World history contains a huge number of events, names, dates, which are placed in several dozen or even hundreds of different textbooks. Different authors have different views on certain circumstances, but they are united by facts that must be told one way or another. In world history, there are known phenomena that appeared once and for a long time, and others that appeared several times, but for a long time. short periods. One such phenomenon is the colonial system. In the article we will tell you what it is, where it was widespread and how it became a thing of the past.

What is the colonial system?

The world colonial system, or colonialism, is a situation where industrially, culturally, economically developed countries dominate the rest of the world (less developed countries, or third world countries).

Dominance was usually established after armed attacks and the subjugation of the state. It was expressed in the imposition of economic and political principles and rules of existence.

When it was?

Rudiments colonial system appeared in the 15th century during the era of great geographical discoveries along with the discovery of India and America. Then the indigenous peoples of the open territories had to recognize the technological superiority of foreigners. The first true colonies were formed by Spain in the 17th century. Gradually, Great Britain, France, Portugal, and the Netherlands began to seize and spread their influence. Later they were joined by the USA and Japan.

By the end of the 19th century, most of the world was divided among the great powers. Russia did not actively participate in colonization, but it also subjugated some neighboring territories.

Who belonged to whom?

Belonging to a particular country determined the course of development of the colony. The table below will tell you best how widespread the colonial system was.

There were also smaller colonies, but the table shows that they were not influenced by anyone except Antarctica and Antarctica, because they did not have raw materials and a platform for the development of industry, economy, and life in general. The colonies were governed through governors appointed by the ruler of the metropolitan country or through his constant visits to the colonies.

Characteristic features of the period

The period of colonialism has its own characteristic features:

• All actions are aimed at establishing a monopoly in trade with the colonial territories, i.e. the metropolitan countries wanted the colonies to establish trade relations only with them and with no one else,
• armed attacks and plunder of entire states, and then subjugation of them,
• the use of feudal and slave-owning forms of exploitation of the population of the colonial countries, which turned them almost into slaves.

Thanks to this policy, the countries that owned colonies quickly acquired capital reserves, which allowed them to take leading positions on the world stage. So, precisely thanks to the colonies and their financial resources England became the most developed country of that time.

How did it break up?

Colonial did not collapse immediately, all at once. This process happened gradually. The main period of loss of influence over the colonial countries occurred at the end of the Second World War (1941-1945), because people believed that it was possible to live without oppression and control from another country.

In some places, the escape from influence occurred peacefully, with the help of agreements and the signing of agreements, and in others - through military and insurgency. Some countries in Africa and Oceania are still under US rule, but no longer experience the same oppression as they did in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Consequences of the colonial system

It is difficult to call the colonial system an unambiguously positive or negative phenomenon in the life of the world community. It had both positive and negative sides for both metropolitan states and colonies. The collapse of the colonial system led to certain consequences.

For metropolises they were as follows:

• decline in own production capacity due to the possession of markets and resources of the colonies and, therefore, lack of incentives,
• investing capital in colonies to the detriment of the metropolis,
• lag in competition and development from other countries due to increased concern for colonies.

For colonies:

• destruction and loss traditional culture and way of life, the complete extermination of some nationalities;
• depletion of natural and cultural reserves;
• reduction in the local population of the colonies due to attacks by the metropolises, epidemics, famine, etc.;
• the emergence of its own industry and intelligentsia;
• the emergence of the foundations for the future independent development of the country.

