Spanish Colonization
Overview
Spanish Colonization
Portugal and Spain, the first two nations to explore the Atlantic Ocean, the Americas, and Africa, took different approaches. The Portuguese, the first of the two, focused on Africa and Asia, constructing trading settlements, while the Spanish established settlements oriented toward the exploitation of natural resources in the Americas and the Caribbean Sea. After Christopher Columbus set sail in 1492 CE and “discovered” the New World for the Spanish, a wave of many other Spaniards sailed westward in attempts to find their own riches and lands. Individuals like Cortes and Pizzaro blazed the trail that other Spaniards would use to build the Spanish colonial system. The Spanish found the Aztec and the Incan civilizations and tried to integrate the indigenous populations into their colonial settlements. Furthermore, the central role of the Catholic Church and the economic model employed were key differences between the Spanish and the Portuguese. The separate continents and oceans that the Portuguese and the Spanish explored, settled, and exploited mitigated any conflict between them.
Learning Objectives
- Evaluate the differences between the Spanish, Portuguese, English, Dutch, and French colonization.
- Analyze how the Spanish colonization was different between the center and periphery regions.
- Evaluate the impact of Potosi on global economics.
- Analyze the differences in how the Spanish integrated different groups into their colonial world.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Treaty of Tordesillas: a 1494 treaty that divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Portugal and the Crown of Castile, along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, off the west coast of Africa (This line of demarcation was about halfway between the Cape Verde islands, which was already Portuguese, and the islands entered by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage, which he claimed for Castile and León.)
Christopher Columbus: an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonizer who completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean under the monarchy of Spain, which led to general European awareness of the American continents
Bartolomé de las Casas: sixteenth-century Spanish historian, social reformer, and Dominican friar, who arrived as one of the first European settlers in the Americas and participated in the atrocities committed against the Native Americans by the Spanish colonists (In 1515, de las Casas reformed his views and advocated before King Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, on behalf of rights for the natives.)
Mita: a form of labor tax that required one person from each family to work in the mines, which was enforced by the Spanish once they gained control of the region
Spanish
The colonial activity in the Iberian Peninsula meant that the two major states of Portugal and Spain were deep rivals. The proximity of the two states meant that they were natural rivals. When the Spanish started to explore, the Portuguese began to push back, and tensions rose between these two. In the 15th century, one of the only ways to resolve international tensions was to turn to the Pope to solve these types of conflicts. In the Middle Ages, the Pope had more political power than kings, due to the fact that the Pope could choose who could become the king. As the Spanish and Portuguese tensions rose the Pope became involved.
The Pope in 1492 was Pope Alexander VI helped to formulate the treaty between the Spanish and the Portuguese known as the Treaty of Tordesillas. TheTreaty of Tordesillas was a treaty that divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe along the meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, off the west coast of Africa. The treaty gave all territory outside of Europe to the East to the Portuguese, while the Spanish got everything to the West. This treaty was seen at the time as a completely fair and equal treaty between both the Spanish and the Portuguese. However, there were several underlying problems with this treaty. First, the Pope did not ask other peoples of the world, such as Africa, Asia, and Latin America, if they were okay with being owned by either the Spanish or Portuguese. The second problem was that this divided the world between the two European powers, but other groups, such as the French, Dutch, and English, were left out of colonization. But it did leave the Spanish with many new territories to expand and explore in the North and South American worlds.
Columbus was the first to sail for the Spanish and he helped to create several of the ways that the Spanish lived with the indigenous people. The island of Hispaniola had many indigenous groups, such as the Arawak. The Arawak were friendly to the Spanish and helped to establish the colonies. The Spanish, on the other hand, treated the Arawak very badly. The Spanish friar and historian Bartolomé de las Casas wrote about the treatment of the Arawak, which included enslavement, starvation, and even crucifixion. This shocking and horrible treatment of indigenous people was at odds with the laws of Spain. When Columbus left the Americas after his first voyage, he brought an indigenous ambassador to meet with Isabel and Ferdinand, the king and queen of Spain. Queen Isabel found the indigenous people very interesting and said that it was illegal to enslave the indigenous people because they had “souls.” However, the colonists, needing labor and looking down on the indigenous people, would continue a long history of mistreatment of indigenous populations.
Historians question the role of Christopher Columbus in establishing rules for the Spanish and whether or not he wanted the mistreatment of indigenous peoples or if he was simply acting from human greed. Either way, the lawlessness of the Spanish towards the indigenous people would become a key feature of the Spanish colonization. This becomes one of the biggest differences between the Spanish and the Portuguese. The Spanish developed a system of mistreatment and brutality, building their colonial empire on brutality and conquest; whereas, the Portuguese built their colonial model on a “I mapped it, I owned it” mentality.
