Peoples of the Amazon and European Colonization (16th-18th centuries)

Abstract

This chapter deals with the history of the Amazon between the 16th and 18th centuries. It is organized according to various themes that have left indelible traces on the territory, in some cases up to the present day. The name of the Amazon River and subsequently of the whole region illustrates the influence of European myths. Several legends have been woven about the Amazon since then, including that of harboring potential inexhaustible riches or being a dangerous and empty space (largely owing to the depopulation of Indigenous peoples). “Borders” were also established in the Amazon in many ways; between Indigenous peoples, between “civilization” and “barbarism,” between urban and savage, between Catholicism and paganism, between the Andes and the Amazon, and between Brazil, colonized by Portugal, and the Andean-Amazonian countries colonized by Spain. Key actors in European colonial expansion were military explorers, state officials, missionaries, and scientists. They built a narrative that combined fantasy with truthful information that included ethnographic descriptions as well as maps of the location of waterways, populations, natural resources, and natural history. They were also central to the establishment of urban centers. Since the era of European conquest, the extraction of natural resources has been accompanied by subjugation and exploitation of the workforce and the development of multiple forms of domination and extermination, especially of Indigenous peoples. Moreover, conquest and colonization of the Amazon implied drastic changes in the relationships within Indigenous societies, between Indigenous peoples, and between these peoples and the agents and representatives of the colonial states, varying significantly between the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal. In turn, Indigenous peoples have accumulated various forms of resistance and rebellion to preserve their ways of life, territories, and autonomy. This chapter contributes to an understanding of the Amazon as a result of the accumulation of multiple and diverse longstanding determinations.