The Renaissance, which originated in the second half of the 14th century. and which fully came into its own from the middle of the 15th century, was the greatest progressive revolution, breaking the framework of the old orbis terrarum, laying the foundations for later world trade, for the transition of craft into manufacture, an unprecedented rise in productive forces; and ushered in the process of development of modern European nations on the basis of bourgeois societies.
By the end of the 15th century. Europe, ahead of the East both in the sphere of material and spiritual culture, is becoming the bearer of progressive trends world history. The great expansion of European politics was facilitated by the great geographical discoveries XV - XVI centuries
Already from the middle of the 15th century. Portuguese sailors began moving south along the western coast of Africa, and in 1488 Bartolomeu Dias rounded its southern end. In 1498, Vasco da Gama's ships entered the Indian port of Calicut. As a result of their successful struggle against the Arabs and Egyptians, the Portuguese soon became the undisputed masters of the western Indian Ocean. They then came into contact with China and in 1557 founded the first European colony on Chinese territory in Macau. In 1500 they discovered and from 1530 actively colonized Brazil. Thus, a small country, thanks to its military and naval superiority, created a huge colonial empire.
At the same time, Spain is taking vigorous action to find new routes to rich India. During this process, Columbus discovers America (1492). The colonization of new lands began with the West Indies Islands, where the first Spanish plantations and gold mines appeared. It was soon discovered that the local Indians turned out to be a physically weak labor force; they could not stand harsh conditions, died or went on the run. Because of this, in 1518, the supply of hardy black slaves from Africa to the West Indies began.
In 1519 - 1521, using the help of Indian tribes, Cortez's detachment conquered the rich Aztec empire. In 1532 - 1533 another conquistador, Pissaro, took possession of the rich Inca Empire. Here, on Peruvian soil, the richest mines were found, and Peruvian silver poured into Europe.
The Spanish colonial empire became the basis of Spain's political hegemony in Europe in the 16th century.
Great geographical discoveries gradually led to the relocation of trade routes and to a change in the balance of power in Europe. The Mediterranean Sea lost its importance as a center of maritime trade, giving way to the Atlantic Ocean, which contributed to the growth of the world trade authority of Antwerp and the Netherlands as a whole. In the second half of the 16th century, the strengthened Dutch bourgeoisie was able to successfully fight for the country's independence from Spanish rule.
In the 16th century Spain's colonial expansion also headed to the northern shores of Africa, but there it did not achieve much success.
So, Antwerp becomes, as it were, the geographical center of a new emerging world market. His crafts and manufactories worked mainly for the foreign market, while the manufactories of England and France sold their goods mainly on the domestic market. In 1531 it opened in Antwerp stock Exchange, which became the course-setting institution of the emerging world financial market. However, the role of the world center of credit and financial operations was later transferred to the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and the Amsterdam Bank. In addition, Amsterdam has become a world center for the redistribution of goods, price and exchange rate formation.
In 1609, the long struggle of the Netherlands against Spanish rule ended, and the recognized Republic of the United Provinces appeared on the European political arena. Since that time, the Amsterdam Bank began to play a decisive role in the credit and financial system of the world market. The stock exchange worked intensively, bills became the main form of credit and payment, industrial development and the growth of productive forces proceeded successfully. Trade in weapons and military equipment has become a highly profitable industry. Based on developed navy, a strong Amsterdam market, a low lending rate from the Amsterdam bank, Dutch merchants everywhere suppressed the aspirations of competitors.
In 1602, the Dutch merchants created a monopoly East India Company for trade and development of colonies. In 1621, the West India Company was created, which served as a cover for conducting military-piracy and smuggling operations on the oceans, as well as the slave trade. The plunder of the colonies and predatory extermination began natural resources and productive forces, enslavement and actual destruction of entire peoples.
England also took an increasing part in this process. English merchants were actively looking for new, increasingly distant markets for their goods, opening routes to unknown lands. “Regulated” and “mutual” companies are emerging. The first, which were merchant corporations of a national scale, received special patents from the royal court for monopoly trade in any area. Participants in such companies did not pool their capital, each trading at their own peril and risk. Individualism generated competition and fostered the development of initiative and business acumen, so necessary in the courageous entrepreneurship of that adventurous era. “Regulated” companies traded mainly in nearby European markets - France and Holland.
Mutual companies began searching for new markets. The latter included the Russian Company, which arose in 1554 as a result of R. Chancellor’s visit to the Moscow state. In 1588, the Guinea Company was founded, monopolizing the slave trade, which soon became one of the most important sources of enrichment for the nation. In 1600, Queen Elizabeth signed a charter creating the East India Company, marking the beginning of the “legalized” entry of the British into India.
The struggle for markets led to a clash of English and Spanish interests. For a long time this struggle took place in the vast expanses of the Atlantic. In England, special merchant companies arose to equip pirate expeditions. In the last quarter of the 16th century. they, in fact, waged an undeclared war against the Spaniards, plundering Spanish colonies and ships carrying precious cargo from the New World. The British authorities were very lenient towards the predatory activities of pirates, which were beneficial to the state.
In 1578, one of these pirates, Francis Drake, passing through the Strait of Magellan, robbed the Spanish settlements in Chile and Peru, crossed the Pacific Ocean and rounded the Cape Good Hope, returned to England, completing his second circumnavigation of the world after Magellan (1520). The queen welcomed the successful adventurer, granting him the title of nobleman. Under Elizabeth Navy England has been significantly updated. Instead of bulky ships with a high surface, low, elongated ships were built, fast and maneuverable. Along with changes in tactics sea ​​battle this allowed England to win an important victory over the Spanish Invincible Armada in 1588.
In 1589 - 1590 new British expeditions are being prepared to the West Indies and to the basin Pacific Ocean with the aim of ousting Holland from the “spice islands”, and the Portuguese from Indian waters. Piracy becomes one of the methods for creating the foundations of the British colonial empire. The Anglo-Spanish War lasted until 1604. It clearly dragged on, became very burdensome, and its end was greeted with relief in England.
The Anglo-Spanish naval war led to a disruption of England's regular trade with Europe and to the closure of part of the English markets on the continent. The losses associated with this began to exceed the profits from piracy and robbery of the Spanish and Portuguese colonies. WITH early XVII V. special meaning The organization of the English colonies proper acquired the state-sanctioned seizure of colonial sources of raw materials and markets.
France also actively participated in the struggle to seize the colonies. Moreover, the French sought to establish their colonies in the very center of the American possessions of Portugal and Spain. But in 1560 the Portuguese destroyed the French settlement that had existed since 1555 near Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), in 1565 the Spaniards defeated the newly founded French Protestant colony in Florida, and in 1583 the joint Spanish-Portuguese forces The French colony in Paramba (Brazil) was liquidated. It was obvious that at that time France lacked the strength to confront powerful rivals. In addition, she had to solve difficult political problems in Europe. St. Bartholomew's Night(1572) again plunged France into the abyss of religious wars.
So, we can rightfully say that the Renaissance became not only the most important progressive revolution, but also the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries, the era of the initial accumulation of capital, which prepared the conditions for the first bourgeois revolutions in Europe. The first of them, the Netherlands, leads to the emergence of the bourgeois Republic of the United Provinces, which, in itself, became the most important result of the 16th century. 1609 was the year of birth of the first state of the victorious bourgeoisie. The Dutch Revolution had an exceptionally large international significance.
Already in the first decade of the 17th century. Holland achieved such economic growth that surprised all European countries. The Netherlands soon became a great maritime and colonial power, with more ships than any other country in Europe. Amsterdam has become the center of the international payment system, the largest banker of the new world market.
Equally impressive and significant was the entry of Holland into the arena of world politics. Possessing a powerful fleet, the United Provinces were strong enough to set a course for decisively ousting the old masters and creating their own colonial empire in the places of their former possessions. This was already the beginning of real wars for the redistribution of colonies, the beginning of the era of trade wars of European nations, the beginning of the birth of a new world colonial system, the arena of which became the entire globe.

