During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries European powers vied for
control of the land and resources in the Caribbean and Latin America.
Colonies made Spain rich through gold, silver, and gems looted from the
Native cultures, along with rare and exotic goods such as tobacco,
sugar, and dyewood, and even humble products such as hides. In rapid
turn, other European monarchies and merchants sent out colonizing
expeditions to the region to exploit the resources of the New World, but
creating permanent footholds was perilous. All European settlements
founded in the New World faced a variety of challenges, including food
supply, inconsistent support from Europe, leadership, ignorance of the
area colonized, irrational expectations, religious discord, relations
with Native peoples, and violent national rivalries. Colonies that
succeeded and those that failed faced the same challenges, although in
differing degrees and circumstances. The margin between survival and
disaster was always small--there were few chances to succeed and the
risk of failure was never far away.
In Neither Hee Nor Any of His Companie Did Return Againe: Failed
Colonies in the Caribbean and Latin America, 1492-1865, historians
David MacDonald and Raine Waters examine the European, and later
American, failures to establish permanent settlements in the region.
Beginning with Columbus's ill-conceived ventures, the authors discuss
the efforts, from German claims in Venezuela and Scottish attempts in
Panama to defeated Confederates fleeing to Mexico, Brazil, and
elsewhere. For each colony, the primary source information is
contextualized and evaluated. Along the way, the authors determine
commonalities across these ill-fated colonies as well as underscore the
fact that while Indigenous peoples of the region often vigorously
resisted predatory European colonization, their numbers were decimated
by relentless warfare, slave raids, and European diseases. As Indian
populations declined, colonists imported African slaves in large
numbers. The brutal treatment of slaves resulted in those who escaped
creating their own settlements that existed in a state of endemic
warfare with European colonists. An important contribution to Atlantic
World studies, this volume reveals the fine line between colonies that
thrived and those that failed.
