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World History Block:
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Literacy Objective: To identify cause and effect relationships between historical events. Historian’s
Journal
I. Mind Spark – Analyze the diagram underneath. Answer the questions that follow.
1. What is the diagram to the right showing? Explain. (1 sentences)
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2. Why are enslaved persons on the bottom of the chart? Explain. (2 sentences)
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3. What caused the development of these five social classes in New Spain?
(a) colonization
(b) isolationism
(c) industrialization
(d) patriotism
II. Bring that Knowledge – Answer the MC questions below.
____ 4. Which of the following was an effect of Cabeza de Vaca’s journal writing about the great riches of
North America?
(a) Francisco Vásquez de Coronado searched for the Seven Cities of Gold.
(b) Ponce de León discovered the Fountain of Youth
(c) Ponce de León colonized modern-day Florida.
(d) Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inka Empire.
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World History Block:
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____ 5. Which of the following events caused the other three?
(a) Europeans bring new diseases to the Americas.
(b) The African slave trade is expanded.
(c) Europeans explore and colonize the Americas.
(d) Europeans take over Native American lands.
____ 6. Which development led to the other three?
(a) Native Americans were killed by European diseases.
(b) New types of food were shared by Europeans and Americans.
(c) European nations sent explorers to colonize the Americas.
(d) Africans were brought to the Americas as slaves.
III. Walk in their Shoes – Read the passage. Answer the questions that follow.
7. What do you do? Do you try to convert them to Christianity? Do you try to help them escape? Do you
just sit there and watch? Or do you do something else? Explain. (2 sentences)
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LITERACY FOCUS: Great readers identify cause and effect relationships between historical events.
Spain Colonizes in the Americas Text: As Spanish explorers searched the borderlands of New Spain, they
continued to colonize – invade using violence, subjugate the area’s people, destroy their culture, and
replace it with their own. Spain colonized these areas in order to build a huge empire in the Americas.
Establishing an empire in the Americas allowed Spain expand their trade network and gain power over
other European countries. Spain made a great deal of money from their colonies in the Americas. From
1503 to 1660, Spanish boats loaded with treasure carried 200 tons of gold and 18,600 tons of silver –
stolen from the Aztec and Inka empires they destroyed – back to Spain. However, Spain’s monetary
(economic; financial) gains came with a high human cost. Spain forced hundreds of thousands of Native
Americans to work as slaves. The Spanish conquest led to the deaths of over 3 million Native Americans.
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World History Block:
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1. Define: What does the verb “colonize” mean? Explain in your own words. (1 sentence)
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2. Analyze: Why did Spain want to colonize the Americas? Explain. (1-2 sentences)
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3. Cause & Effect: From Spain’s point of view, what were the positive effects of Spain colonizing the
Americas? Explain. (2-3 sentences)
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Encomienda System In New Spain Text: In 1650 the Spanish Empire in the Americas had grown to
between 3 and 4 million people. Native Americans made up about 80 percent of the population. The rest
were whites, Africans, and people of mixed racial backgrounds. Settlers who came from Spain were called
“penisulares” (pay-neen-soo-LAHR-ays) and held the highest government positions.
4. Recall: Who were penisulares? (1 sentence)
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Text: To reward Spanish colonists (settlers) for serving the Spanish Crown, Spain established the
encomienda (en-koh-meeEN-duh) system. This system gave Spanish colonists the right to tax local Native
Americans or to make them work. In exchange, these settlers were supposed to protect the Native
American people and convert them to Christianity. Instead Spaniards used the encomienda system to
force Native Americans to work as slaves under extremely brutal conditions. Spanish officials also forced
Native Americans to give up their goods. Native Americans who resisted were hunted down and killed.
They were abused, not given food and water, and forced to work long hours every day.
5. Explain: What was the encomienda system? Explain. (2-3 sentences)
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World History Block:
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Document 1: “Cruelties, Butcheries, Devastations” Committed by the Spanish Colonists in New Spain
A few Europeans opposed the harsh treatment of Native Americans. Bartolomé de Las Casas was one of
them. He first went to the Americas in 1502. Over time, he became increasingly concerned with how the
Spanish treated Native Americans. The following passage is from Brief Account of the Devastation of the
Indies by Bartolomé de Las Casas.
“New Spain was discovered in 1517 and…all [Native Americans] were exposed to slaughter. The year ensuing
those Spaniards (who style themselves Christians) came thither [there] to rob, kill and slay, though they
pretend they undertook this voyage to convert the people [Native Americans] of this country. From 1517 to
1542 the injustice, violence and tyranny of the Spaniards came to the highest degree of extremity: for they had
shook hands with and bid adieu [goodbye] to all fear of God and the King, unmindful of themselves in this sad
and deplorable [disgraceful] condition, for the destructions, cruelties, butcheries, devastations, the demolishing
of cities, which they perpetrated [committed] in so many and such large kingdoms, are so great, and…from the
beginning they [the Spanish colonists] ran headlong from bad to worse, and were overcome in their diabolical
acts and wickedness only by themselves…There fell [died] in those countries above two million men, and now
there hardly remains two thousands, who daily die by the severity of their slavery” – Bartolomé de Las Casas,
from Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies
6. Analyze: What does Las Casas think about Spaniards in charge of New Spain? Explain. (2-3
sentences)
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7. Analyze: What does Las Casas mean by “from the beginning they [the Spanish colonists] ran
headlong from bad to worse”? Explain. (2 sentences)
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The Spanish operated many plantations, large farms that grow one or two main crops. Plantations
throughout the Caribbean colonies made huge profits for their owners. However, it took many workers to
run a plantation so colonists forced thousands of Native Americans to work as slaves in the fields. Indians
who were taken to work on haciendas (the vast Spanish estates in Central and South America) had to
raise and herd livestock. Other Native Americans were forced to endure the backbreaking work of mining
gold and silver. Slavery, abuse, and long working hours killed hundreds of thousands of Native Americans
in New Spain.
Soon, however, disease, starvation, and abuse caused the decimation of the Native American population
in New Spain. Spanish colonists had wiped out their own slave labor force. The destruction of these
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World History Block:
Date:
Native Americans plunged the colonies of New Spain into poverty. Spanish colonists no longer had slaves
to work on their fields.
8. Analyze: What effects did the encomienda system have on Native Americans? Explain. (3
sentences)
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Not surprisingly, a bipolar society emerged in New Spain, with affluent (rich) Europeans at the top
and poor, subjugated Native Americans at the bottom. By the mid- 1500s, much of the Native
American population had died from disease, guns, or overwork. To replace this labor force, the
Spanish began importing slaves from Africa.
9. Analyze: What does it mean that “a bipolar society emerged in New Spain”? Explain using evidence
from the passage above. (1-2 sentences)
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SUMMARY: Spanish colonists used the encomienda system to enslave Native Americans. Disease,
enslavement, and abuse led to the deaths of over 3 million Native Americans in New Spain. Spanish
colonists soon began importing African slaves because Spain had wiped out its Native American slave
labor force.