[Religion and Revolution]: Unique Buildings

Portuguese Feitorias (c.1445)

During the territorial and economic expansion of the Age of Discovery the factory was adapted by the Portuguese and spread throughout from West Africa to Southeast Asia.[2] The Portuguese "feitorias" were mostly fortified trading posts settled in coastal areas, built to centralize and thus dominate the local trade of products with the Portuguese kingdom (and thence to Europe). They served simultaneously as market, warehouse, support to the navigation and customs and were governed by a "Feitor" (factor) responsible for managing the trade, buying and trading products on behalf of the king and collecting taxes (usually 20%).
Elmina Castle viewed from the sea in 1668. Notice European shipping in foreground and African houses/town shown in left hand corner and in various areas around the fort.

The first Portuguese feitoria overseas was established by Henry the Navigator in 1445 on the island of Arguin, off the coast of Mauritania. It was built to attract Muslim traders and monopolize the business in the routes traveled in North Africa. It served as a model for a chain of African feitorias, Elmina Castle being the most notorious.

Between the 15th and 16th centuries, a chain of about 50 Portuguese forts either housed or protected feitorias along the coasts of West and East Africa, the Indian Ocean, China, Japan, and South America. The main Portuguese factories were in Goa, Malacca, Ormuz, Ternate, and Macau. They were mainly driven by the trade of gold on the coast of Guinea, spices in the Indian Ocean, and slaves to the new world. They were also used for local triangular trade between several territories, like Goa-Macau-Nagasaki, trading products such as sugar, pepper, coconut, timber, horses, grain, feathers from exotic Indonesian birds, precious stones, silks and porcelain from the East, among many other products. In the Indian Ocean the trade in Portuguese factories was enforced and increased by a merchant ship licensing system: the cartazes.[3]

From the feitorias the products went to the main outpost in Goa, then to Portugal where they were traded in the Casa da Índia, which also managed exports to India.[4] There they were sold, or re-exported to the Royal Portuguese Factory in Antwerp, where they were distributed to the rest of Europe.

Easily supplied and defended by sea, the factories worked as independent colonial bases. They provided safety, both for the Portuguese, and at times for the territories in which they were built, protecting against constant rivalries and piracy. They allowed Portugal to dominate trade in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, establishing a vast empire with scarce human and territorial resources. Over time, the feitorias were sometimes licensed to private entrepreneurs, giving rise to some conflict between abusive private interests and local populations, such as in the Maldives.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patroonships
In the United States, a patroon (from Dutch patroon, owner or head of a company) was a landholder with manorial rights to large tracts of land in the 17th century Dutch colony of New Netherland in North America. Through the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1629, the Dutch West India Company first started to grant this title and land to some of its invested members. These inducements to foster colonization and settlement (also known as the "Rights and Exemptions"), are the basis for the patroon system.

The deeded tracts were called patroonships and could span 16 miles in length on one side of a major river, or 8 miles if spanning both sides. In 1640 the charter was revised to cut new plot sizes in half, and to allow any Dutch American in good standing to purchase an estate. The title of patroon came with powerful rights and privileges, similar to those of a lord in the feudal period. A patroon could create civil and criminal courts, appoint local officials and hold land in perpetuity. In return, he was commissioned by the Dutch West India Company to establish a settlement of at least 50 families within four years on the land. As tenants working for the patroon, these first settlers were relieved of the duty of public taxes for ten years, but were required to pay the patroon in money, goods, or services in kind. A patroonship had its own village and other infrastructure, including churches (which recorded births, baptisms, and marriages).

After the British takeover of New Netherland in 1664, the system continued with the granting of large tracts known as manors, and sometimes referred to as patroonships.

The seigneurial system was introduced to New France in 1627 by Cardinal Richelieu. Under this system, the lands were arranged in long narrow strips, called seigneuries, along the banks of the St. Lawrence River. Each piece of land belonged to the king of France and was maintained by the landlord, or seigneur.

The seigneurial system was introduced because the St. Lawrence River was something like the "Highway of New France". The river provided water and a means of transportation, which enabled settlers with land along the St. Lawrence to be successful. Land along the river, therefore, was much in demand.

The seigneur divided the land further among his tenants, known as censitaires or habitants, who cleared the land, built houses and other buildings, and farmed the land. The habitants paid taxes to the seigneur called cens et rentes and another inheritance tax called lods and ventes, and were usually required to work for their seigneur for three days per year, often building roads. The habitants would also divide their land for their children once they had families of their own.

Unlike the French feudalism from which it was derived, the lord of the manor was not granted the "haut" or "bas" jurisdiction to impose fines and penalties as in Europe; those powers were given to the Intendant of New France, a commissioner sent by the King.

Seigneuries were often divided into a number of areas. There was a common area on the shore of the St. Lawrence river, behind which was the best land and the seigneur's estate itself. There were also one or more sets of farmland, not adjacent to the river, immediately behind the first set.

In France, seigneurs were vassals to the king, who granted them the deeds to the seigneuries. The seigneurial system differed somewhat from its counterpart in France; the seigneurs of New France were not always nobles. Seigneuries in North America were granted to military officers, some were owned by the Catholic clergy and even by unions of local inhabitants. In 1663, half of the seigneuries of New France were managed by women. This situation came to be because a woman could inherit her husband's property after his death. In New France, the king was represented by his intendant; the first intendant of New France was Jean Talon, who made it a requirement that seigneurs actually live on their estates. It also allowed for increased control over settlement by a central authority.

The seigneurs were never the real owners of their lands; the lands were concessions by the King in exchange for services. The seigneurs were responsible for building a mill, chapel and roads for the censitaires, who were then responsible for working a number of days per year for the seigneur.

The General Trade Company (Danish: Det almindelige Handelskompagni) was a Dano-Norwegian trading company charged with administering the realm's settlements and trade in Greenland. The company managed the government of Greenland from 1749 until its bankruptcy in 1774.

Learning from the mistakes of the earlier Bergen Greenland Company and the relative success of Jacob Severin's operation on the island, the General Trade Company received a full monopoly on trade around its settlements and armed ships flying the Danebrog to prevent better-armed, lower-priced, and better-quality Dutch goods from bankrupting the enterprise. It focused its operations on getting seal skins and whale oil from the native hunters for resale in Europe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_government_in_the_Thirteen_Colonies
The Assembly

The Assemblies had a variety of titles, such as: House of Delegates, House of Burgesses, or Assembly of Freemen. They had several features in common. Members were elected by the propertied citizens of the towns or counties annually, which usually meant for a single, brief session, although the council or governor could and sometimes did call for a special session.[6] Suffrage was restricted to free white men only, usually with property ownership restrictions. Since land ownership was widespread, most white men could vote.

Taxes and government budgets originated in the Assembly. The budget was also connected with the raising and equipping of the militia. As the American Revolution grew nearer, this contributed to the conflict between the assembly and the governor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidio
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.23...2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101245536923
A presidio is a fortified base established by the Spanish in North America between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The fortresses were built to protect against pirates, hostile native Americans and enemy colonists. Other presidios were held by Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in Italy, on Elba and in North Africa. Later, with independence, the Mexicans garrisoned the Spanish presidios on the northern frontier and followed the same pattern in unsettled frontier regions like the Presidio de Sonoma, at Sonoma, California and the Presidio de Calabasas, in Arizona. A short distance outside a presidio, would be a rancho del rey, or king's farm, a tract of land assigned to it to furnish pasturage to the horses and other beasts of burden of the garrison.