Center vs Surrounding Regions
Another big difference between the Spanish and almost all of the other colonial states in the 15th and 16th centuries was that the Spanish found indigenous empires. This meant that they had a big advantage by taking over both the Aztec and Inca empires. These empires gave the Spanish colonial world a source of wealth and materials that they would continue to expand upon throughout the 15th to 18th centuries. The Spanish colonial system had many problems, but despite these, had a firm basis of power in Latin America.
Many Spaniards heard dreams and tales of the conquest and wanted to take as much as they could of the New World; this led to a wash of many Spaniards, each looking for another empire to conquer. While this was a dream of many conquistadors, the problem was that there were few imperial centers to conquer. Most of the conquistadors traveled throughout the Americas, searching for gold and riches, only to leave empty handed. Looking for treasures meant that they were not interested in establishing long term holdings or staying in the regions, and that created a unique opportunity for the Catholic Church to establish a center in these regions. This led to a periphery area, one that was outside of the colonial imperial centers and would have a unique role in Spanish colonization. The center of power in these periphery areas was the Catholic Church, and the areas had limited relationships with the established centers of power, which meant lack of guidance from the crown.
After Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas, the Spanish quickly established the Caribbean as a major area of colonization. The island of Hispaniola, in particular, was the center of the Spanish for exploration and conquest. Many of the conquistadors were eager to go and explore the Americas because they were lower class individuals who dreamt of having riches and treasures. The Spanish crown gave political rights to the governor of Hispaniola and Cuba specifically to allow conquistadors to travel. This meant that ventures had to be approved by the Hispaniola and Cuban governors.
Conquest of Mexico
The model of conquest that the Spanish followed was to move into a society, quickly remove the head of the government, and destroy the native religion. Then replace the local government and religion with that of the Spanish and Catholic church. This model was key for the Spanish in the conquest of the Aztec and Inca, and it would be the goal of many Spaniards following the conquest.
Learning Objectives
- Analyze how the Spanish conquered the Aztec Empire.
- Evaluate how the Spanish established a colony in the Aztec population.
Conquest of the Aztec Empire
One such conquistador that wanted to test their fortunes in the unexplored Americas was Hernán Cortés. Cortés was born to a lesser nobility family and saw exploring the Americas as his way to earn fame and fortune. He first settled in Hispaniola and found that he was not happy with the lands there before moving to Cuba. In Cuba, he earned a small plot of land and laborers. He also worked closely with the Spanish governor and became part of the colonial administration, helping to conquer the island. However, he gave up this life when he heard stories of riches elsewhere and dreamed of gaining them. The Spanish were telling tales of cities of gold, riches beyond their wildest dreams, and lands that were almost infinite. Cortés wanted to leave Cuba and gain those riches. The problem was the governor of Cuba heard about Cortés’s ambitions and the relationship between the two men became difficult. The governor had heard tales of how Cortés gaining followers and decided to revoke Cortés’s approval of exploration. Cortés, hearing that the expedition that he planned was declared illegal, decided to take the band of men that followed him and leave before the Spanish governor could arrest him. The expedition that Cortés first made to Mexico was technically illegal and was against the Spanish crown’s own wishes. But that was not the only problem that Cortés faced at that time; he was also headed into the lands of Central America, where there were existing powerful empires of indigenous people.
The Aztec were known throughout Central America as a warrior tribe that had vast riches in the capital city. The Aztecs built their empire on trade and conquest. The center of the empire was the capital city of Tenochtitlan, a city that was built on the ancient lake and had many great resources that would prove difficult for the Spanish to overtake. The Aztec emperor Montezuma II was a good emperor who expanded trade, extended the empire throughout the central valley of Mexico, and made sure that the general peace and prosperity of the Aztec empire grew during the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
Cortés arrived in Central America at the Yucatan Peninsula in 1519. Cortés and his men left the Yucatan Peninsula and moved further north, to what is today Veracruz in Mexico, before deciding where to land and untimately “discover” the Aztecs. Many of Cortés’s men had heard about the large number of people in the Aztec empire, and they knew that they would be outnumbered. To prevent mutiny of his own men, Cortés had all of his ships burned but one; this was meant to send a message to his men that they were not returning back to Cuba. Cortés was determined to defeat any opposition. Marching with few men and limited supplies towards Tenochtitlan, he wanted a chance to meet with Montezuma—the leader of the Aztecs. As he marched forward, Cortés met with and found alliances with other indigenous populations. These alliances were important because many of the indigenous people were not friendly with the Aztec and would become key alliances of the Spanish during the attack on Tenochtitlan.
