In Professor McDonald’s book, Pirates, Merchants, Settlers, and Slaves, I focused on the chapter “Utopian Dreamers and Colonial Disasters”. This chapter first starts off with the mention of England and the East Indies Trade Company then moves on to talk about the first voyages to Madagascar and the disasters from settling and efforts on colonizing the foreign island then concluding on the story of Captain Johnson and the introduction to pirates in Madagascar. Professor McDonald primarily targets the Madagascar colonization and supports his argument mainly through primary sources. While reading Prof. McDonald’s book, there were many times where the book tied into our class discussions. The third chapter of Prof. McDonald’s book ties heavily
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McDonald focuses away from the settlement and talks about the trade companies and the competition. Trade of English merchants went as far as trading to the lands of the Levant, lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Besides the East Indies Company, another group of merchants from Venetia dominated the trade of East India goods to England. The Levant Company, an English company chartered by Queen Elizabeth I, lasted twenty years. First European country to arrive in Africa were the Portuguese, then the British, French, and Dutch later arrive. The first British voyage was in 1591, led by Raymond and Lancaster. While on the journey, Raymond dies and Lancaster returns to the homeland. Another journey is chartered and piracy arises. Due to harsh situations along the long journey, the British invade and capture Portuguese ships and use them. Because the journey was so long, Madagascar was used to be a focus point. Although Madagascar was considered to be an exotic country with unknown factors, European settlers were no surprise to the Madagascar natives. Once arrival, most of Madagascar seemed to be heavily influenced by Arabic and Indonesian descendants. After the first encounter, slavery activities started to increase. Originally, rice granary was the major export for trade, but because of the heavy influence from European settlers, the slave trade becomes the big export. However, the Portuguese nation were not able to keep a strong, long establishment and ended up leaving, resulting in the arrival of the British, French, and Dutch. The Dutch were the first to come, but trading with the natives became difficult. The British then come to play, but the British showed unstable trade. Clashing with many European nations, natives of Madagascar would sometimes kill the Europeans. This is because Europeans had technological advances, especially in materials used in water, and were afraid. Luckily, the natives had an advantage of their own:
McDonald focuses away from the settlement and talks about the trade companies and the competition. Trade of English merchants went as far as trading to the lands of the Levant, lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Besides the East Indies Company, another group of merchants from Venetia dominated the trade of East India goods to England. The Levant Company, an English company chartered by Queen Elizabeth I, lasted twenty years. First European country to arrive in Africa were the Portuguese, then the British, French, and Dutch later arrive. The first British voyage was in 1591, led by Raymond and Lancaster. While on the journey, Raymond dies and Lancaster returns to the homeland. Another journey is chartered and piracy arises. Due to harsh situations along the long journey, the British invade and capture Portuguese ships and use them. Because the journey was so long, Madagascar was used to be a focus point. Although Madagascar was considered to be an exotic country with unknown factors, European settlers were no surprise to the Madagascar natives. Once arrival, most of Madagascar seemed to be heavily influenced by Arabic and Indonesian descendants. After the first encounter, slavery activities started to increase. Originally, rice granary was the major export for trade, but because of the heavy influence from European settlers, the slave trade becomes the big export. However, the Portuguese nation were not able to keep a strong, long establishment and ended up leaving, resulting in the arrival of the British, French, and Dutch. The Dutch were the first to come, but trading with the natives became difficult. The British then come to play, but the British showed unstable trade. Clashing with many European nations, natives of Madagascar would sometimes kill the Europeans. This is because Europeans had technological advances, especially in materials used in water, and were afraid. Luckily, the natives had an advantage of their own: