Part 27

As has been seen, the Ottoman Empire began to decay from the top. The Sultan finally became the mere figurehead of palace intrigues, and the effect of the rottenness in the supreme head of a centralized military despotism was widespread. Taxation became extravagantly burdensome; the royal domains were alienated, the coinage was debased, offices were sold to the highest bidder, and this general venality caused the disappearance of the military fiefs from which the armies of the empire had been recruited.

The Janitschars lost their characteristic qualities as warriors when the custom of recruiting them from the Christian population was abandoned. They finally degenerated into a mere rabble of turbulent blackguards, composed of the worst elements of all nationalities, Christian and Moslem, who disappeared from the ranks during a war, or fled from the battlefield and lived normally by blackmail or by illicit trading. The abandonment of this living tithe was due probably to the jealousy of the Moslem families, who objected to the monopolizing by men of Christian birth of the lucrative privileges attached to an élite corps. The last time the tithe was collected was in 1676, when 3000 youths were brought in as recruits. With the abolition of the Janitschars dates the rise of the bands of brigands among both the Slavic and Hellenic populations. The able-bodied members of the conquered races found in this sphere of activity a chance for developing their capacities in guerrilla warfare; with the training and traditions so acquired they were able in later years to act as the leaders in the national movements which, during the course of the nineteenth century, ended in the dismemberment of the Ottoman provinces in Europe.

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SPANISH CONQUERORS

I THE SPANIARD AND THE NEW WORLD

In the century which followed the discovery of America, not only was the lead in initiative taken by Spain never lost, but she practically had no competitors in the conquest and colonization of the New World. If the lines of medieval enterprise had been followed in the opening up of new territories for economic development, it should have fallen either to Venice or to Genoa to undertake the work of exploration and exploitation of these unknown regions. But times had changed, and the Italian republics had changed with them. Under the stress of the Turkish conquests, which had led to the organization of a great military and naval power in the East, Venice could follow nothing but a policy of self-protection that admitted neither of expansion nor of adventure. Internal changes in the Italian peninsula, indicated by the overlordship of Milan, had reduced the power of Genoa, which had already been weakened by her long contest with Venice for the naval mastery of the Mediterranean.

The rise of Spain was phenomenal; nothing exactly resembling it had been seen before, except in the case of those great tribal or national invasions that so often altered the face of Europe. For centuries, like Italy before the advent of Italian unity, Spain was only a geographical expression. Only fourteen years before Columbus’ first voyage, the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile had consolidated the royal power on the Iberian peninsula and made these two Spanish monarchs lords of the whole land south of the Pyrenees, except in the kingdoms of Granada in the south, of Portugal in the west, and of Navarre in the north. A steady policy of aggression and conquest soon brought about the disappearance of the small kingdom of Granada. Between 1486 and 1489 Loja, Malaga, and Baza had been taken; Granada alone held out a few years more. Ferdinand, a most astute monarch of the type of Louis XI of France and Henry VII of England, had already crushed the Portuguese faction in Castile, who had favored the alliance of their queen with the King of Portugal. His ideals were for an absolute monarchy, which, by the elimination of feudal traditions and by the accumulation of wealth, might become the predominant power in western Europe.

There was no reason for Spain to become a colonizing power in the modern sense, since the peninsula was a sparsely populated country, large tracts of land having been opened up for occupation by the Christian conquests of Moorish territory. In preceding centuries, when the Christian princes began to win back, piece by piece, the lands belonging to the Moslems, a conciliatory policy had been adopted towards the conquered race; the Moors had kept their personal liberties and had been encouraged to group themselves in autonomous communities in the suburbs of Christian cities. Even when Granada was taken, favorable terms were given to its inhabitants, although in the end the promises were broken. They were conceded liberty of person, trade, education, and worship, the protection of Mohammedan law, administered by Mohammedan judges, and the benefit of mixed tribunals. But here and elsewhere Ferdinand’s methods were a consistent application of the principles of an autocrat, and, when the New World fell as a prize to the Spanish conquerors, the usages of expansion by conquest at home in the Iberian peninsula were mercilessly applied. When Malaga was taken, the captive inhabitants were sold as slaves; one-third of the proceeds of the sale was taken for the redemption of Christian captives in Africa; another was given to those who had served in the army of occupation either as mercenaries or as officials, and the remaining portion was paid into the royal treasury. As to the land, it was laid out for a colony. The large tracts opened to colonization were offered on easy conditions to the Christian inhabitants of Spain.