In Tenochtitlan, Montezuma held a different feeling. After hearing about strangers from the east landing and looking for gold, Montezuma thought that this was an angry god that needed to be appeased. Montezuma began sending messengers with money to Cortés and his men, with messages that this was tribute to the god. Cortés, on the other hand, looking for gold, received these tribute packages and realized that there was actually much money to be made in Tenochtitlan. When Cortés did not turn around, Montezuma became worried that maybe that amount of gold was not enough. Montezuma began sending more gold and riches, as a way to appease Cortés. This only further encouraged Cortéd and his men to march toward the city.
When Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan, he was greeted by Montezuma. After months of traveling and gaining indigenous alliances, Cortés had built an army of indigenous people that supported his overthrow of the Aztec. Montezuma peacefully received Cortés and his massive army and treated them well. Many historians believe that Montezuma thought that Cortés was a representative of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. But the situation changed when Cortés heard of an Aztec attack on his Spanish men near the coast of Veracruz. Meanwhile in Cuba, the Spanish governor sent other Spaniards to defeat Cortés, who left Tenochtitlan to stop the Spanish attack in Veracruz. Cortés was successful against the Cuban governor’s men, and he banded them together with his own forces.
Back in Tenochtitlan, the situation changed quickly. Cortés left Pedro Alvalrado as one of a few leaders of the Spanish in Tenochtitlan. Montezuma asked Alvarado for permission to celebrate the Feast of Toxcatl on May 22, 1520. This was a festival during which the Aztecs celebrated a popular god by sacrificing humans. While Alvalrado at first approved the celebration, once he realized that there would be human sacrifice, he attempted to stop it. When the Spanish went to the Aztec temple and attempted to stop the event, the Aztec pushed back, upset that the Spanish were intervening. A fight ensued, known as the Massacre in the Great Temple. This was not good for the Spanish conquistadors, who were vastly outnumbered in the city of Tenochtitlan and saw that the Aztec population began to turn on them. These tensions were not helped by the plagues that the Aztec suffered during this time. The Aztecs became very sick with European diseases, such as smallpox, measles, mumps, and flu. This meant that the city of close to one million people had a rampant plague attacking the population. The Aztec upper class became very upset with Montezuma because he was engaging with the Spanish. Montezuma was killed on July 1, 1520, but the history is unclear who killed Montezuma. The Spanish report that it was the Aztec that killed Montezuma because of his betrayal. The Aztec claim that it was the Spanish that killed Montezuma for fear of another attack. The death of Montezuma and the attack at the Feast of Toxcatl were two events that meant that Cortés had to return quickly to Tenochtitlan.
The death of Montezuma put the city of Tenochtitlan on edge and the people were upset at the Spanish. On the night of June 30th – July 1, 1520, the Spanish were barely able to escape from Tenochtitlan; this became known as Noche Triste. Cortés ordered his men to retreat to the nearby city of Tlaxcala. Much of the treasure looted by Cortés and his men was lost during their escape.
The city of Tenochtitlan became an epicenter of disease, and over the next few months the city’s population fell drastically ill. The population suffered greatly, and the defenses of the city were weakened. Cortés, on the other hand, began to put together an army to attack the city. Cortes was a master at finding weaknesses in the Aztec empire. One of the key problems that the Aztec had in the building of their empire was they fought many other indigenous groups in the region surrounding Tenochtitlan. Cortes brought together these groups between July to August to practice sieging and taking down the capital. By August, Cortes marched on Tenochtitlan. The yearlong attacks on the city worked, and on August 13, 1521, Cortés and the Spanish captured the Aztec Empire and claimed it for Spain. Cortés, after almost three years of fighting and conquest, was the sole leader of the largest empire in the Americas.
Cortés’s new position as leader of a large New World empire was problematic. When he left for Mexico in 1518, he did so illegally. The entire conquest of Mexico was not sanctioned by the Spanish crown. Cortés, wanting to ensure that he had the support of Charles V, began writing letters of heavy apologies. Cortés, also began sending larger than the required amounts of gold, to ensure that Charles would accept his apologies. Charles V in return granted Cortés the governorship of Mexico.
