ABSTRACT
The destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1588 allowed English and Dutch trading companies to enter into global ventures and make new conquests of their own. No longer constrained by Spanish galleons, or primarily driven by trade, far-flung plantation systems were established in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Ireland. Profits from enslaved, displaced and coerced labor were measured in gold and silver bullion. Aggressive Dutch capital interests made them leading innovators in shipbuilding, finance and law. Mercantile wealth built cities and paid for the artistic flourishing of Dutch Masters. The Irish and the Native Americans experienced a parallel displacement from their homelands and the loss of an independent existence. During the period 1672–1713, the British company that became the Royal Africa Company prospered so abundantly from the trade in captive humans that it could not maintain its monopoly. Colonial authorities everywhere enforced racial codes and allowed atrocities as they themselves were dependent on the plantations for the prosperity of the colony. The French Code Noir in 1685 denied legal rights to the enslaved, prohibited their property ownership while professing a religious paternalism more honored in the breach than in practice.
