Censorship During the Age of Exploration

Definition: Period of worldwide discovery and colonial expansion by European powers

Significance: Each European power attempted to suppress dissemination of the knowledge gained by its own explorers, but in every case such efforts failed

The European nations involved in exploration had an interest in controlling the information they acquired. Exploration was not pursued to gain mere knowledge. Each voyage was undertaken in the hope of acquiring wealth and power, most often by locating new trade routes to the Orient or by exploiting the resources of the new lands discovered by the Europeans. Thus, new information benefited the owner most if it was unavailable to the other countries. As a result, various forms of censorship were imposed.

Spanish and Portuguese Censorship

The monarchy of Spain enacted the most comprehensive and effective censorship of its explorers’ knowledge, but these policies ultimately failed. Information did reach rival powers. The continued Spanish censoring of cartographic information also was used to counter Spanish claims to territory in the Gulf of Mexico.

Spain began its explorations with little regard for secrecy. In the early voyages, Spain quite often employed experienced seamen from foreign countries. Christopher Columbus was a Genoese and his first voyage in 1492 was primarily funded by fellow Genoese. Ferdinand Magellan was Portuguese and his crew included Portuguese, Italians, and Frenchmen. Once the Spanish monarchy realized the true wealth of the New World, especially after the conquests of the Aztecs and Incas, censorship efforts were enacted. The Spanish monarchy banned all foreign ships and men from the wealthy West Indies trade area. Although this ban was partially reduced in the 1550’s, stringent requirements and Spanish suspicions of all foreigners remained crucial aspects of Spanish colonial policy. Throughout this period, illegal trespassers were subject to imprisonment or execution. The monarchy also created centralized departments to oversee the new empire. In 1508 a hydrographic office was established. In addition to training navigators and collecting the new information, the office also oversaw the control of the maps being created. Although general, large-scale maps were published, important coastal charts and detailed maps were restricted. Spanish navigators were held responsible for the charts and maps they carried on their voyages. If disaster struck they were to save these materials if possible, but they were to destroy them before they let them fall into foreign hands. Despite this, pirates and foreign warships often managed to capture these valuable documents.

In the early seventeenth century, Spain expanded its censorship to include almost all information about the New World. Thus, few Spanish maps were published, and those that were published were conspicuously bare. These efforts to suppress the dissemination of information generally failed. Information leaked out through spies, disgruntled Spaniards, captured documents, and because other European powers were increasingly encroaching into Spanish territories. In fact, the lack of published Spanish maps undermined Spain’s claim to the Gulf of Mexico. When France published detailed maps of the northern Gulf and claimed it as a French possession, the Spanish had no credible published maps to refute France’s claims.

After Spain, Portugal employed the most successful censorship of its explorations. The Portuguese monarchy oversaw the commercial interests that typically funded the explorations and the monarchy actively controlled the trading empire established in the Indian Ocean. Like the Spanish, the Portuguese created governmental offices to coordinate their explorations, trade activities, and the defense of their new empire—which included censoring maps. From the first voyages down the western coast of Africa, the monarchy tried to control access to coastal maps and navigational information. Published maps were rare. Foreign seamen were employed less by the Portuguese than was the practice in other countries. Extensive policies restricted foreign vessels from traveling in Portuguese waters and overwhelming hostility to intruders kept most interlopers out during the sixteenth century. The Portuguese reputation for protecting their territory was so effective that for most of the sixteenth century, Portugal controlled almost all of the Indian Ocean spice trade. However, this success did not include their efforts to suppress knowledge of Portuguese territories. Both Spain and France repeatedly enticed Portuguese pilots into their service, and when they left Portugal they often brought Portuguese charts and maps with them. By the seventeenth century Portugal had become basically a conquered province of Spain and the bulk of the Portuguese empire began to fall into the hands of the Dutch, French, and British.

Northern European Empire Builders

In the early seventeenth century, the Dutch became the first of the northern Atlantic powers to break the Spanish and Portuguese monopoly on the world empires. The Dutch quickly acquired most of the Portuguese empire and established colonies in the Americas that were useful in launching piracy against the Spanish and in controlling the contraband slave trade. The Dutch parliament government and the relatively open merchant society of the United Provinces of the Netherlands made extensive censorship impractical. The Dutch did attempt to suppress initial information of their explorations—mainly because they were intruding into Spanish and Portuguese areas and they needed time to consolidate bases of operation. This censorship was at best temporary. The Dutch never effectively censored publications of maps, and they relied on seamen from various countries, which made the Dutch especially vulnerable to spies.

Of the North Atlantic powers, France had the greatest potential to suppress their explorers’ discoveries. Although France had a parliament, the monarchy gained absolute authority. Censorship boards were established, and by mid-seventeenth century, all French publications required royal approval. Early French explorations were censored. Voyage logs and maps were restricted, but the details still became widely known. The explorations of Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524 and Jacques Cartier during 1534 to 1535 employed seamen from several countries. Furthermore, early French censorship was haphazard at best. By the late sixteenth century, France had adopted a strategy of suppression and propaganda. Especially in North America, the French attempted to restrict access for intruders of competing nations. France also enacted extensive secrecy in the planning and establishment of the Fort Caroline garrison in 1564 and the Robert LaSalle expedition in 1684. France, not following the policy of Spain, quickly published numerous maps of French explorations in order to further the legitimacy of its claims.

Great Britain attempted to suppress information about its early explorations, but these efforts were generally futile. The fifteenth century British voyages to Greenland and Newfoundland were likely done in secret for the dual goals of establishing trade and seeking a northwest passage to the Orient. The Portuguese at least were soon aware of the details of the voyages. Later efforts to find a northwest or northeast passage to the Orient were also quickly compromised. The British use of foreign seamen, coupled with Britain’s relatively weak monarchy and the British people’s antipathy for legislated censorship made suppression of knowledge nearly impossible.

Bibliography

Leo Bagrow’s History of Cartography (Chicago: Precedent Publishing, 1985) gives a thorough overview of the processes and policies involved in the creation and publishing of maps. William H. Goetzmann’s The Atlas of North American Exploration from the Norse Voyages to the Race to the Pole (New York: Swanson, 1992) details the purpose and results of explorations in North America. In Spain and Portugal in the New World, 1492-1700 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984), Lyle N. McAlister describes the Iberian countries’ policies and efforts to suppress foreign involvement in their empires. Robert Weddle, The French Thorn (College Station: Texas A&M Press, 1991), discusses the conflict between the French and the Spanish and their use of maps. John Wilford’s The Mapmakers (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981) provides accounts of numerous explorations and their findings.