Cortés began creating the government of New Spain, one of the two centers of government in the Americas. The establishment of New Spain meant that the Spanish military was centered in the newly named Mexico City, as were the royal courts and justice buildings, which means it also became the center of Spanish bureaucracy. This meant that the Aztec population became subject to the Spanish laws and customs.
It is important to note, that most of the actions taken by the Spanish were meant to remove the indigenous ways of living and replace those with the Spanish culture. For example, many of the Aztec priests were killed and those in training, that were young enough, were sent to Catholic schools for training in Christianity. The Spanish killed all of the upper class and removed their positions of power so that the people would stop paying tribute to the Aztec upper class and instead pay that tribute to their new Spanish.
The Spanish did not want to revise many of the methods that made the Aztecs successful. Instead, the Spanish integrated many of the Aztec’s ways of government and society into the newly forming colonial culture. Some of the key differences between the Spanish and Aztec government was that the Spanish used a system of labor and tribute known as the encomienda. This was a system of rewarding Spaniards who were loyal to the conquest by giving them lands in the New World. The size of the lands that were granted were meant to be proportional to the risk each grantee undertook during the campaigns. This helped to inspire and get many lower-class Spaniards to go fight in the New World. The goal of landowning for the Spanish was not just to have land for the sake of owning more land but to produce goods. This meant that the Spanish wanted to turn many of these new territories into vast farms. But that came with another problem. The indigenous populations were forced to work for the owner of the lands that they lived on; they were not paid for their work, nor were they able to complain that this system was unfair. If the indigenous people felt that they could not live or work under the conditions of the encomienda, they were able to leave and move to a different plot of land. Unfortunately, all the areas of Mexico were given as encomiendas to loyal Spaniards. This meant that the indigenous population was forced to work for a Spaniard no manor where they went and were never able to escape Spanish control.
The conquest of Mexico demonstrates one of the two ways that the Spanish conquered a center. Cortés’s followers became rich because of the encomienda system. News spread in Spain of the wealth and power in the New World. This helped to fuel a new generation of explorers who would travel to the Americas, searching for their own riches. The conquistadors had filled their heads full of tales of riches and exotic lands, and the prize for any of their followers was vast tracks of land that could make them wealthy. This method allowed the Spanish to more easily take over an established empire and turn it into a Spanish territory.
Conquest of the Inca
Learning Objectives
- Evaluate the differences in the Spanish colonization between the Aztec and the Incan populations.
- Analyze the Incan population's impact on the colonial society.
Conquest of the Incan Empire
With the Conquest of Peru, the second center that the Spanish created was in the Andes. The Incan empire was built from a trade federation that spanned the majority of South America. The Inca empire was the largest of the civilizations in the Americas before Columbus. Formed in the Peruvian highlands in the 13th century, the Inca spread southward throughout the Andes by the 15th century. One of the keys to the Incan success was their use of tools to create central roads, terrace farming, and federation of labor and tribute from local tribes. The federation saw great successes throughout the South American continent through trade, and there was very little conflict about political leadership. The son of the Inca ruler was usually the leader of the army, this gave the leadership key understanding and insights to how the military worked.
The Incan leadership remained stable throughout the 13th to 15th centuries. In 1524, the Inca leader died of a high fever, probably due to the diseases that were appearing in South America. His death was a very big problem because he had two sons that would begin to fight for the throne of the Inca. For five years, the two brothers ruled peacefully, Atahualpa in the north and Huascar in the south. But Huascar wanted to have power in the Incan capital of Cuzco. He marched to Cuzco and arrested Atahualpa. This started a great fight between the Incan nobles, as there were some who supported Huascar as the legitimate leader of the Inca and others who supported Atahualpa. After a very bloody civil war, Atahualpa was victorious. Even though Atahualpa won, it did not mean that the Inca were not hurt, the deep division would be a key reason why the Spaniard Pizarro would be victorious.
Francisco Pizarro was a unique conquistador. He was born in Spain in 1478 CE to pig farmers. Being poor, Pizarro never learned to read or write. He left for the New World, in search of fortune and fame, in 1509 CE. Pizarro made a name for himself by accompanying Balbo as he crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 CE, when he became one of the early Europeans to see the Pacific Ocean. But when there was division between Balboa and other conquistadors, Pizarro arrested Balboa and put him on trial. Balboa was ultimately beheaded in 1519 CE. Pizarro, on the other hand, was rewarded with leadership positions in the newly forming city of Panama City. While the leader of Panama City, Pizarro began to hear tales of the city of gold, which the Spanish called El Dorado. Tales began to grow throughout Panama, and Pizarro found he was interested in exploring this famed city. The conquest of Mexico in 1521 also fueled rumors and pushed Pizarro to begin looking at South America. New stories of a large empire in South America began to circulate, centering around a civilization in the mountains, that was divided. Pizarro put together an expedition in 1524 CE, but this failed due to bad weather and negative relationships with the indigenous peoples.
