Early Latin America

Chapter 19

Major Changes• How did the Iberians conquer Latin America?• Describe the empires that emerged in the New

World• In what ways were the new empires multicultural

societies?– What was the relationship between race and social

class?• How was labor divided in Latin America?– What was the relationship between race labor?

The Establishment of Empire: Spain

• The Caribbean– 1492 Columbus lands on Hispaniola– 1st interaction between Spaniards and Tainos– Hispaniola becomes center of colonial

administration in the New World– Spanish must find source of income when it

becomes clear that there is no source of silk or spice in the Caribbean

Early Labor in New Spain

• The enconmienda, a system of using indigenous people for forced labor develops

• The crown grants conquistadors encomenderos, the right to compel Tainos to work in fields and mines

• Treatment of Tainos was harsh and conditions were brutal

• By 1515 the Tainos people had nearly disappeared• Little gold was found so the Spanish looked

elsewhere

Spanish Conquests• 1519-1521 Cortez leads conquest of Aztec• 1532-1533 Pizarro leads conquest of the

Inca• In both instances Conquistadors found large

well organized empires• In both instances, guns, germs, and steel

helped the Spanish succeed• By 1540 the Spanish controlled large parts

of Central and South America

Iberian Empires in the Americas

• Conquest grew out of individual efforts by freelance adventurers, NOT royal policy

• Conquistadors were awarded with control of their own encomiendas

• By 1570, large parts of Central and South America were controlled as semiprivate regimes of conquistadors!

• The king worried about control• Bartolomeo de las Casas worried about the

inhumain treatment of the encomiendas

Bartolomeo de las Casas The reader may ask himself if this is not cruelty and injustice of a kind so terrible that it beggars the imagination, and whether these poor people would not fare far better if they were entrusted to the devils in Hell than they do at the hands of the devils of the New World who masquerade as Christians.

I [write] ... in order to help ensure that the teeming millions in the New World, for whose sins Christ gave His life, do not continue to die in ignorance, but rather are brought to knowledge of God and thereby saved.

Controlling the New Spanish Empire

• Spanish kings established two viceroyalties (areas under the control of viceroys)–Mexico aka New Spain•Capital city Tenochtitlan became

Mexico City–Peru aka New Castille•Brand new capital city Lima, located

on the coast for convenience

• Viceroys were reviewed by courts called audiencias to keep them from becoming too powerful– Viceroys ruled in the name of the king– Audiencias ensured the Vicroy remained loyal to

the king• Transportation and communication were

difficult and so governing usually fell to local audiencias

• All over Spanish America big cities and large estates grew

Brazil: Portugal’s Colony in the New World

• The Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494 portected Portuguese claims to Brazil

• After 1500, the Portuguese king sent a governor to consolidate his claims and protect the land from the French and Dutch

• Brazil grew quickly after 1550 as a major center of sugar production

Life in Iberian America

• European styles and architecture were common in Iberian cities in the New World

• Churches and Cathedrals, universities, etc. became the center of cities

• Outside of cities indigenous cultures remained stronger

• Between 1500 and 1800over 600,000 Iberians moved to the New World

• Spaniards and the Portuguese saw the New World as a place to be exploited

Colonial Society in Latin America

• Emergence of multicultural societies• Power Players: The top of the pyramid– Peninsulares: people from the Iberian Peninsula,

mostly men (85% from Spain!), made up the smallest and most powerful group

– Creoles: people of full European descent born in the New World also had wealth and power

• Beneath the Europeans…– Mestizos: people of mixed European and

Indigenous descent ( a product of miscegenation)– Mulattos: people of mixed European and African

descent (don’t forget, slaves were imported as labor when native populations became low)

– Free Native American Indians and Africans– Slaves

Women in Latin America

• Most European migrants to Latin America were male

• European women tended to be found in large cities like Lima and Mexico city

• Native women were often taken as wives by European men, especially those from once powerful indigenous families

Mining and Agriculture in the Spanish Empire

• Though gold was rare, it soon became evident that silver was not

• Zactecas in Mexico• Potosi in Peru• A mita, system which forced each town to

contribute laborers to the mines. People most often drafted by the mita were Native American Indians

Silver and the Spanish Economy

• Silver flowed from the New World to Spain• The Spanish gov’t kept 1/5 if all silver in taxes• This money was used to build a large army and navy

to fight wars in Europe to try to stop the spread of Protestantism

• This money also funded Spanish trade in silks, spices and other exotic Asian goods stimulating global trade

• On the down side, inflation was often harmful to small businesses and local artisans in Spain who could not compete with cheaper Asian goods

Farming in the Spanish Colonies

• When the encomienda system was ended, Spanish land owners set up haciendas (estates that focused on growing crops or producing crafted goods)

• Landowners made loans to poor and native people for things like seeds, tools, and supplies.

• When the loans could not be repaid with money, they were forced to repay it with labor

• Wages were so low, most people never repaid their debt

• A huge division between wealthy people of European descent and everyone else emerged

• This division between wealthy and poor continues to be a problem in Latin America today!

Sugar, Slavery and Brazil

• Portugal focused on the production and exporting of sugar from Brazil

• Nobles and entrepreneurs established large plantations

• The extreme decline of native populations the importation of huge numbersw of Africans as slaves

• Colonial Brazil revolved around the engenho (engine) or sugar mill and the complex infrastructure that grew up around it

• Life was harsh for slaves on sugar plantations– Hard conditions, tropical heat, disease, malnutrition and

poor housing = problems for slaves– 5-10% perished annually– Death rates tended to exceed birth rates constant

demand for slave importations• The Portuguese dominated world sugar markets

until other nations established plantations in the colonies in the 17th century