The Jews and the Expansion of Europe to the West, 1450-1800

Paolo Bernardini, Norman Fiering

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2004
• Print ISBN: 9781571814302
• eBook ISBN: 9781782389767
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

Jews and Judaism played a significant role in the history of the expansion of Europe to the west as well as in the history of the economic, social, and religious development of the New World. They played an important role in the discovery, colonization, and eventually exploitation of the resources of the New World. Alone among the European peoples who came to the Americas in the colonial period, Jews were dispersed throughout the hemisphere; indeed, they were the only cohesive European ethnic or religious group that lived under both Catholic and Protestant regimes, which makes their study particularly fruitful from a comparative perspective. As distinguished from other religious or ethnic minorities, the Jewish struggle was not only against an overpowering and fierce nature but also against the political regimes that ruled over the various colonies of the Americas and often looked unfavorably upon the establishment and tleration of Jewish communities in their own territory. Jews managed to survive and occasionally to flourish against all odds, and their history in the Americas is one of the more fascinating chapters in the early modern history of European expansion.

Table of contents

• THE JEWS AND THE EXPANSION OF EUROPE TO THE WEST, 1450 TO 1800
• CONTENTS
• PREFACE
• A MILDER COLONIZATION
• PART I. THE OLD NEW WORLD
• Chapter 1. BIBLICAL HISTORY AND THE AMERICAS
• Chapter 2. KNOWLEDGE OF NEWLY DISCOVERED LANDS AMONG JEWISH COMMUNITIES OF EUROPE
• Chapter 3. JEWISH SCIENTISTS AND THE ORIGIN OF MODERN NAVIGATION
• Chapter 4. THE HOPE OF THE NETHERLANDS
• Chapter 5. ISRAEL IN AMERICA
• PART II. IDENTITY AT STAKE
• Chapter 6. NEW CHRISTIAN, MARRANO, JEW
• Chapter 7. MARRANO RELIGIOSITY IN HISPANIC AMERICA IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
• Chapter 8. CRYPTO-JEWS AND THE MEXICAN HOLY OFFICE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
• Chapter 9. THE PARTICIPATION OF NEW CHRISTIANS AND CRYPTO-JEWS IN THE CONQUEST, COLONIZATION, AND TRADE OF SPANISH AMERICA, 1521–1660
• Chapter 10. CRYPTO-JEWS AND NEW CHRISTIANS IN COLONIAL PERU AND CHILE
• PART III. THE LUSO-BRAZILIAN EXPERIENCE
• Chapter 11. MARRANOS AND THE INQUISITION
• Chapter 12. OUTCASTS FROM THE KINGDOM
• PART IV. FROM TOLERATION TO EXPULSION
• Chapter 13. THE PORTUGUESE JEWISH NATION OF SAINT-ESPRIT-LÈS-BAYONNE
• Chapter 14. ATLANTIC TRADE AND SEPHARDIM MERCHANTS IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FRANCE
• Chapter 15. JEWISH SETTLEMENTS IN THE FRENCH COLONIES IN THE CARIBBEAN
• Chapter 16. NEW CHRISTIANS/“NEW WHITES”
• PART V. BLOSSOMING IN ANOTHER WORLD
• Chapter 17. THE JEWS OF DUTCH AMERICA
• Chapter 18. THE JEWS IN SURINAME AND CURAÇAO
• Chapter 19. AN ATLANTIC PERSPECTIVE ON THE JEWISH STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS AND OPPORTUNITIES IN BRAZIL, NEW NETHERLAND, AND NEW YORK
• Chapter 20. ANTECEDENTS AND REMNANTS OF JODENSAVANNE
• PART VI. “THE BROKERS OF THE WORLD”
• Chapter 21. JEWS AND NEW CHRISTIANS IN THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE
• Chapter 22. NEW CHRISTIANS AND JEWS IN THE SUGAR TRADE, 1550–1750
• Chapter 23. NEW CHRISTIANS AS SUGAR CULTIVATORS AND TRADERS IN THE PORTUGUESE ATLANTIC, 1450–1800
• Chapter 24. THE JEWISH MOMENT AND THE TWO EXPANSION SYSTEMS IN THE ATLANTIC, 1580–1650
• PART VII. THE JEWS IN COLONIAL BRITISH AMERICA
• Chapter 25. THE JEWS IN BRITISH AMERICA
• NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
• NAME INDEX