STUDY GUIDE - SPANISH EMPIRE
SOCIAL - SARAH
12. How is your society organized? Who has influence? How is status determined? Is there mobility? Is so, how do
people move up in society?
In the Spanish empire, there was little mobility in the social standings. Over time, a complete caste system developed
where people were ranked by how much Indian blood they had in them. They more indian blood you had, the lower you
were on the social scale. The Spanish lived with laws called “limpieza de sangre” or, Purity of Blood, where people had to
prove that their ancestors, as far back as 10 generations, were all Christian. However, the Spanish viewed Africans as
lower on the social scale than American Indians. The Spaniards had the most influence in the Spanish empire. Mestizos,
who were a mix of native american and European descent, were barred from various offices and discriminated against in
court. However, by the sixteenth century, those of mixed racial backgrounds made up so much of the population, it
became harder to determine which race somebody was, and those of mixed race outnumbered the Spanish population. The
spanish also created a “sistema de casas”, which was a caste-like system with Spaniards on top, and those of mixed race
below them.
14. What is the role of women? How are women treated in your empire? Is this a change or a
continuity from the previous era?
Among the higher Spanish officials, wives and families were very common. Outside of that, spanish women were
virtually nonexistent. Early on, Spanish men lived with the native women and took them as their mistresses. For a period
of time the Spanish Crown denied unmarried women emigrants, leaving Spanish men with few available mates. However,
eventually, intermarriages between different cultures were encouraged. Although women did not hold important positions
in society, they were influential. According to Hernan Cortes, the conquest of the Aztecs would not have been possible
without the assistance of Dona Marina La Malinche. She played critical roles in the process of conquering the land and
peoples who inhabited it.The fact that women were not seen as equals was generally a continuity from the previous eras.
ECONOMY - JOHANNES
24. What is the state of your economy? What is the basis of your economic system? What are your policies
towards trade and commerce? What trade networks are you linked to? Who controls them? Who are your trading
partners? What goods/products do you sell, what do you import? Is there a trade imbalance?
The wealth and power of the Spanish empire was largely illusory.
From 1400-1800, the Spanish empire began to increasingly embrace mercantilist economic policy. Mercantilism is an
economic theory that lumps together the following ideas: (1) The economic health of a Nation is heavily dependant on the
amount of bullion and precious metals it possesses. (2) Regulated commerce provides a favorable balance of trade, i.e. a
Nation should place low tariffs on raw materials and high tariffs on manufactured goods in order to encourage the import
of raw materials and the export of manufactured goods, as finished products have a higher value. The Government should
encourage exports and discourage imports through the use of tariffs. (3) Colonies are only allowed to trade with the
mother country. The Spanish used their colonies as captive markets for which they could export manufactured goods and
import raw materials as well as bullion. (4) Domestic money should be kept in circulation and the export of bullion is
prohibited. (5) The state was needed to enforce said policies. The five points listed above are the universal features of
Mercantilism. Mercantilism incorporated many more ideas such as limiting wages, monopolizing markets, and the use of
staple ports, but these ideas varied in application and sophistication among the European powers. This economic theory
led the Spanish crown to play a huge role in the domestic economy and engineer an expensive and inefficient colonial
bureaucracy to govern their overseas possessions.
The Spanish played a huge role in the Atlantic circuit. Spanish galleons would transport silver from Latin America to
Europe or to the Philippines, where it would be exchaneged for Asian goods and other exotic novelties. Unlike their
Dutch, Portuguese, or English contemporaries, the Spanish were never heavily involved in the Indian Ocean Maritime
system.
Emperor Ch'eng-tsu, the third emperor of the Ming dynasty, tried to stabilize China’s currency on a silver basis. However,
Chinese silver production had begun to decline around the 1430’s and China’s insatiable appetite for New world silver
resulted in an eastward flow of bullion. Because the European market increasingly demanded Asian luxuries and novelties
which had no or little other practical uses a trade imbalance grew with China. Overtime a trade imbalance with Latin
America became increasingly evident as the Colonies were becoming more self-sufficient. Therefore, decreasing their
dependence on Spanish products and making it harder for the Spanish to finance the purchase of New world silver.
