Dissertation Information for Michael Hartman Perri NAME: - Michael Hartman Perri
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- History
SCHOOL:
- Emory University (USA) (2004)
ADVISORS: - Susan Migden Socolow - Peter J Bakewell
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - William H Beik
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: The Spanish conquest of the Pearl Coast and the search for the province of the Meta
Abstract: Between 1498 and 1520, the Spaniards' illusions of trading trinket for a precious commodity (in this case pearls) largely became a reality along the coast of eastern Venezuela (the Pearl Coast). This trade in pearls was spectacular for the Spaniards.
The Crown and the religious attempted to hold back the legions of ambitious Spaniards wanting to rush to the Pearl Coast to make their fortune, and for nearly two decades they had some success. But the flood of fortune-seeking Spaniards rose too high and too fast to control. By 1520 Spanish-Indian relations along the Pearl Coast had broken down, and almost all the amicable trade for pearls between the Spaniards and the Indians had been extinguished, stamped out by the Spaniards' mistreatment and enslavement of Indians.
In the 1520s, Spaniards settled on the pearling island of Cubagua and took over the production of pearls, using Indian slaves as laborers and employing efficient oysterfishing rakes. After nearly a decade of stupendous yields in pearls, production soon fell off dramatically as the delicate oyster beds quickly became exhausted and then collapsed. When the oyster beds collapsed, so too did Spain's colony of Cubagua.
Occurring contemporaneously with the decline of Cubagua in the 1530s were many bold undertakings by various groups of Spanish conquistadors to find a golden kingdom in the Venezuelan interior. This kingdom became known as the Province of the Meta, and Spaniards were so certain of its existence that different factions frequently fought among themselves while jockeying to be the first to reach it.
From the outset, the Spaniards who came to the Pearl Coast and its unknown interior depended on surviving off the land, which really meant surviving off the native peoples. Although they hoped to find trading partners among some of the native peoples, the Spaniards also often used force to seize the Indians' food and enslave their people. Plunder and expeditions of conquest became such necessary activities for the Spaniards that we can well speak of this as an economy of conquest.
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calculated 2008-01-31 06:33:50
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