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metropolis was at war with the present interests and
natural rights of its colonies; and, as the
European colonial system was established on every continent; as the single colonies were, each by itself, too feeble for resistance; colonial oppression was destined to endure as long, at least, as the union of the oppressors.
But the commercial jealousies of
Europe extended, from the first, to
European colonies; and the home relations of the states of the Old World to each other were finally surpassed in importance by the transatlantic conflicts with which they were identified.
The mercantile system, being founded in error and injustice, was doomed not only itself to expire, but, by overthrowing the mighty fabric of the colonial system, to emancipate commerce, and open a boundless career to human hope.
That colonial system all
Western Europe had contributed to build.
Even before the discovery of
Amer-
ica,
Portugal had reached
Madeira and the
Azores, the
Cape Verd Islands and
Congo; within six years after
the discovery of Hayti, the intrepid
Vasco de Gama,
following where no
European, where none but Africans from
Carthage, had preceded, turned the
Cape of Good Hope, and arrived at Mozambique; and, passing the
Arabian peninsula, landed at
Calicut, and made an establishment at
Cochin.
Within a few short years, the brilliant temerity of
Portugal achieved establishments on
Western and
Eastern Africa, in
Arabia and
Persia, in Hindostan and the
Eastern isles, and in
Brazil.
The intense application of the system of monopoly, combined with the despotism of the sovereign and the priesthood, precipitated the decay of Portuguese commerce in advance of the decay of the mercantile system; and the Moors,
