Do-Now (Class 6)
1. In what ways did the Aztecs' and the
Spaniards' concept of "war" differ?
How did these differences affect the
outcome of the Spanish conquest of
the Triple Alliance?
Colonial Latin America
After the conquest
What does it mean to "colonize"?
Why colonize the New World?
• Sovereign nation: the nation in control of the colony
• Colony: territory under the political control of
another state, but distinct from the sovereign nation
• Discussion: What are the importance of the two
underlined pieces of the definition above?
What does it mean to "colonize"?
Why colonize the New World?
• Under political control - the sovereign nation can create laws and
decide how to govern the colony
• People in power in a colony (for example, the Governor of New
Spain) derive their power from the sovereign nation
• Distinct from - in the worldview of the sovereign nation, the colony
isn't the same:
• does not deserve the same rights, attention, or assistance
• any assistance given to the colonies was given in order to
further Spain's goals, not Latin America's
• The mindset that Latin America is inferior, or "not as good as us"
Columbus and the debt to the Queen
• Ever since Columbus,
created the Myth of the
New World, explorers
believed that the land was
full of riches for Spain
• Central and South America do have some
gold/silver deposits, but they are deep
within the earth and require a lot of labor.
There is no large deposit of gold in the
Caribbean.
Spain's Need for Riches
• Spain continues conquering and expanding
• Spain wages more holy wars ("crusades") in Europe and Asia
• They also send more explorers around the world to colonize
• By the end of the 16th century,
Spain owns the 3 largest colonies
in the world:
• New Spain (Mexico/Central
America)
• New Grenada (most of South
America)
• The Philippines (named for
King Philip)
New crops in Latin America
• Spaniards decide to plant
crops from Europe in the
Caribbean, to sell back to
Europe
• Chooses crops that are
worth a great deal at the
time - cash crops
• Wheat, grapes, spices,
and sugar
King Sugar
• Sugar is the only crop
that does well in the hot,
humid Caribbean
climate. However, sugar
takes huge amounts of
manual labor to harvest
and process
• Sugar comes from
sugarcane, a large,
grass-like plant
The Encomienda
• A system used in the Spanish colonies to govern the
land/people
• King declared that Spaniards own any land that they
conquer and that they can "take care" (encomendar)
of the indigenous people there
"Taking care of" them was supposed to mean:
Teaching them Christianity
Making sure they are productive
Landowners just enslave the indigenous people
•
•
•
•
Decline of the Aztecs and Inca
• Outside of the Caribbean and
sugar plantations, the largest
industry in the Spanish colonies
was mining gold, silver, and
other precious metals
• Whether from overwork or poor
living conditions, the
population of workers plummet.
• The indigenous populations
are worked nearly into
extinction
A Philosophical Conflict
• Bartolome de las Casas writes the "Apologetic History of
the Indies"
•Spanish conquistador and landowner who has a religious
awakening while in church
•Becomes a priest and makes it his mission to convince
the monarchs to free the indigenous people from slavery
•Makes the claim that the indigenous
Americans possess souls, and therefore
should not be enslaved
•In order to continue using cheap labor, Spain
should import more slaves from Africa
Population problems
• The Spanish imported so many slaves into their territories that they
became vastly outnumbered
• Rebellions were a problem, sometimes led by runaway slaves and
sometimes led by indigenous people
• First time in history that children with mixed parentage were frequent
La Casta
• Spanish word for "caste," meaning a social class that is determined by
whom your parents are
• Based on the principle of La limpieza de sangre
•"the cleanness of blood," originally used in Spain under the Catholic
Monarchs as an excuse to keep people with Jewish ancestry from
holding public office
•In Latin America it came to mean that anyone who was not fully
descended from Spaniards and born in Spain himself was inferior
•If you were genetically of a lower casta, it was in your interest to
have children with someone with more Spanish blood. Conversely,
having children with someone of a more non-Spanish background
(African or indigenous) was looked down upon by society - these
children were "dirtying" your blood
La Casta
Los peninsulares
Los criollos
Los mestizos
Los mulatos
Las indígenas
Los zambos
Los esclavos
The Upper Castas
• Peninsulares
•Born in Spain, from Spanish parents
•Top social class, able to own land and hold
important public positions
•Spain depended on the power of the Peninsulares
to keep all the other classes loyal to the monarchy
• Criollos (Creoles)
•Second class below the Peninsulares
•Pure Spanish blood but born in New Spain (Mexico)
rather than in Spain
•Could not hold the same level of public office, were not
granted the Haciendas
The
middle
castas
• Mestizos
•Mixed ancestry blood, a Peninsular or Criollo and an
indigenous person
•Often, their mother was indigenous (lack of Spanish
women during the beginning of the conquest)
•Middle of the castas - not pureblooded, but not as
inferior as someone with no Spanish blood
•Working/merchant class
• Mulatos
•Mixed blood of African slaves and Mestizos, or
sometimes African slaves and Criollos or Peninsulares
•Took a slightly higher place in society than full-blooded
slaves because they had some Spanish blood
• Indígenas
The lower castas
•indigenous people with no Spanish ancestry
•not supposed to be enslaved, but frequently were forced to work in
slave-like conditions
•usually forced to convert to Christianity
•Some of the indigenous royalty, especially the Inca in Peru, were
allowed to maintain their old culture, as long as they paid heavy taxes
• Zambos/Lobos
•Mixed blood of African slaves and Indígenos
•The monarchy and the Criollos/Peninsulares saw this mixture
as a threat because it represented the potential for rebellion of
both enslaved peoples together
• Esclavos
•African slaves, often from West Africa
•Often separated from their families and cultures
El Mestizo
With Spanish and Native Parents
Mulatos
In class writing:
How did Spain's need for
gold create a system of
racism that persists to
today?