The Renaissance

adopted sons or daughters of the owners
of their parents.

Crusaders took captive Muslims as
slaves in the Middle East, and in the early
Renaissance human trafficking grew more
common in the Mediterranean states of
Spain and southern Italy. Muslims cap-
tured in North Africa and in battles with
the Ottoman Empire were made servants
in wealthy and noble families, while Ven-
ice and other maritime states used slaves
as well as prisoners to row their galley
fleets. A few slaves from sub-Saharan Af-
rica were also brought to Europe via cara-
van routes that linked the Mediterranean
with the west African empires, including
Ghana and Mali.

The industry of slavery revived with
the Portuguese explorations of the west
coast of Africa in the fifteenth century. Af-
ricans were captured and brought to forti-
fied posts at the coast, then transported to
Portuguese colonies to work farming plan-
tations. With the discovery of the Ameri-
cas, and the encounters with native tribes
of the Caribbean, Europeans found an-
other source of slave labor. Without hav-
ing what the slave-dealing countries con-
sidered organized governments, true
religion, or profitable occupations, Native
Americans were considered properly slaves,
who benefited from their service to their
masters. A few voices protested this prac-
tice, including the Spanish monk Barto-
lomé de Las Casas, and in Europe, several
philosophers including Desiderius Eras-
mus and Sir Thomas More rejected the
doctrine of “natural slavery.” In Europe,
slavery died out in the late Renaissance, as
the new doctrine of equality was taken up
by the Enlightenment writers and philoso-
phers. Slavery continued in the overseas
colonies, which benefited immensely from
slaves imported from Africa and the

Americas to work sugar, indigo, and cot-

ton plantations.

SEEALSO: exploration; Las Casas Barto-

lomé de

Spanish Armada ...............................

Also known as the Great and Most Fortu-

nate Navy, the Spanish Armada was a

grand fleet of warships sent by Spain in

1588 to attack England. Spain’s goal was

to end English interference in the Spanish-

controlled Low Countries, and return the

English kingdom to the Catholic fold.

Philip II, the husband of the late queen

Mary I of England, saw the return of the

Protestant Church under Queen Elizabeth

as a mortal threat to the Catholic Church,

which he staunchly defended, and a chal-

lenge to Spanish domination in the Neth-

erlands. He sent the Armada under the

command of the Duke of Medina Sedonia,

whose orders were to bring Spanish sol-

diers from the Low Countries to the vicin-

ity of London, where a direct threat to the

city would change English minds about

supporting revolts against Spanish rule in

the Netherlands. A secondary aim of the

Spanish Armada was to end English inter-

ference with Spain’s colonial empire in the

New World.

In the spring of 1588 the Armada set

sail with 130 ships, eight thousand sailors,

and eighteen thousand soldiers. In the

meantime England was fully informed of

Spanish intentions through a network of

spies in the Spanish royal court. On July

19 the Armada arrived in the English

Channel, intending to rendezvous with a

company of twenty thousand Spanish in-

fantry on the continent. An English battle

fleet of 55 ships immediately set out from

the port of Plymouth, engaging the Ar-

mada at skirmishes at Eddystone and Port-

land. When the Spaniards took harbor at

Spanish Armada