Differentiating the Conquerors

Patricia Seed’s Ceremonies of Possession in Europe’s Conquest of the New World, 1492 – 1640 examines how colonial rule was initiated through ceremonial practices. Seed states that recent literature shows diverse cultures being conquered in the Americas but rarely diverse conquerors. European powers are often lumped together when they are should be differentiated, not homogenized. In reality, Europeans brought their own views of how a place should be conquered, largely based on cultural realities. Doing so, Seed claims, allows present day nationalist struggles to be seen in new light.

Seed examines the English, who possessed land by making improvements on it such as fences; the French, who possessed land with elaborate ceremonies and sought the approval of the conquered; the Spanish, who marked the conquest by issuing an ultimatum and then waging war, something Seed compares to the idea of jihad from which the Spanish had recently emerged; the Portuguese, who prized astronomy and discovery and marked their territory by the stars; and the Dutch, who honed the Portuguese practices and added the element of commerce. The ceremonies, Seed alleges, were primarily targeted at other Europeans, although cultural differences caused them to misunderstand each other. After all, the ceremonies only seemed reasonable in the context of the particular history.

The study has potential. Perhaps the idea that different powers demonstrated their authority in varied ways is self-evident. But Seed does well to record these differences. She can oversimplify her case, however. For example, she states that the ceremonies came from different reasons for conquering. The English wanted land, the Spanish people, and the Portuguese trade. In reality, except for any legitimate religious element of the conquest, conquests were largely undertaken for profit. In that way, the Europeans were not as different as Seed would have. Certain sections are more interesting than others, for example, the section on the Portuguese development of navigation. At times Seed seems to simply gloss over what other historians have said, but she does offer a new interpretation of facts. The introduction raises a lot of interesting questions which the text doesn’t always answer. The evidence could be tied together in the end to summarize the ideas inherent in her work. Still, the book is an interesting comparison of conquerors who are more diverse that the literature on them might suggest.