Creole peoples

As Creoles are called the descendants of those people who were taken from Africa to the European colonies and in particular to America. Thus various cultural and ethnic mixing companies, which were called creole or will be revealed.

The term Creole was coined in the early colonization of North Africa by the Portuguese crown, and in particular the Cape Verde Islands and Guinea -Bissau, and is derived from the Portuguese " Crioulo " and the Spanish " criollo " from, both on the verb " criar " ( raise, raise, breed ) are based. " Crioulos " and " Criollos " were so " pupils ". Despite the similarity of the Portuguese word Crioulo and the Spanish Criollo denote fundamentally different social realities. The word " Criollo " refers to the descendants of emigrant parents at the time of colonization.

Portuguese Crioulo

In the early colonial history of Portugal emerged Creole societies of marriages between spouses of different origin from Europe and Africa, and by the emergence of a new, distinctive culture and language.

This was only possible in the first decades of colonial history, as long as no secular or religious mediated racist ideology forbade the family together. The European-born fathers had mostly no free woman and therefore no free children and the desire to free the enslaved members of their family.

In Cape Verde and Brazil was the testamentary release under the influence of the Jesuits to the general custom, and there was a free, joint venture with Creole culture and identity, quite contrary to the rules of church and state. So today the members of these cultures in Cape Verde, Guinea- Bissau, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome and Principe, Angola, Mozambique and other former Portuguese coastal settlements designate as well as in Brazil and Guyana as Creoles.

In most cases, the origin of these people is reflected in their appearance. They are half-breeds. But even families purely European, African or other origin may have been integrated into the culture and have adopted a Creole identity. The connecting link of Creole identity is the common Creole language in the first place.

Spanish Criollo

The term Criollo called in Spanish-speaking Latin America:

• The native-born descendants of Spanish (or other European) parents, in contrast to the Mestizos or half-breeds,
• More broadly anyone who was born in Latin America and carries each typical character features.

In the Spanish colonies the higher positions in government and church ( governors, bishops, and others) were at first usually reserved for those born in the home country Spaniards. From the American-born Spaniards or " Criollos ", therefore, arose in the course of time a kind of middle class, whose influence grew more and more. Impoverished or illegitimate children of Spaniards, however, were often possessions, learned trades, went on the market or were employed on the estates of the Spaniards as an administrator.

In the 18th and 19th centuries featured in most Spanish colonies the " Criollos " the most numerous (Cuba, Hispaniola ), or at least in the major cities very large population group (Mexico, Peru). They led the liberation struggles in the context of the South American wars of independence, as they free themselves from the tutelage of Spanish manager and wanted to get more economic and political clout.

In Latin America with the adjective " criollo " today also referred to all those cultural elements that are neither exclusively imported from Europe or Africa indigenous but originated in America under European or African influence, such as the " Creole music " ( Merengue, Salsa, Mambo, Milonga, etc.) or the " Creole cuisine ."

English Creole

In the United States of " criollo " finally " creole ", which was originally a term for the descendants of French or Spanish immigrants or descendants of the inhabitants of the French Caribbean colonies in the South, especially in Louisiana. In contrast, the resident descendants of the inhabitants of Acadia, the Cajuns.

The term is, however, not clearly defined, for example, were also early German immigrants who settled on the " German Coast " along the Mississippi, called Creoles.

Atlantic Creoles

The American historian Ira Berlin ( b. 1941 ), who has published two monographs on the history of slavery in the United States, the term Atlantic creoles used ( German: " Creoles of the Atlantic " ) for (West) Africans of 15 mitreisten merchant ships and formed in many countries and colonies on both sides of the Atlantic own trading posts and settlements - century as interpreter, liaison officers and merchants with European - mainly Dutch, Portuguese, British and French. The Europeans, who had been recruited because of their cross-cultural expertise these Creoles, they were often also as slaves. The Atlantic creoles were often - but not always - African and European descent and developed pidgin and creole languages ​​later fully developed, which allowed them to communicate with a variety of native speakers. As Ira Berlin represents the first generation was recruited from the Atlantic creoles in the 17th and 18th century Black slaves in the later territory of the United States.