It was not land hunger, therefore, which prompted the Spanish monarchs to accept Columbus’ scheme of a westward route to the rich empires of the Orient. Profit-bringing trade by which stores of specie could be accumulated attracted the founders of Spanish absolutism. The project itself was not viewed with skepticism; its scientific basis was cogent; there were besides widely circulated stories of land existing in the West. But the one practical difficulty in the way of fitting out the proposed expedition was the war with the Moors of Granada, by which the Spanish treasury had been exhausted. After the city fell in January, 1492, several months were spent in haggling over terms. Columbus had made up his mind that if the voyage were sucessful he should be adequately rewarded for his trouble. Apart from conditions as to offices and the administration of the newly acquired possessions, it was agreed that he was to receive one clear tenth of all merchandise, whether gold, silver, pearls, spices, or whatsoever else was gained or gotten for the crown in his new jurisdiction. Moreover, there was a further clause inserted that in case Columbus should choose to contribute to the equipment of vessels employed in the new trade to the extent of one-eighth, he was to be at liberty to do so, thereby entitling himself to one-eighth part of the profits.

The prospects of a great trading adventure seemed altogether alluring. It must be remembered that the discoverer carried with him a letter from the Catholic monarchs to the Grand Khan of Tartary; and that it was this opening up of a direct trade route, with enormous possibilities for commercial profit, that inspired the Spanish conquest of America. Even after the configuration of the new continent had been made out by later voyagers, the fascination of establishing a connection with the Orient remained a strong inducement. Then as it faded away as an immediate possibility, the opportunity of securing large hoards of the precious metals stimulated discovery and exploration. The lust of territorial conquest remained associated with the lust of gold. The Spanish adventurer had no ideal aims; he was not attracted by the American continent because it offered a new home or because it presented a chance for trying political experiments. There was the same single-mindedness in the conquistador ideal as is seen to-day in the trust magnate who is searching for oil wells. The sordid aims called forth by the success of Columbus’ expedition were not developed by the contest with the natives occupying the lands whose possession was coveted.

When the Spanish conquerors arrived in those unknown islands of the western sea the American continent was held by a number of the Turanian races which had one time peopled most of the Old World. Only a few relics of their predominance are seen in the Europe of to-day in the Basques, the Finns, and the Esthonians. Long before historical times the process of uniting Asia and Europe with America had begun. Probably thousands of years before the rise of Caucasian civilization along the Nile and the Euphrates, Turanian hordes found their way across the Behring Straits. Little capacity for attaining the arts of civilized life was shown by the American Turanians; there were, it is true, differences in social organization, but the general level of civilization was not far above the savage type, even in the Valley of Mexico or in Quito and Cuzco in South America.

Those who took part in the overthrow of the Aztec and Inca governments magnified their own achievements by describing themselves as the conquerors of great civilized empires. Such fictions were natural in men who desired to exalt the difficulties of a suddenly achieved fame, and the exaggeration was the more easily believed because of their seizure of large stores of those precious metals by which, in the Old World, progress in civilization was measured. From the point of view both of the home government and of those who took part in the first cycle of voyages, there was not much encouragement of profit to be derived in the islands and shores of the mainland touched by Columbus and by those who worked under his leadership and inspiration from 1492-1517--that is, during the first twenty-five years of Spanish conquest.

In the first voyage of Columbus much of the coast of Hayti was explored because of the stories told as to the existence of gold on the island. In the second expedition, made the following year, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, Jamaica were discovered. The foundation of the first Spanish city on the island of Hayti was laid; then the explorer passed along the north coast of Cuba, which especially interested him because he took it to be the mainland of Cathay and Cipango not far from Malacca. In 1498, after discovering Trinidad, he reached the South American continent at the mouth of the Orinoco River, which was identified by him as one of the streams of the terrestrial paradise. Then followed complaints of administrative abuses which led to Columbus’ return to the Spanish peninsula as a prisoner.

There was a fourth voyage in 1502 which extended as far as Honduras. After showing a piece of gold to the natives Columbus inquired of them by signs where the metal could be found. They pointed to the east, and after some further communications Columbus was convinced that the land of Cathay lay in that direction. He spent many weeks afterward in tacking along the shore against adverse winds and currents. Finally he landed at a place called by the natives Veragua, where the signs of civilized life, indicated by the village communities and the numbers of temples and sepulchers constructed of stone and lime, and suitably decorated, and, above all, the abundance of gold demonstrated to him that he had reached the golden Chersonese of the East. This was the land, he was sure, that had furnished King Solomon with his famous treasures. He set out from Veragua certain of discovering after a few leagues’ journey the straits of Malacca. After that, to reach the mouth of the Ganges would only be a matter of a few days. When he found the peninsula larger than he expected, he turned back to Veragua, meaning to found a permanent settlement there; but the warlike natives forced him to take refuge on his ships. Disheartened, the explorer withdrew to Hayti, from whence he returned to Spain, where he died on May 20, 1506.

