Noted historian Sir John Elliott examined how British and Spanish colonies evolved differently due to opposite relationships with indigenous populations and the large time gap between the colonies' foundings at his Wednesday afternoon speech in Carson L01. Elliott, an expert in Spanish Imperial history, is this year's Robert F. Allabaugh Class of 1934 Memorial Lecturer.
Distinctions of timing, colonies' environments, character of the empire and independent evolution of the colonies have led to the differences in Spanish and British colonies, Elliott said. Ultimately, Elliott concluded, these distinctions allowed the English colonies to be more successful.
"Manifest Destiny was the God-given prerogative of the English-speaking, not the Spanish-speaking, world," Elliott said.
The Catholic Spanish conquistadors first came to the Americas in the early 16th century, a hundred years before English colonists arrived. By the time English colonists settled in America, Elliott said, the Protestant Revolution had already occurred, leading to greater economic and religious diversity within their home country. These religious distinctions caused the two groups to adopt very different beliefs and methods of colonization, according to Elliott. The religiously homogeneous Spanish attempted to convert the indigenous people of the area, while the British, who tolerated religions diversity within their own communities, limited interaction with the natives.
"The pluralism inherent in the British-American world seems to me to stand out," Elliott said.
The disparate geographies of each colony also led to contrasting interactions between natives and colonists, according to Elliott. Spain arrived in areas that already had urban centers and vast populations, Elliott said, while English colonists settled on sparsely inhabited coasts.
"The coastal regions of North America had little to offer: unoccupied and unimproved land," Elliott said.
As a result, the Spaniards interacted much more with the local people, eventually intermarrying and reproducing with them to create a racially complex society, Elliott said. The English colonists' presence, however, caused native populations to move to another unoccupied place.
Additionally, the different land sizes affected each group of colonies' path to independence, Elliott said.
The success of the American Revolution came primarily from leaders' ability to unite their colonies instead of from their actual fighting ability, according to Elliott.
"The Spanish didn't have that cohesion," he said, citing the three million square miles covered by the Spanish colonies. "It's not surprising that Spain's empire eventually fragmented."
Elliott is a former history professor at Oxford University and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. The event was well attended by both faculty and students.
The Robert F. Allabaugh Class of 1934 Memorial Lecturer program invites historians to speak at the College and was supported this year by the history department, the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding and the Provost's Office.