In parallel with the discovery of new lands, they were studied, described and conquered. Interests collided in new lands different countries, controversial situations and conflicts arose, often armed.

Portugal and Spain took the path of colonial conquest before others. They also made the first attempt to delimit their spheres of interest. To prevent the possibility of clashes, both states entered into a special agreement in 1494, according to which all newly discovered lands west of the 30th meridian were to belong to the Spaniards, and to the east - to the Portuguese. However, the demarcation line passed only along the Atlantic Ocean, and later this led to contradictions when the Spaniards, approaching from the east, and the Portuguese from the west, met in the Moluccas.

The invaders, the conquistadors, conquered vast territories, turning them into colonies, appropriated and ruthlessly exploited their wealth, converted pagan natives to Christianity, and wiped out entire civilizations from the face of the earth. TO mid-17th century V. the largest overseas territories belonged to Spain, Portugal, Holland, France and England.

Conclusion

Until the XV-XVII centuries. The West was a relatively closed region, and at the stage of decomposition of feudalism, the borders Western world moved apart, the process of forming a pan-European and world market began, and the horizons of Europeans expanded.

Such shifts were caused by the Great Geographical Discoveries that spanned precisely these two and a half centuries. Great geographical discoveries became possible thanks to the organization by Europeans of expeditions across the oceans to find new routes to India, a country of untold riches. The previous routes to this distant fairyland through the Mediterranean Sea and Western Asia were blocked by Arab, Turkish, and Mongol-Tatar conquerors. And Europe during this period experienced significant significant drawback in gold and silver as a medium of exchange.