There was a curious vein of mysticism in Columbus’ character, which comes out in a quotation made by him in his later years, from the famous medieval Apocalyptic, Joachim of Calabria. “The Rabbi Joachim,” he writes, “says that out of Spain shall come he who shall rebuild the House of Mount Zion.” His discovery, the explorer explained, would bring about the recovery of the Holy City and of the Sepulcher of Christ by means of the gold which would be found in the Indies. When he returned the first time from Hayti to Spain, he wrote that those whom he left behind would easily collect a ton of gold while he was absent, and that, therefore, in less than three years the capture of the Holy Sepulcher and the conquest of Jerusalem could be undertaken. Later on, he provided that the accumulated income of his property, which was to be invested in shares of the Bank of St. George in Genoa paying six per cent., should to the extent of one-half go to aid the expenses of recovering the holy places in Palestine.

The constant quest for gold that stimulated the voyages of the great explorer had, therefore, its basis in this extraordinary and fanatical revival of the spirit which had once inspired the Crusades. It was almost a mania with Columbus, whose letters contain eulogies on gold: “Who hath this, hath all that can be desired in the world; gold can even bring souls into Paradise.” Though the metal could not be found in great quantities, he discovered nevertheless a way by which the New World might be made to yield the gold which was wanted. It was Columbus who started in America the traffic in human beings. The day after he arrived in the West Indies, he talked of the prospect of using the Indians for slave traffic, and he promised to send to Europe a whole shipful of these idolaters. He kept his promise also, for in 1495 he sent five hundred Indian captives to be sold at Seville. The next year three hundred more arrived at Cadiz. It has been not unnaturally supposed that the harsh treatment received later on by the explorer at the hands of the governor of Hayti had a close connection with Columbus’ persistent policy of recruiting slave gangs from the natives of the islands he had visited. It is certain that Isabella was so outraged by the constant stream of West Indian slaves which had its source in Columbus’ discoveries that she frequently directed their repatriation. It is significant also that Bobadilla, the man who sent Columbus back to Spain in irons, is spoken of by Las Casas as an upright and humane person.

This willingness to allow the inauguration of a trade in slaves in lieu of the export from the New World of the precious metal which was so persistently sought for may be also explained by the strangeness and uncouthness of the inhabitants of the West Indian islands. Apart from the Mexicans and Peruvians, the greatest extent of the New World was inhabited by peoples who had not yet got beyond the hunting stages of culture. They used, of course, articulate speech, they had the knowledge of fire, and employed a few rude instruments of stone and wood, but they were essentially savages, and up to this time man in an actually savage stage was not known to Europeans--even to travelers. Marco Polo, indeed, had told of the existence in the East of races who devoured human flesh, but he was not believed. It was the voyage of Columbus that revealed the practice to be a literal fact and gave it such impressive emphasis that the Indian name Carib or Caribbee, in the modified form of cannibal, came to be used to designate the savage who feeds on human flesh. The smaller islands of the Antilles were all occupied by branches of this parent stock, the Carib, all of whom were distinguished by savage ferocity. The name was given them by a rival race, the Arawaks, who under various designations lived in the four larger islands, Cuba, Jamaica, Hayti, and Puerto Rico. Both peoples had come from the opposite coast of South America, probably drifting to the islands by the help of the equatorial current. On the mainland there was constant warfare between the two, with distinct advantages on the side of the Carib.

When Columbus reached the Antilles, the Arawaks in Cuba and in Hayti were in process of extermination at the hands of the Caribs. The work of subjugation commenced by the savage Carib was taken up by the Spaniard; in a few years the Arawaks of the larger islands were absolutely destroyed. The vigorous race in the smaller islands was never dominated by the Spanish conquerors; even when Spanish domination in the islands gave place to English and French rule, the Carib kept up the contest for more than a century. But the long years of warfare caused their numbers to dwindle away. As late as 1773 a military expedition was ordered to be sent to the island of St. Vincent to exterminate the Carib population, who refused to be reduced. But in place of drastic measures it was resolved to deport them. They were finally removed to the mainland of Honduras, where from this original small group the increase has been so remarkable that to-day their settlements extend from Belize to Cape Gracias a Dios.

