Imperial Wars
Imperial Wars.Although North America was peripheral to Western European rivalries in trade, revenue, and power, imperial wars strongly shaped modern North American history. Conflicts between Europeans and Indian communities were also imperial, but conflicts between European settlements and between European forces in America extended European military competition more directly. Generally, these wars reflected rather than affected European power. Their phases correspond to the dominance of Spain, the Netherlands, France, and Britain.
Spain's initial adventures in America roused little rivalry beyond the English‐sponsored explorations of John Cabot and the Portuguese voyages of the Corte‐Réal brothers. Although Portugal had fought Spain for the Canary Islands, the Portuguese crown quickly gained so much in the Far East that it seemed sensible to respect the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas with Spain, a hemispheric apportionment of all the worlds that...
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