plantation colonies like Barbados and Jamaica (taken from Spain in 1655).
• Francis Drake attacked Spanish shipping as a privateer.
• England’s growing merchant marine and navy let it challenge Spain, then the Dutch and French.

The Netherlands

• The Dutch Republic rose during its revolt against Spain.
• The VOC was founded in 1602 and the Dutch West India Company in 1621.
• Batavia on Java became a major trade center.
• The Dutch held New Netherland and briefly parts of Brazil.
• The Anglo-Dutch Wars (1652-1674) were fought over shipping and trade. England seized New Netherland and renamed it New York.

The Major Conflicts That Reshaped the Balance of Power

By the 18th century, European war and colonial rivalry were tightly linked. Fighting happened in Europe and overseas at the same time.

The asiento and access to Spanish trade

The asiento was a contract to supply enslaved Africans to Spanish America. It mattered because it gave limited access to Spain’s colonial market. At Utrecht in 1713, Britain gained the asiento and the right to send one trading ship each year.

War of the Spanish Succession

This war lasted from 1701 to 1713 after Charles II of Spain died without an heir. Europe feared a Bourbon union of France and Spain.

The Peace of Utrecht let Philip V keep Spain but renounce any claim to France. Britain gained Gibraltar, Minorca, Newfoundland, Acadia, Hudson Bay, and the asiento. Dynastic politics, trade, and colonial power were all tied together here.

Seven Years’ War

The Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) was the clearest global war of the period.

• Fighting spread across Europe, North America, the Caribbean, West Africa, India, and the seas.
• In North America, the French and Indian War centered on the Ohio Valley.
• In India, the British East India Company beat French-supported forces.
• The Treaty of Paris in 1763 gave Britain Canada and Florida.

This map captures that global scale, with major empires and key conflict zones spread across North America, Europe, and India.

Global empires and conflict zones in the Seven Years’ War

By 1763, Britain had become the strongest European naval and colonial power.