In 1526, Pizarro attempted his second expedition with his long-time trade partner with whom Pizarro agreed to divide the spoils of the conquest equally. After sailing south, the Spanish expedition ran into troubles with bad weather and fighting indigenous populations. Pizarro and his partner were constantly fighting about who should lead and how the expedition should be ran; this led them to dividing their men. On an island off the coast of Columbia, Pizarro divided the party by sending Almagro northward to Panama for more resources and men, while Pizarro decided to move south into Peru with only thirteen men. In 1528 CE, after several months at sea, Pizarro landed in Peru. He and his men were welcomed by indigenous people, who had numerous gold and silver decorations. Upon landing, Pizarro heard tales of a powerful king who ruled the area. He was afraid to attack with his sall number of men and returned to Panama for more resources. After much thought, Pizarro decided it best to ask the Spanish king for a request to formally conquer this new territory. This was to secure his position as the only ruler, if successful, and to ensure that he would be the most powerful man in the South American continent. After King Charles granted Pizarro his request, he began to plan for his expedition set for 1530 CE.
Pizarro’s third expedition was successful in landing in Peru. He arrived near Caxas on the Peruvian coast and sent his commander Hernando de Soto to establish relationships with the local population. It was here that Pizarro learned that the Incan leader was very close in a city called Cajamarca. Pizarro marched a small number of men south to the city of Cajamarca to meet with Atahualpa. The meeting between the two leaders was disastrous. Following the Conquest of Mexico, the Spanish crown made new laws that said before war could be declared on a population a priest had to deliver a message that any indigenous peoples who converted to Christianity and swore allegiance to the Spanish king, as well as agreed to pay tribute, would be spared and war would be averted. During the meeting between Atahualpa and Pizarro, the priest told Atahualpa this command from the king of Spain. It was reported by the Spanish that Atahualpa said that he was no man’s tributary, and war then ensued. The Battle of Cajamarca on November 16, 1532 CE ended with the defeat and capture of Atahualpa.
From legends of cities of gold, to the conquest of Mexico, Pizarro and his men were interested in getting the riches of the Inca. When Pizarro landed, seeing the gold and silver, he knew that there were vast riches in South America. With Atahualpa as a captive, Pizarro began demanding payment from the Inca for their leader. These ransom notes requested rooms full of gold and silver. At first, the Inca complied, giving the Spanish one room of gold and two of silver. Pizarro had made promises that he would release the leader when this was accomplished. Yet, when the Inca satisfied these conditions, Pizarro increased his demands. The divisions of the Inca started to show at this point, where the supporters of Huascar began to call for Atahualpa’s death, while supporters of Atahualpa wanted to continue to pay the Spanish for his release. It was clear by the middle of 1533 CE that Pizarro and the Spanish had no intention of releasing Atahualpa, after Pizarro drew twelve charges against Atahualpa. Pizarro convicted Atahualpa, and Almagro sentenced him to death in August 1533 CE.
It is interesting to note, that there was division between the Spanish on what to do with Atahualpa. Pizarro and de Soto wanted Atahualpa to remain alive, while Almagro sentenced his death. The consequences of Atahualpa’s death were immediate; the division of the Inca became unified against the Spanish. The majority of the Incan leaders began to fight against the Spanish. It would take another 200 years and the death of another Incan leader named Túpac Amaru before the Spanish were able to peacefully integrate all of the Incan society into their reign.
The integration of Peru was an important step for the Spanish Conquistadors, as they were able to successfully bring a second major empire in the Americas into their own growing political organization. The biggest difference between the Spanish conquest of the Inca was the system of trade and tribute that the Spanish gained from the Inca. The Spanish were highly interested in silver, and the Incan people brought tribute from the southern reaches of their territory. Additionally, the Spanish developed a system of forced labor called the Mita, which had originated from the Inca; the Mita used temporary forced labor to help finish projects, such as roads and bridges. However, the Spanish Mita was a bit different; the Spanish required each indigenous person to work in the mines of Potosí for a short period every several years without pay from the crown. The goal was to get as much silver from the region as possible. The problem was the Spanish used very harsh working conditions in the mining of silver and the population was not well taken care of. Silver mining was very dangerous in itself, but the other part of the Mita was the purification of the silver. After the rock was removed from the mountain, everything that was not silver had to be removed from the ore. To do this, the preferred method of the time was to boil mercury and put the silver ore in the mercury for purification. This was a very dangerous process and was very unhealthy due to the side effects of mercury poisoning. The process was first introduced by Viceroy Francisco de Toledo in the 1570s and became the backbone of the Spanish labor system in the Andes throughout the colonial period. It was estimated that 11,000 workers were forced into labor. One of the biggest effects of the Mita was the significant drop in the indigenous populations, due to harsh working conditions and unhealthy environments. The Incan empire became an important part of the economics of the Spanish in South America, the mining of silver was key to the Spanish empire and finding trade goods to send to China.