The great geographical discoveries had very important economic consequences, although different for different countries.

First of all, the development of the world productive forces has advanced; The territory known by that time increased only during the 16th century. six times, there were fewer and fewer white spots on it.

Trade routes from the Northern, Baltic and Mediterranean seas moved to the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. Thanks to this, trade routes connected the continents. Navigation made it possible to establish stable economic ties between individual parts of the world and determined the formation of world trade.

Great geographical discoveries contributed to the disintegration of feudalism and the development of capitalist relations, laying the foundations of the world market.

However, there is also Negative consequences, which was reflected in the formation of the colonial system of nascent capitalism.

History [Crib] Fortunatov Vladimir Valentinovich

26. Formation of the colonial system and the world capitalist economy

After the first overseas expedition of Christopher Columbus in 1492 began conquest and colonization Western Hemisphere by Europeans. The main territories of South and Central America and Mexico at the end of the 15th - first half of the 16th century. were part of the first colonial empires Spain and Portugal. Under the patronage of Pope Alexander IV, it was signed 1494 The Treaty of Tardesillas, the first agreement on the division of the world in world history. Portugal “got” a huge territory from Brazil to Southeast Asia, Spain - America and the Pacific Ocean. The ancient Indian civilizations of America were destroyed. A significant part of the local Indian population was subjected to merciless extermination. IN Latin America over three centuries of colonization as a result of complex ethnogenesis Several racial-ethnic groups emerged: Creoles(European colonists and their descendants), mestizos(from marriages of Caucasians with Indians), mulattoes(from marriages of representatives of the Caucasian race with black slaves). Latin American society, emerging as a mixed society, has become unique ethnocultural symbiosis.

In America and the West Indies, Portuguese, Dutch, French and especially English colonialists launched plantation farming. Africa became a bloody hunting ground for black slaves, who were transported in the millions across the Atlantic Ocean to work in the cotton fields. American Indians to heavy physical labor turned out to be unable.

During the era of colonialism, " initial accumulation of capital" size and character slave trade changed dramatically. The Portuguese were the first to bring slaves to the Lisbon market in 1442, but before the discovery of the New World, the slave trade was still limited. The slave trade was carried out by Spanish nobles and the church. In the 17th century The main participants in the Atlantic slave trade were the British, French, as well as the Dutch, Danes and Hanseatic merchants of German cities. The “golden age” of the European slave trade was the 18th century.

Slaves were exported mainly from the interior of West Africa, the Congo River basin, Angola, and Mozambique. Millions died from starvation and inhumane treatment during long transportation on slave ships, in transit points and prisons, under the blows of their overseers. The Europeans themselves usually did not engage in the capture of future slaves. Slave traders bought them from local African rulers in exchange for weapons, alcoholic beverages and various rubbish. For America, the slave trade was the most important source plantation economy, which produced for export sugar cane, coffee, tobacco and other goods to Europe.

The European and Arab slave trade caused irreparable damage to Africa. The demographic balance was disrupted, as the most productive part of the male and female population was exported. The withdrawal of labor affected the normal historical and socio-economic development of the continent. Scientists estimate that about 100 million people were taken from Africa.

From the 16th century formation begins world market. All inhabited continents except Australia are included in international economic relations.

Portugal was the first country to benefit most from its participation in international trade. But Portugal was missing own strength to supply Europe. The Netherlands got involved. Soon Antwerp with more favorable geographical location turned into main point marketing of Indian goods. One successful voyage of a merchant ship was enough enrichment.

Many new products for everyday consumption began to arrive in Europe: potatoes, corn, tomatoes, rice, sugar, coffee, cocoa, etc. The diet became more varied and healthy. The process has begun introduction plants, that is, the introduction of (cultivated varieties) of plants into places where they did not grow before, or the introduction of wild plants into culture. There are two forms of introduction: naturalization and acclimatization. The introduction of plants raised the level of European agricultural culture. Specialization began to develop and productivity increased Agriculture.

Within several decades after the discovery and development of sea routes to India and America by Europeans, a real revolution took place in the economic life of the Old and New Worlds.