| Popis: |
The invasion of the Americas was not simply a Spanish or a Portuguese endeavor. Rather, the event beginning in 1492 was actually an experience involving men and women from Western, Central, and Eastern Europe, as well as Africa, the Mediterranean, and multiple parts of the Atlantic World. This dissertation examines the origins, activities, and failures of the Ulm/Augsburg-based Welser Company's enterprise in conquering and profiting from Venezuela between 1528 and 1556. Unlike other studies of conquistadors and explorers, this work places emphasis on the role of business and the activities of commercial entities during the early colonial period by exploring the corporate representatives and merchants turned explorers from outside Iberia during the first half of the sixteenth century. The Welser Company trading house began settling the northwest coast of Venezuela beginning in 1528 with not only German-speaking officials and merchants, but also with Spanish, French, English, Polish, and African soldiers-of-fortune. Primarily focused on expanding a commercial network that made them one of the most profitable trading firms in Europe, the Welser Company began exploratory operations into the Venezuelan interior. Despite high hopes and the backing of the financially powerful home office in Bavaria, these expeditions did not find the desired transportation networks, large-scale indigenous settlements, nor the gold and silver that would have made Venezuela a lucrative commercial hub in the Caribbean. Welser Company officials, unfamiliar with operating beyond the successful European methods of economic expansion, repeatedly committed the same mistakes in interacting with the indigenous people of Venezuela, disillusioned European settlers, and the Spanish administrators governing the New World. Indigenous groups operating alongside Europeans regularly suffered at the hands of their allies. Despite this seemingly one-sided diplomatic relationship, Venezuela's indigenous groups endangered European goals by acting in their own interests. Using ethnohistory and close readings of the European-created texts, this dissertation also explores indigenous movement, diplomatic savvy, and resistance against European actors and other indigenous groups. Understanding these failures, successes, and dynamics will help reveal the multifaceted Atlantic World in this often-ignored frontier in the sixteenth century. |