Other Spanish Conquests
Learning Objectives
- Evaluate the differences between the colonization of empires versus the other regions of Latin America.
- Evaluate the role of government and society in Latin American colonies.
Other Conquests
The Spanish conquistadors Cortés and Pizarro established a colonial stronghold that was the center of political, military, economic, and cultural life in the Americas. These centers of power were unique to the Spanish because other European powers did not find existing empires. The Spanish being early in the colonization of the Americas also meant that the extensive trade network that these centers provided allowed goods and diseases to travel quickly throughout the Americas. The quick spread of diseases is an important component of why later European explorers, most notably the English, pointed out the lack of indigenous populations in North America.
The Spanish center approach meant that political and economic power was concentrated in either Mexico City or Lima, which meant the Spanish militaries were centered in these two cities. That caused a great deal of problems. For example, as the English were starting to gain more naval experience at the end of the 16th century, they were attacking the Spanish outskirts and robbing the Spanish of their treasures. The Spanish had a very difficult time with stopping the English buccaneers' forces because of the distance from the center to the outskirts. By the time the Spanish could react the English would have been gone for months. While there were both positives and negatives of the Center model of colonization, not all the conquistadors were happy with this arrangement and several wanted to explore to find new centers of their own.
The lure of wealth and power swept through Spain as stories of the Inca and Aztec colonization became well known. This was the fuel for a new generation of conquistadors, who were eager to make it to the New World with a dream of finding that next indigenous empire to conquer. The problem with this mentality was that there were only the two major civilization centers in the Americas, and many of these newly energized conquistadors came to the New World with limited prospects. The Spanish explorers started traveling north from the Caribbean region into Florida and the American Southeast. Ponce de Leon traveled throughout Florida looking for a mythological fountain of youth, but what he found instead was that the land was very difficult to maintain agriculture and the indigenous population was very hostile to the Spanish. Hernando de Soto traveled throughout the American Southeast, establishing forts as far north as North Carolina. De Soto’s relationship with the indigenous population was very good, mainly because the Cherokee became one of the first indigenous groups to immediately adopt Spanish weapons and farming techniques. But there were no large indigenous civilizations to be found in the American Southeast, and de Soto turned southward to the Caribbean. Other conquistadors, such as Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca went north from Mexico City to the American Southwest, near what is now Albuquerque, New Mexico. Finding no large civilization, Cabeza de Vaca returned back to Mexico City. Others, such as Almargo, went south from Lima in search of the next large empire in the Andes. Almagro found the expanse of the Bolivian desert to be too much and stayed closer to the Pacific Coastline, creating a tiny strip that later became Chile. These conquistadors never found the riches in the Americas that they longed for. It is important to note that the conquistadors, once they moved into a region, would often become upset at the lack of resources, interrogate the indigenous population, then move on towards a new goal. Often, these conquistadors would then leave behind priests and other Spaniards that would help to establish the region as a Spanish stronghold.
The Periphery
The conquistadors often would move quickly from place to place and leave behind other Spaniards who would do the majority of the work of colonization, especially in the periphery. The majority of the Spanish holdings were in what is considered periphery regions, which included what would later be known as California, New Mexico, Florida, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, and the Rio de la Plata region. There was little government or need for large bureaucracy. This meant that the central power in many of these periphery areas was typically the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church became a major power in the periphery because the central mission of the Catholic Church was the indoctrination of Christianity to the indigenous populations. There were few questions and little care about the methods that the Catholic Church used to ensure that the indigenous peoples became Christians. For example, in the Rio de la Plata region of South America, the Jesuit priests created agricultural, shop craft workers and soldiers out of the Guaraní population indigenous to the region. In New Mexico, the Catholic Church used indigenous laborers and farmers to enrich itself. This led, of course, to revolts. In 1680 CE the Pueblo, of latter-day New Mexico, revolted and were successful in removing from the region the Catholic Church and the Spanish government for another 100 years.
