Spaniards established an intricate empire in the Americas, claiming all of Central America, Mexico, New Mexico, Florida, and more. Prior to the fifteenth century, the Spanish had no exposure to the New World. Eventually, they uncovered the new hemisphere. With time they would colonize and build an elaborate empire overseas. Many strategies were utilized with the intention of sculpting an elaborate empire in hopes of generating wealth and power. The Spanish Requirement of 1513, commonly referred to as “El Requirement” or “Requermento”, was a declaration from the Spanish monarchy that was read to the Native Indians in Spanish (without a translator present), stating their right to forcibly take possession of land in the New World, vanquish, exploit, and fight the lands locals. Those who opposed were perceived with impure intentions and ultimately defying God’s plan. The Spaniards used catholic theology to justify their right to punish. They then introduced the Mita, a pre-Columbian draft system to treat the Natives as slaves. The Mita system was used to labor Natives. The Mita system was used by the Incas for years prior to Spanish colonization. It forced all men to work for the government for two months each year. In return, each …show more content…
family would be provided with enough food for the year. It was a successful system that stabilized the civilization. The Mita system later evolved into a method of forced labor referred to as the Encomienda system.
The Encomienda system was utilized by the Spanish in 1513 in hopes to regulate the Native American labor during the colonization era. The Spanish would take goods, metals, money, etc. from the Indians and in return provide them with protection and enlightenment of the Christian faith. The Encomienda system was thoroughly ingrained into the history and culture of this time. Historians have considered this system to be one of the most damaging methods utilized in the New World. While the initial purpose of the Encomienda was meant for good, it later began to encompass oppression, exploitation, and ultimately became a burden to Native
Americans. For a significant portion of this era, Spanish American society had a pyramidal structure that was based upon race, housing a small number of Spaniards at the top. They were dubbed the “Peninsulares” and were Iberian-Spanish artisocrats. Underneath were the descendants of the Peninsulares (Criollos), following with Caucasian/Indians (Mestizos), Caucasian/African (Mulattoes), African Slaves, and at the bottom, Native American Indians. This social class was established by the Roman Catholic Church and was assigned at baptism. The Catholic Church also established gender roles for social organization as they provided a basic order for Latin American society. The New World was that of a male dominated society. The men were seen as the main supporters of the families. They were provided with a formal education and full participation in government whereas the women were seen as the exact opposite. They were dubbed the caregivers of a family with the sole purpose of managing homes, raising children, and caring for the elderly. They were not given a formal education or ability to participate in the government. This particular social class lead to deep issues of racial equality, severe division between the rich and poor, and division between the genders. Spain had many attributes to its success as an empire. The ability to uncover and skillfully capture land across the hemisphere furthered the Spanish reign. They colonized and built a massive empire overseas. However, the Spanish monarchy implemented unjust rules onto the lands inhabitants, rules that would limit their freedom. After seeing the successful effect the Mita method had on their newly captured land, the Spanish let power and desire go too far. They took away the Native American’s natural rights. Some may interpret the Spanish as being “give up, convert, or we kill you” type of monarchy. This eventually led to the downfall of the empire. Establishing an empire in the Americas indefinitely shaped the way of life for generations to come.
Encomiendas: An encomienda was a grant of Native American labor given to prominent European men in the Americas by the Spanish king. This grant allowed European men to extract tribute from natives in the form of labor and goods. The value of the grants was dramatically increased with the discovery of gold and silver in the Americas. The significance of this term is that although this system was eventually repartitioned, it initiated the tradition of prominent men controlling vast resources and monopolizing native labor.
