Paths of Conquest
 Expeditions of men were followed by women,
missionaries, artisans, and administrators to
begin “settling”
 Conquest wasn’t unified: it was “2-pronged”(
one prong consists in Peru, and one in
Mexico)
 In 1519, Hernan Cortex led an expedition
down the coast of Mexico and eventually
moved inland
 After various victories against the Aztecs,
Cortes reached the capital of Tenochtitlan
Moctezuma II was killed
 Although Aztec resistance was extensive,
disease along with starvation and fighting
caused the city to fall in 1521  replaced by
Mexico City
 By 1535, most of Central America was part of
“New Spain”
 The “2nd Prong” was from the Caribbean down
to Panama, and eventually down to South
America
 In 1532, Francisco Pizarro leads his men
south to conquer the already divided Incas
because of internal civil war
 Cuzco fell in 1533, and the Spanish then
moved the capital to a city on the coast 
Lima
 By 1540, most of Peru was conquered
 From 1540-1542, Francisco Vazquez de
Coronado led an expedition north into SW
United States (Kansas) looking for gold
 Pedro de Valdivia pushed south from Peru
into Chile
 By 1750, Spain controlled 192 colonies in
Central and South America
The Conquerors
 Around 20% of the money gained in the new
world is sent back to the King
 Men with special skills or horses earned
double shares; relatives and close friends
received extra money as well  led to
dissatisfied conquerors who then were ready
to organize new expeditions
 Few were professional soldiers, and some
women were included (Ines Suarez)
 The encomiendas began to see themselves as
a higher “casta” than the American Indians
 Spanish success was due to : horses, firearms,
and steel weapons
 Disease played a major role
 By 1750, the age of conquest was coming to a
close and conquerors were replaced by
bureaucrats, merchants, and colonists
Conquest and Morality
 Spanish conquest led to a questioning of
European morality
 Juan Gines de Sepulveda argued that conquest
was divinely justified
 Mancio Serra and Bartolome de Las Casas
argued that the natives, unlike Muslims, posed
no threat to Christianity
Destruction and Transformation of American
Indian Societies
 Diseases killed a large percentage of the
population, which had an extensive impact on
society in general
 In Central Mexico, natives were relocated to
fewer towns, which made more land available
for Spanish landowners.
 Essentially, livestock replace the natives
Exploitation of Indians
 Unlike the Inca and the Aztec, American
Indians’ lives were left virtually untouched as
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long as they didn’t interfere with Spanish
goals
Slavery was prohibited by 16th century
Demands on Native Americans were
excessive, but they didn’t provide the
protection like was given to Inca and Aztec
The colonial government extracted labor and
taxes from the natives  “mita system”
Abuses of the mita system caused many
natives to leave their villages and move to the
estates of Spanish landowners because those
landowners would pay them wages
Colonial Economies and Government
 Spanish America was agriculturally basedaround 80% of the people worked on the land
 The main source of $ for the colonies was
mining
 Silver was more prevalent and important to
Spain than gold
Silver Heart of the Empire
 Major silver deposits were found in Mexico
and Peru between 1545-1565
 Potosi developed in upper Peru; it was home
to around 160,000 people and produced 80%
of Peru’s silver
 Zacatecas emerged in Mexico
 There is a shift in the source of labor:
originally natives and encomiendas but
switched to a labor draft system
 Mining required the European process of
“amalgamation”
 Spanish discovered mercury mountain at
Huancavelica in Peru
 Mining stimulated many other aspects of
Spanish-American colonies
Industry and Commerce
 In “New Spain” and in parts of South America,
sheep raising leads to textile mills who were
managed by women  Americas were
becoming self sufficient
 Americas were only allowed to trade with
Spain, and the trade was highly regulated
 The consulado worked hard to keep prices
high, and kept tight control over trading
 To discourage economic rivals and pirates
from trying to trade with the Americas, the
Spanish create a “convoy system”
 Two fleets travel to “both prongs”, trade silver
for finished European goods, meet back in
Cuba, and sail home
 Convoy system made possible by “galleon”
 The silver made conquest seem worthwhile
for a while, but around 50% of the profit
didn’t stay in Spain
 Spain was paying for European war debts, and
the purchase of manufactured goods
 Pumping so much silver into the Spanish
economy caused inflation