Life in the periphery was very different than in the center. Similar to the divisions of the urban and rural today, the periphery had limitations on how strong the colonial government could be. The laws that were to provide health and safety that were created in the cities, were often times not enforced in the periphery regions. This meant that many of the indigenous people suffered and were put in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. This demanding and dangerous work of indigenous people meant that there was a significant decrease in the indigenous populations throughout the 15th to 18th centuries.
Spanish Colonial Culture
Learning Objectives
- Evaluate the differences in the colonial Latin American structures.
Latin American colonial culture rested upon the mixture of African, indigenous, and European cultures. While most people think that the conquistadors were individuals who conquered large territories, it is important to note that these were usually single men from Spain. The conquistadors traditionally came from the lower class and were single males. This is important to note, because Spanish colonization affected by these men who found themselves surrounded by women from indigenous and African heritages.
Very soon, it was clear to the Spanish administration that they needed to keep track and provided a chart to help understand and organize the different racial categories in the Spanish world. These were known as the Casta Charts, the name came from the Indian Caste system. The organization was to help colonial and bureaucratic leaders understand and know the populations that they served. While it appears that the Spanish system was very structured and individuals had only one option in life, this is not quite true. The Catholic Church kept records of births within the colonial system. An individual could go to a priest where their records were held, and ask the priest, for a fee, to remove the racial category that they were at and move them to a higher one. This type of bribery demonstrates that individuals in the Spanish system could purchase whiteness and move higher in the racial hierarchy. Being higher in the racial hierarchy meant better access to jobs and social circles. The division of ethnicity was one of the complicated measures that would divide the colonial Spanish Americas, another was birthplace.
The Spanish used places of birth to assign political and economic powers. Spaniards born on the Iberian Peninsula were called Peninsulares. The Peninsulares were individuals who could rise to the level of governor; they had the ability to go to Latin America and had limited restraints on their power. People born in the Americas were called Creoles, they were individuals who had less power, usually they were not able to rise to middle to upper level of government. This division created deep resentment in populations in the Americas because these were quality jobs with political and economic powers attached. The division between Creole and Peninsulares created a long-term division that would help to push the Spanish colonial society to the brink of revolution in the end of the 18th century.
Social circles and classes were very important to the colonial Spanish America. The encomiendas was where large estates and vast amounts of material wealth were centered. These newly forming estates were critical for the upper class and developed what historians have termed the plantocracy, a hierarchy based on plantation ownership. In plantocracies plantation owners are at the top, and their families are in the tier below, enjoying less power. Usually the plantation owner’s wife, known as the plantation mistress, would have been the second most powerful person on the plantation, followed closely by the plantation owner’s children. Because these farms were so big and needed so much help to manage, the plantation owners often times hired lower class whites to help manage farms and resources. This third tier is important because the community that came from outside the family life was central to the political and economic status of the plantation owner. The lowest rung was the slaves and indigenous populations that were forced to do the work; they were often brutalized and treated very terribly by those ranked above them. The class system in Spanish America demonstrated the key problems of class and race in the colonial world.
The other way that Spanish Latin American culture was divided was along gender lines. The Spanish colonial system included rigid gender roles for both men and women. Women were expected to support the males and provide children. There were few jobs for women and limited educational opportunities. In popular culture, women inhabited one of two roles: either the Madonna or the prostitute. Men, on the other hand, were not held to the same standards and the role of masculinity was defined by domination. It is during this period that the development of the hypermasculine became the traditional role of men. The stark differences between men and women provides a unique lens when viewing such amazing women like Sor Juanita. Juana Inés de la Cruz was a Mexican writer, philosopher, composer, poet, and nun. She was a central figure during the Spanish Golden Age of literature. She was taught herself to read from a library that she inherited from her grandfather and began to write poems after becoming a nun. Sor Juanita became a voice for women and spoke out against the corruption of the church and the men of Mexico City.