TECHNOLOGY - DAVID
19. To what degree have new ideas and science influenced your realm?
The use of steel weapons, firearms, and explosives gave the Spanish a huge technological advantage over the Native
Indians and allowed them to conquer the New World. The most important is the development of steel which was
significantly more effective compared to the stone and soft-metal of the Natives. Guns were used to scare the Natives with
their sound and power, but in the end, swords did the dirty works. Furthermore, the Caravel ship design was more agile
than the Chinese Junks and allowed the Spanish to conquer the Atlantic ocean. All these new technologies were crucial to
Spain’s conquest in the New World. They gave them huge advantages over the Natives. The New World proved to be
very prosperous for the Spaniards and put them down in history as one of the most powerful empires in history.
20. What technologies have you either created or adopted? How are you using them? What technologies are you
actively seeking? How would you use them, how would they help you?
The use of steel weapons in the Old World was common during the fifteenth century, in contrast with the then
undiscovered New World whose lack of pyrotechnology prevented them from developing materials like steel to the extent
of the Europeans. The Spanish town of Toledo famous for its high quality steel swords, quickly became infamous in the
New World. Steel swords were infinitely more powerful than the primitive weapons of the Natives. With this advantage,
the Spanish were able to conquer the Inca and Aztecs and establish their dominance in the New World. The Spanish were
actively seeking better naval warfare technologies in order to protect their fleets from privateers. Examples of these
innovations include the canon, which greatly increased the profits from the New World and allowed the Europeans to
move into the Indian Ocean.
CHANGES AND CONTINUITIES - DAVID
30. What is your expire like at the beginning of the period? What is it like by the end of the period? What were
the significant changes that impacted your empire? What were the causes of those changes? Provide global
context. Identify and describe one continuity in your empire and compare to another area of the world that is
either similar or different. Provide reasons for the similarity or difference.
At the beginning of the 1450 to 1750 period, Spain was a land based Empire. However, this all changed when Christopher
Columbus and his crew discovered the New World in 1492. The increased demand for Chinese and Indian Ocean goods
led to a search for a shorter route to the eastern hemisphere. Christopher thought he had landed in Asia, his goal, when he
had actually landed in the Bahamas. In 1750, the Spanish Empire was very much a Maritime Empire, with trans-Atlantic
trade bustling. Furthermore, the exploration of the western coast of Africa had a significant impact of the Spanish Empire.
This exploration led to the triangle trade network which supplied African slave to the plantations of the Americas in
exchange for manufactured goods such as guns and textiles. Throughout the period, twelve and a half million slaves were
imported to the New World mostly for work on plantations. This meant enormous profits for the Spaniards. However,
Spain was not the only one making these shifts. Both England and France were going through similar transformations.
Throughout the period, Spain always had a major advantage over its New World enemies. Whether it was the Natives or
other colonists, Spain always had the upper hand. This is partly due to their strong navy outfitted with advanced cannons
and their expertise in steel swords. This is very similar to the Ottomans who also were greatly expanding during the time
period. They, like the Spaniards, always had a military advantage. The Ottomans used advanced firearm technology and
loyal, highly trained Janissaries to continuously defeat their enemy.
POLITICAL - NOAH
2. How is your government organized? Who makes decisions and how? Who makes the laws? Who enforces them?
How do you collect taxes?
No European country had ever tried to govern an empire as large and far away as the Spanish empire in the New World.
The Spanish were able to pull this off because of how their government was organized. Though they were a monarchical
based government, the King did not have complete rule. The King was in Spain, therefore he could not completely rule
and watch over his colonies in the Americas. Because of this, he needed someone of authority to oversee things in the
Americas, which came in the form of a viceroy. The viceroy was more than a governor, he was the representative of the
king of Spain, and therefore his word was treated as the word of the king himself. While the viceroy was viewed as a
“king”, he did not make all the decisions. The King still made the overall decisions, the viceroy just carried them out in
the Americas. As for the laws, for both Spain and the colonies in the New World, the King made them. Once again,
because the King and Queen were overseas, they could not enforce the laws in their colonies, so it was done by viceroys
and governors. As for taxation, the Spanish organized theencomienda system, in which the Spaniards were given title to
American land and ownership of villages on that land. The citizens were taxed based on the land that they owned.