Short Essay 1

David Reece

History 498

Dr. Barnes

Essay 1

During the period between 1400 A.D. and 1600 A.D. the European image of Africans changed in many ways both in Mediterranean Europe and Atlantic Europe. In Mediterranean Europe, particularly Iberia, Africans shifted towards being integrated into broader social unity through the Reconquista and Inquisition, and, at the same time, however, Africans became associated with slavery. In Atlantic Europe, especially England, Africans started to have a dichotomous image for different groups of intellectuals, but the practical treatment of Africans was controlled largely by pragmatism due to the low rate of interaction and small African population in England and the rest of Atlantic Europe. One wing of the dichotomy was a negative inferiority view of Africans, and the other stressed African humanity. It would seem that the former was curbed, at least in England, toward the end of the period. In both cases, the image of Africans changed over time, and the influences that altered the perspective of Europeans was very different, though interrelated, in Mediterranean and Atlantic Europe.

In Mediterranean Europe the period began with a greater consciousness of the distinctive rather than shared aspects of Africans and Europeans than would be the case in two centuries down the corridor of time, but the social differences were not as pronounced as one might think. Interactions between state officials were the same as interactions between Europeans states as can be shown broadly in Ivana Elbl’s “Cross Cultural Trade and Diplomacy: Portuguese Relations with West Africa, 1441 – 1521”. However, according to Elbl, the archival treatment of Africans by Portuguese officials was often less unbiased than their actual interactions because of the motive to portray Portugal as glorious and righteous, especially as Portuguese power was in relative decline compared with Spain. Elbl argues that this written portrayal had more to do with the fact that these African states were not in constant contact with Europeans, and so could be lied about with relative impunity for the glorification of the kingdom.

In Spain, the completion of the Reconquista resulted in the enslavement of many of Muslims by Catholics, and of many Catholics by Muslims. This created a large pool of forced labor initially, but the supply of slaves diminished over time as Catholics worked to free fellow Catholics and Muslims worked to free fellow Muslims from slavery. Historically, the Italians and other Western Europeans had relied on supplies of salves from Eastern Europe before this period, but various factors reduced the availability of this supply. Because of the indigenous slave trade in Africa, the African slave market became the easiest and most logical source of slaves for Iberia. As a result, the Iberian kingdoms, and their colonial empires turned to Africa for slaves, and the demand for slaves exploded with time in the Americas because of the short supply of labor and the increasing value of sugar production and newly discovered, untapped mines. Because slavery had been an institution in Europe for so long, and because it had not been all that different by definition from the forced labor of serfs and vassals, African slavery did not necessarily represent a dehumanizing or racist view of Africans in Iberia. It is my judgment, however, that all of these groups who were put into forced labor were dehumanized not only in an ethical sense, but as a practical application in the minds of their masters. Although slave keeping and man stealing are grievous evils, these same evils were perpetrated against men of every nation as opportunity arose, and the ruling class is guilty of persistent tyranny across their various relations. Africans seem to fit into this larger pattern.

Annette Ivory’s article emphasizes the ways in which the need to oppress blacks as slaves in Spain led to their portrayal as stupid and buffoon like, but Fracchia’s article explains that the acceptance of Catholicism and a respect for the crown and loyalty could lead to great rewards regardless of race. These same sorts of stories can be found regarding lower classes other than Africans, but the idea that men can climb the social ladder through being good seems oddly more prevalent in this example than in many European tales up to this time. Spanish Empire could play a part in this meritocratic lesson since the old feudal system was giving way to a more and more centralized Spanish throne and the German, Italian, and Lowland holdings of the Emperor were needful of militarily focused administration. This social influencer, however, is probably much less important than the impact of the Spanish inquisition and the nominal and institutional Catholicism that was further strengthened in its hold on the social order of Spain. As Spanish Catholicism reacted both to the Muslim and Jewish presence in Spain, and then to the Protestantism, it encouraged the acceptance of all types of men so long as they would profess the Roman religion. Fracchia goes so far as to suggest that race was almost removed from consideration in Spain as Africans became invisible through the effects of the Inquisition, interracial sexuality, and the household servant style of slavery.

In Atlantic Europe Africans were not very prominent through this time, but, as Kaplan points out, the Hohensaufens caused Atlantic Europe and Mediterranean Europe to be more interconnected, and through this interaction Africans were introduced into Atlantic Europe more frequently. Kaplan makes it clear that the African was originally viewed primarily in terms of how he fit into the system of landlords and peasants, and all men were put into this system of hierarchical social arrangements. Kaplan further explains that Africans were often associated with Islam since the Atlantic Europeans did not much probe into the African continent, but instead were passively left to receive Africans as they passed through the Atlantic European lands. Kaplan further points out that “Barbarossa” used Africans for some special military groups and livery servants. Atlantic Europeans, thus, took on some views of Africans as exotic.

The Vaughns article, “Before Othello: Elizabethan Representations of Sub-Saharan Africa”, attempts to show that non-clerical and non-ministerial English intellectuals before Shakespeare were racially prejudiced, and from this evidence then tries to show that England was then, as a whole, controlled by this perspective, however, the idea that the non-clerical and non-ministerial writings were representative of the majority of the English ruling class and of society in general. However, little is done to validate the effort that the playwrights’ views before Shakespeare really were representative of this larger group. Additionally, Elizabeth’s law requiring the removal of Africans from England was an unmitigated failure, but no explanation is offered as to why this was the case if there was broad support for such an effort. It would seem by this lack of support for Elizabeth’s law that the Englishmen of the time were not concerned with the presence of Africans in England in the way that the Vaughns suggest.

Rather, one might think that the English thought of the Africans as being men who were like all other men, but English judgments against paganism, Islam, and Catholicism would have resulted in the sense of social superiority over pagan, Muslim, and Catholic nations. The English thought that the Africans could be useful allies against the Spanish, and the English assumed that the Africans would be seeking their own rational advantage in national and individual concerns. This understanding of Africans as potential allies and as men like all others led to the view that Africans must necessarily want to remove the Spanish from their own sphere since the English thought that the Spanish must be hated by all men as tyrants because of the “Black Legend”. The practical application of this point can be demonstrated in the way that English privateers worked with and traded with Africans and Maroons in order to achieve their goals. The partnerships were not as successful as the English would have liked for many reasons, but, the English showed their true attitudes by their efforts to court and ally with the Africans who interacted with the Spanish. Although English and Atlantic European attitudes were less monolithic than in Mediterranean Europe, it seems clear that Africans were viewed more according to their social and religious practices and in line with their potential value as allies than in accordance with racial or ethnic strata.

The influence of the philosophies of Europeans and the goals of the ruling class of Europeans in both Atlantic and Mediterranean Europe prevented the more modern racism of the nineteenth century from taking root, and increased interaction in diplomatic and domestic affairs supported the view of Africans in Europe as ultimately similar to Europeans themselves as far as their humanity was concerned. Africans, did however, seem to be looked down upon in popular and ruling culture because of differences of culture and religion. Racism was certainly present in this age, but it is hard to defend the idea that modern racism is the same type of racism as that of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Europe.