Hayti, the island where the first city of European foundation in the New World was established, may be taken as illustrating the point where the island population had reached the most advanced standard of life. It is true that in part of the island the Caribs had effected a landing and were driving the less warlike Arawaks before them. But Hayti, when the Spanish conquest began, was already an agricultural country. It had no dense forests; there was an absence of larger game; the climate was mild and equable, and there were broad open tracts of country well adapted to cultivation. When the island was discovered, the population was estimated to be above a million; a few years later, in 1508, when under the cruel methods of the Spanish conquest the inhabitants must have been very considerably reduced, there were still 60,000 males left. The island was probably therefore more densely populated than any part of the mainland. The natural food resources in the shape of fish and small game could hardly support such a number. The growing of maize was not unknown, but the evidence goes to prove that the natives lived largely on the product of enormous manioc plantations. The root of this plant was reduced to a pulp, the juice was pressed out, and after being exposed to heat, the residue took the form of a meal that could be turned into bread cakes. The preparation of a crop of manioc was not difficult. The great savannah lands of the island, which were covered with prairie grass, were burnt over; the soil was thrown up with a pointed stick, hardened by fire, a few cuttings of the stem were planted in, some slight weeding was done, and after twelve months, without additional labor, there was ready a heavy crop of roots that could be immediately converted into bread. According to Las Casas’ estimate the labor of twenty women working six hours a day for a month was sufficient to provide bread enough to last three hundred persons for two years. The ease with which the crop was grown is shown by the naïve offer of a native chieftain to his Spanish masters to substitute for the tribute of gold which his people had no way of providing, an enormous field ready planted, which was to extend across the island from Isabella in the north to Santo Domingo in the south. The bulk of the natives including the males did not work at this primitive method of tillage, nor did they share in the breadmaking, but apparently their freedom from this kind of labor did not encourage other types of industry. The only metal worked was gold, though the island contained both copper and tin. For cutting they used stone implements, and for fishing bone hooks. Owing to the mild climate little clothing was necessary. The cotton plant was not artificially cultivated, both cloths and hammocks being made out of the wild cotton. Little attention was paid to housebuilding, though there were some large joint family houses. There was no stone architecture, and even fortification in its simplest form was not known.

For the purposes of warfare the island was divided into five districts, each of which contributed several thousand warriors under an independent chief, whose office was devolved upon him by hereditary descent. The warlike equipment was inadequate, not equal to that used by the aggressive Caribs, who had the training which comes from the hunting of large game. The Arawaks were therefore completely at the mercy of their savage assailants, unless they fought the Caribs with overwhelming numbers on their side. When the Spaniards began the conquest of the island the mild natives had, therefore, no chance of withstanding even small numbers of Europeans.

As a further test of the stage of culture reached by these, the most advanced of the islanders, we may take their religion, which proves their affinity to the lowest peoples known. They practised a simple form of fetichism combined with ancestor worship. There was a class of wizards, both men and women, who were supposed to control the spirit world. The multitude of spirits were embodied in the form of idols, sometimes in human shape, made of various materials. There were also idols consisting of the wooden figures of dead chiefs set up over their places of burial. The most famous of this type of idol were the images of the two first ancestors of mankind that were kept in the cave from which they had emerged after the deluge. As worship to these divinities, rude hymns were recited and manioc bread was used as a sacrificial offering and afterwards distributed among the worshippers.

The backward condition of the islanders did not discourage the projects of colonization which were inaugurated immediately on Columbus’ return from his first voyage. In 1493 the new flotilla showed the expansion of the hopes based on the discoverer’s success of the year before; there were now seventeen ships carrying 1200 men: miners, artisans, farmers, noblemen, all bent on the work of colonization. Twelve priests were included in the party. The exploration of the interior of the island was taken in hand by one of Columbus’ lieutenants, whose object was to discover gold and to commence the systematic working of the mines.

It was nearly a year before the Admiral returned to Hayti. In the meantime affairs in the nascent colony were in anything but a happy condition. The colonists, dissatisfied probably because fortunes were not coming quickly enough, were sending to the home government petitions and complaints condemning Columbus’ administration. A royal commissioner was soon sent out, whose personal inspection of the island resulted in a most unfavorable report being despatched to the Spanish sovereigns. Internal dissensions continued, due to quarrels over questions of jurisdiction, but these difficulties were less serious than the miseries occasioned by the oppression of the natives. Though Las Casas describes them as “the most humble, patient, loving, peaceful, and docile people, without contentions or tumults; neither fractious nor quarrelsome, without hatred or desire for revenge, more than any other people of the world,” the advent among them of colonists and adventurers bent on introducing the advanced economic system of Europe changed everything. A tribute was laid upon the whole population of the island which required that each Indian above fourteen years of age was to pay a little bell filled with gold every three months. In all other provinces the natives were to pay an “arroba” of cotton.