Empires in the Sixteen Century - Essay Example

16th Century Empires Although the Europeans, Andeans, and Mesoamericans had all established dominant empires by the year 1500 AD, each utilized different means and resources to fuel their imperial expansion. All three were able to accomplish their imperial expansion successfully but while the Europeans growth depended on the people they ruled, the other two empires expanded their domains. The "Spanish" empire did obviously take advantage of the foreign territories it conquered, the two empires in the Western hemisphere had a more sympathetic relationship with its peoples save for Mesoamericans who make their captives as human sacrifice to their god. To put the comparison in perspective, it has to be noted that religion dominated the public sphere of almost all civilization in the world be it among Europeans, Middle Easters, Andeans or Mesoamericans during the 15th century. Whether it be a the theistic god of the Christian or the pantheistic god of the Andeans and Mesoamericans, religion played a major role in their society. The extent of religious influence however on the policies that govern its empire varies with each civilization. There are civilizations or societies whose imperialistic thrust may be primarily motivated or at least veiled by religion such as the European Spaniards, and there are also societies or civilizations who adopted a more pragmatist approach toward its expansionary ambition such as Incas of the Andeans. We can cite as a classic example the Spaniards in 1521 who were at the height of its religious fervor sending its missionaries to pagan countries to hear the word of God from the Catholic church. Ferdinand Magelland, the leader of the expeditionary Spanish Fleet was in fact looking for spices in the exotic world but used religion to subjugate the natives of the Philippines when it landed in Mactan. It did not tell the natives that they were really there looking for spices and other items for trade but rather used the cross and the sword to justify their presence. What followed is a more than 300 years of colonial rule characterized by theocracy to usurp the country of its natural resources. Compared to the Incans who were dominant among the Andeans during its height in the 15th century, the Incans as representative of the Andeans were more pragmatic in its approach in gaining material resources to sustain its empire. From periods 1438 to 1533, the Andeans used a wide variety of method to sustain herself that ranged from conquest to peaceful assimilation that would integrate territories that they captured into their mainstream society (Conrad and Demarest 86). They also had a developed agriculture and trade that helped sustain their empire. The Andeans also did not have the “pretension” of spreading their empire through the use of religion as did the Europeans (characterized by the Spaniard’s Catholicism and Britain’s Protestanism) but instead expanded its territory with the intent of widening its economic base. It has to be noted that Andeans in the 15th century had a developed agricultural and trade economy and therefore is capable of sustaining herself with lesser pressure to expand unlike her European counterpart who were in a tremendous pressure to expand either because of religious zeal, economic necessity (needing more resources to finance their wars) and pride. As imperialist masters, Andeans were also more sympathetic to their subjects compared to their European counterpart. For example, the height of Incan imperialism was during the reign of Pachacutis son Túpac Inca Yupanqui, they only sought to consolidate the conquered lands and accounts its accompanying wealth. The people of the conquered lands were either integrated into its society and military or asked to help out other tasks in Incan society. They were also asked to pay their tribute or tax that helped and sustained the Andean empire. While the Incans were equally fervent in their religious faith with the Europeans that they also require their subjects to also acknowledge their god, they were however more tolerant for them to practice their own religious faith and custom. In contrast contrast, the European Spaniard massacred 2,000 Incas and hundreds of thousands of the Mesoamericans during its conquest of both civilizations. The use of religious zeal either as an excuse to justify expansionary ambition (such as the case of the Spaniards in using the “cross” to convert the natives when in fact it was really looking for spices), or the genuine intention to proselyte its subject under the pain of death to spread the word of God was dominant motivation of European expansionism. But regardless if religion played a central role or just a “sugar coat” among Europeans to justify its expansionist ambition, the ulterior motive of economics cannot be denied. By 1500s, Europe was in destitute due to its losses both in human capital and resource in the crusades and its territory became relatively small, after losing much of its former territories to the Muslims. It was also confounded by internecine conflicts that drove Europe in further destitution. But annexing countries and territories with the naked motivation of expanding both her territory and wealth provides no moral justification just like the crusade. And thus, justifying expansionism under the name of God proved to be effective in committing people towards their expansionary cause. The crimes that would be committed in its behalf, such as the massacres of Andeans and Mesoamericans can be easily downplayed by using religious imperative such as the “Will of God” to subjugate another civilization. Among the Mesoamericans in the 15th century, the Azteks were prominent since the Teotihuacan when they were discovered by the Europeans. The Azteks too had an imperialism episode but unlike the Andeans whose motivation in embarking their imperialist endeavors to expand their territories and economic base with an expanded economy and taxation, the Azteks engaged in expansionary pursuit and used religious reason to sustain its economic empire. The Azteks were known to offer human sacrifices to their god and their acts of sacrifice has actually economic basis. They believe that the red sky as the morning dawns is made of blood and believed that the sky has to be supplied by human blood for it to continue to rise over the Aztek sky. Such, human sacrifices were often made which were supplied by their captives and thus the need to conquer territories and people. Unlike their kindred Andeans who sought to expand their empire to increase its territory and sustain it by the economic production of those lands and tribute of its people, Mesoamericans believed that for as long as the sun rises, their economic well being will be taken cared of their god and as such, they sustain their empires by feeding their god with human sacrifices whom they expected to sustain the economic well being of their empire. Both civilizations however fell asunder with the religious zeal of the Spanish conquistadores. Both the Andeans and Mesoamericans were subjugated brutally in the name of Jesus Christ that can be compared in the manner on how the Muslims were massacred when the crusaders invaded the Holy Land in the First Crusade. Conversions and proselyting were violent and sometimes brutal that at some point, there were two thousand Andeans were massacred as the conquistadores assert Christianity. Temples, places of worship and religious institutions were burned to ground which was the opposite with the Andeans’ treatment with its captives whom they allowed to practice their own faith and tradition. The Mesoamericans also suffered the same fate from the Spanish conquistadores that Nolan estimated that “It is possible that over 1 million Mesoamericans died during the course of the Spanish conquest, 1519–1521, most from disease but several tens of thousands in battle” (143). After using religion to justify its brutal conquests of the Andeans and Mesoamericans, the European Spaniards then implemented the encomienda system or their method of extracting resources from the Andeans and Mesoamericans. Still, this encomienda system bears the moral pretension of using religion in subjugating another territory. In theory, encomienda system grants a recipient of a number of people of which he or she was supposed to protect from warring tribes or any form of conflicts. In practice however, this is just a sugar coated form of slavery where the grantee acts as a vassal lord and the people entrusted to him or her are treated like slaves where they are forced to give tributes, taxes or whatever the grantee would ask thus sustaining the European empire because this grantees would in turn remit portion of the tributes and taxes collected. Such, the major difference between the three civilizations in sustaining its empire was that the Europeans were unsympathetic among its subjects in extracting the resources through the encomienda system that would sustain itself. The Andeans also demands taxes from the people they conquered but integrates them into their own society. The Mesoamericans are quite fatalistic because they believe that the blood of their human sacrifices will sustain their empire and thus engages into conflict to capture people that would be used as sacrifice. Works Cited Conrad Geoffrey, Demarest Arthur. Religion and Empire: The dynamics of Aztec and Inca expansionism. Cambridge University Press Nolan, Cathal J. NolanThe Ages of Wars of Religions, 1000-1650: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization. GREENWOOD PRESSWestport, Connecticut London.2006 Read More