From 711-1492, Christian Spaniards lived under Moorish rule until eventually, the Christian Kingdoms took over during the Reconquista. The conflicts between the Muslims and Christians created a militaristic culture in Spain that surpassed that of any other European nation. Furthermore, being trained militarily was often exclusively attributed to the nobility however, in Spain, “many young men knew these skills and used them to their advantage.” Without a doubt, recently reconquering their homeland motivated the Spanish to a basis for expansion and conquest that most other European societies were lacking. In addition, the voyages of Christopher Columbus led to discovering the New World which undoubtedly contributed to added interest in conquest. Eventually, each conquest further raised Spanish hopes for fame and
...ything and everyone that were there. At times they would work with the Natives at other times they would be at war with the natives. The Spanish had been engaged with the natives longer and over time felt the best way to control them would be to convert them or put them into same locations where they could “keep an eye on them”. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 was proof that no matter what they tried, when one man, country, or society tries to oppress another, war is almost always inevitable.
Disagreement between the Europeans and the Natives and the enslavement of Native people helped to wipe out the population. Document 5 illustrates the fighting that occurred between the Natives and European. Most times the cause of this fighting was that Europeans were taking over land that was not rightfully theirs. The Natives often lost these battles because their weapons and tactics were not as advanced as the Europeans. Therefore, the large amount of deaths in battles made a change in the Native’s population. To add, when the Europeans first arrived to the Americas they established a new economic system called the encomienda system. The encomienda system was a system of forced labor which Native Americans worked on Spanish-owned estates. Document 4 explains how the system was to work, “the Indians should work on the Christians’ building, mind the gold, till the fields, and produce food for the Christian’s.” This system benefited the Europeans immensely. On the other hand, many Native’s working were treated very poorly and faced brutal punishment and labor. The enslavement of Native people was another cause of the great decrease in population. The disappearance of Native people lead to the disappearance of their customs, beliefs, and way of
The early years of colonial Mexico were a time of great change, as the native Indian populations were decimated by disease and increasingly dominated by the Spanish social and economic structure. Under the encomienda system, the initial flood of Spanish immigrants were provided with a support structure in New Spain, as the Indians’ land and labor were put at their disposal in exchange for moral guidance.[3] As Spain sought to reap the benefits of its new colony, the need for dependable labor in Mexico’s agr...
From this short blurbs of what is said about the west they make inferences of what it is like, and how can it be possible for another land mass to be unknown to many for so long. But for those who do know what is past the Atlantic know that this Agenda of the King and Queen must be fulfilled and to do so would be to claim land for Spain for it to be settled upon. On top of that is to further collect riches of the Americas to benefit Spain in conquest of the Americas. Bartolome de las casas had hoped to prevent further harm to Indians, and clarify that they were not barbarians.
The gold and silver mines offered quick wealth to the Spaniards, and the native population was given out freely because of the repartimiento system. The Indians were given as a reward to the Conquistadors for helping the Spanish king in conquering Latin American.
Cultures had been flourishing thousands of years before the Europeans arrived to the New World. Great empires such as the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas inhabited the vast lands of Central and South America. These three major powers controlled the land before Columbus or Cortez were even born. Although the Pre-Columbian civilizations and the Europeans shared some similar ideas, life was very different in the New World compared with that of Middle Age Europe.
When they found the “new world” is too weak to resist the invasion of European, they started to establish the colony in America. Bartolomé de Las Casas used to be a priest who explored America on Hispaniola and Cuba. But after he witnessed the colonists enslave and mistreat Indians, he changed his mind and start to protect the Indians. He free his Indian slaves in 1514, and start to against Spanish mistreat them (Foner, p.7). After that, he made the effort to liberate the Indian slaves, and he had backed to Spain several times want to make the King reduce the heavy labor of Indians. Finally, Spain published New Laws in 1542, which indicate that Indians no longer be enslaved (Foner, p.7).
