Latin
America:
Colonization
and
Urbanization
1450-1750
Pre-Invasion
• Describe what life was like for
Mesoamerica
• Describe life in the Andean Highlands
1492
• The end of the
Reconquista
• The Moors expelled
(and the Jews)
• Cristobal Colombo
Columbus Voyage, 1492
What was effect back in Europe?
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•
•
•
New commodities
New land
New ideas
New groups of immigrants
Who went to the New World?
• In Latin America:
– The Spanish and Portuguese commoners:
• Merchant class
• Non-nobles, seeking nobility
– Conquistadores
And they did what?
• Tried to establish fiefs
• Created plantation
economy
• 3 phases:
1.) 1492-1570colonial
administration (Indian
discrimination/slavery)
2.) 1570-1700Colonial
society & economy
reached maturity
3.) 1700sreform in
American colonies
The Spanish Caribbean
Indigenous peoples were the Taino
- Lived in small villages under
authority of chiefs
– Showed little resistance to
European visitors
• Columbus built the fort of Santo
Domingo, capital of the Spanish
Caribbean
– Taino conscripted to mine gold
– Encomiendas: land grants to
Spanish settlers with total
control over local people
– Brutal abuses plus smallpox
brought decline of Taino
populations
Cortes
• Aztec and Inca societies
wealthier, more complex than
Caribbean societies
• 1519-1521 (450 men)
• Brought down the Aztec empire
– Advanced weapons:
• Steel
• Gunpowder
• Horses
– Alliances with indigenous people
• Tribal resentment against the
Mexica
– Diseases (smallpox)
The Road the Ancient Mexicas
Travelled
Pizarro
• 1532-1533
• Defeated the Inca at
the capital, Cuzco
• Looted gold, silver,
other precious
metals, jewels from
Incan buildings, dead
bodies, etc.
How could Pizarro’s tiny force do
it? (>600)
• Many subjects of Incan rule despised the
Inca b/c of role as overlord and tax
collector
• Epidemic disease
1570
• End of Age of Conquest
• 192 Spanish cities and towns in the New
World
• Colonial American society
– European-style society in cities, indigenous culture
persisted in rural areas
– More exploitation of New World than settlement
– Still, many Iberian migrants settled in the Americas,
1500-1800
Impact on Native Indian
Populations
•
•
•
•
•
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Population decline
Rise of mestizos
Indian Slavery
Econmiendas
Mita
Flee to the cities
Plaza de Recocijo de Potosi (1830,
oil painting)
Colonial Government
• Based on coerced labor
• Hacienda
– Similar to what?
• All reported back to the
crown
– Viceroys (Mexico and Peru)
– Then Audiencias (judicial
regions)
– Then magistrates (town/village)
Brazil, model plantation colony
• With two people (groups of 3), create an
outline of what people need to know
about Brazil. Write this like a 1-pager
(picture, thesis, CD, etc.)
• Share with the class.
Multi-racial Societies
• Indigenous Americans, Europeans, and
Africans brought together in the Americas
• As conquerors, Europeans “superior”
• People of mixed-parentage in the middle
• Slaves at bottom
• Disparity as to who was more elite: whites from
the Americas (creoles) or from Europe
(peninsulares)
• Patriarchal culture
Reforms in the 18th Century
• Spain lost its European
dominance
• Other European countries took
control of Caribbean
• Latin America became better
able to provide manufactured
goods
• War of Spanish Succession
ended with French Bourbon on
throne
• Spain had to open trade to
British
• No more Spanish monopoly!
The Bourbons
• Increased viceroyalties
• Exposed corrupt
rulers/removed from
office
• Improved military
readiness of colonies
• Colonized California
The Bourbons
• Created monopolies/improved economy
• Weakened Latin American position (created
dependency)
• Alienated Creole leadership
So, kill the tyrant!
• The Creole leadership lead to revolts
against the crown
• New Granada
• Peru
• But, social/racial disparity prevented
widespread & unified revolt
So, where does that leave us?
• Widespread social unrest
• Widespread racial unrest
• Widespread economic disparity