Beginning in 1492, Spain had been the first European nation to sail westward across the Atlantic Ocean and colonize the Amerindian nations of the Western Hemisphere. The empire that came from this exploration extended from Virginia on the
The Spanish began their movement to Southwest America in the late sixteenth century. From that point on, their influence both on the Native Americans and the environment was extraordinaire. The goal of the Spaniards with regards to the Native Americans was to transform them “into tax-paying Christians.” This is in contrast to the idea that their goal was to eradicate the Indians form the Americas. Consequently, the Spaniards took many Indians so that they may plant their religion in the Natives and to use them as cheap labor. This led many Indians to learn the customs and language of the Spaniards so they could to be able to thrive in the Spanish culture. Thus, some Natives acquired Spanish, which was the main source of their Hispanicization; this was the notion of Indians becoming encompassed by the Spanish society. Furthermore, Indians gradually learned skills, obtained land, and sometimes found Hispanic spouses, thus furthering their Hispanicization. They now began to live in a Spanish manner and blend into the bottom of the Spanish societal ladder. This “acculturation” of the Native Americans was in contrast to the models of early English colonization. Spanish goals and plans sought to involve the Indians so that they may live in their society even if at the lower end of it’s ladder. English colonies viewed the Natives as savages and looked to them for slave labor or to rape their women. They did not plan to take the Indians into their society as the Spaniards did so throughout this era.
...ditions were terrible and the superintendents’ disregard for their welfare did not help any. According to footnote 2, a peso was worth 8 reals. So, they were paid for their work, but the compensation amounted to almost nothing. The “Potosí” section mentions that the “mingados”, volunteer workers, were paid more, and were paid based on experience. The section also mentions a provision of food rations, so the Spanish must have had some concern for the welfare of these workers, if only pragmatic in nature. I think that the greatest indicator of the Spanish disregard for native life lies in the sentence “This works out very badly, with great losses and gaps in the quotas of the Indians […]”. (The Human Record, 144) It implies that many died due to work in the mines, and because of the disparity of the population and natural lifestyle of the natives, more suffered.
They gave the least power and human rights to the Native Americans to show dominance over them, and prove who of them had the power. The purpose of the church building was to convert Native Americans to Christianity, many converted to avoid bloodshed and damage to their people. The Spanish forced the Native Americans to work; Encomienda, which means to have Native American labor. The Native Americans labored on haciendas/plantations, which means farms. They forced Native Americans to work
The Spaniards arrived at the Americas prior to the English. The Spanish mainly wanted to explore in the first place because after the Black Death, the population increased, and thus, so did the frequency of commerce. There was a sudden new interest in new products and the new strong monarchs who sponsored the journeys wanted to be more affluent. Therefore, explorers such as Christopher Columbus attempted to go west to target Asia. However, he ended up on Cuba and called the natives Indians. The Spanish soon started to consider the Americas less of a blockage and could now see it as a source of resources. In 1518, Cortes arrived into Mexico with his group of conquistadors, or conquerors, which is a proper name because the men after gold exterminated native areas using their military skills, brutality and greed to turn the Southern America into a vast Spanish empire. The smallpox the Spanish unknowingly carried also helped wipe many people out. When they saw the religious ceremonies of the Aztecs that produced many skulls, they thought of these people as savages and not entirely human. This of coarse was quite hypocritical because the Spanish have killed before during the Inquisition for their faith. It was this contempt that made them think it was all right to slaughter the natives. Spanish colonies were established when conquistadors had gotten a license to finance the expedition from the crown to fixture encomiendas. These encomiendas were basically Indian villages that became a source of labor. The Spanish dreamed of becoming wealthier from South America, but they also wanted a profitable agricultural economy and to spread their Catholic religion (the Pueblo Indians converted to Christianity), which became very important in the 1540s.
From Spain's early arrival in the Caribbean through their establishment of the Spanish empire indigenous people were exploited through cheap, slave like labor. One of the most incredible subjects raised by the documents presented in Colonial Spanish America is the topic of Labor Systems that were imposed on the indigenous people. Spain tried to excuse this exploitation by claiming to save these indigenous people by teaching them the ways of Christ but many of the Articles in Colonial Spanish America, Struggle & Survival, and The Limits of Racial Domination prove otherwise. Through letters, personal stories, and other documents these books present accounts that tell about the labor system used in this area. They tell of the Spanish labor systems such as the encomiendos and later rapartamientos and how these operations were run.