The Spanish system demonstrates how different they were from the English, French, or Dutch with their colonial worlds. The Spanish social division between creole and peninsulares was the critical division that other Europeans did not create. The role of African and indigenous in the Spanish system was another key difference from those of the English and the French. The centers of power meant that the Spanish integrated the indigenous populations quickly into their world as laborers, which led to their constant mistreatment by those at upper levels of the colonial society. One of the most significant points for the Spanish colonization was the economic resources that were extracted in the colonial peripheries that would have a critical role on the world stage. The Spanish colonial system had two significant components, the center and the periphery. The conquest of Mexico and the Inca were important because they were the empires that the Spanish built most of their own political power upon. Life in the periphery was dominated by the Catholic Church and centered on the relationship between the indigenous and farm life. The Spanish were different than their Portuguese counterparts in that the Portuguese had a very hands-on mentality. The “I mapped it, I own it,” provided a good starting point. The Spanish, on the other hand, used brutality to repress indigenous and African populations. While the Spanish had incredible amounts of resource wealth with the empire systems, other colonizers did not have such good luck, and were forced to focus their empires on trade relationships.
Economics: Potosí
The original goal of Europeans sailing westward was to find new ways to get to China and get more trade goods. The discovery of America was a serendipitous event that created new opportunities for Europeans. But while Latin America was growing economically profitable, Europeans were still wanting to gain a bigger footprint in China. However, the Chinese were not interested in any of the new products that the Spanish brought from the New World. The Spanish goods would go to China and would languish with little to no interest from Chinese buyers. The turning point for Spanish goods was the trade of silver from Latin America. The Spanish discovered the mountain of Potosí in the South American Andes mountains that was almost a pure silver vein. This mountain, in modern Bolivia, provided the majority of the silver Spain sent to China.
During the Middle Ages, the printing of flying cash meant that the Chinese economy was heavily hit by rampant inflation. The government began demanding taxes to be paid in silver. With the Spanish importing silver in massive quantities, this meant that silver value began to decrease in comparison to other metals and the everyday person saw relief from their government debts. The importing of silver was a significant benefit to the average Chinese person, and this opened China for the Spanish. On the flip side, this caused significant problems for the Chinese, because the massive amounts of silver that was imported from Latin America caused rampant deflation of silver, and the value crashed. This caused a ripple effect that helped to destabilize the Chinese economy.
In the Spanish empire, the rampant inflation caused ripple effects for the colonizer. The colonization of Latin America gave the Spanish access to large territories and many trade goods. But, on the Iberian side of the Atlantic, there were significant political and economic problems. The reign of Charles V was the high-water mark for the Spanish crown. Charles’s administration requested that all the silver that went to China first pass through the Iberian Peninsula. This meant that the Spanish added an extra leg of the journey for the silver and added vast amounts of cost for transport of that silver. This was at the same time of the Protestant Reformation and when Charles V, as Holy Roman Emperor, was attempting to squash the Protestants in the German territories. To leverage more war materials, Charles took loans against the silver coming out of Latin America. This put Spain in a weaker state because the silver was a key resource in the global trade with China, and European bankers understood that value. For many years, Charles took loans against the silver investments of Latin America, but eventually Spain became too indebted to bankers. This meant that the Spanish could no longer use the silver to finance wars, such as the Thirty Years War, as well as that they lost political and economic power in Europe. This weakened state had a dramatic effect on the colonial world. Throughout the 15th to 18th centuries, the Spanish had power over their colonies, but through unusual laws, cultural practices like the creole and government positions, and the growth of the British in the Americas, the Spanish empire lost significant political and economic power in the New World. This weakening of the Spanish led to a significant opening for other European colonizers, such as the French, Dutch and British.
The Spanish in the Pacific
Middle-aged but bold, Ferdinand Magellan sought to strengthen Portuguese claims in the Pacific. Specifically, he sought a westward route to the Spice Islands. This precarious, uncharted route would give the Portuguese uncontested access to the Spice Islands. However, unimpressed by the proposal, the Portuguese king quickly dismissed Magellan. [b]Not dissuaded, Magellan immediately turned his attention to Portugal’s direct rival, Spain. Unlike his Portuguese counterpart, King Charles I was quick to support Magellan’s endeavor. In 1519, under Spain’s banner, Magellan’s fleet set forth on the new, westward route across the Atlantic and Pacific to the Spice Islands.
Magellan’s voyage was fraught with trouble for months. Disease, malnutrition, starvation and mutiny all plagued his fleet. Harsh seas battled their ships for eighteen months, as the crews navigated the fierce waters around the horn of South America, now famously known as the Straights of Magellan. In spring 1521, the crews spotted Guam. A month later, they landed in the present-day Philippines.
Reception of Magellan by the indigenous peoples in the Philippines was mixed. At times, the Europeans were treated as guests. Other encounters proved hostile. Hostility arose over Magellan’s attempt to convert local inhabitants to Christianity. The chieftain of the Mactan tribe in the Philippines considered the new arrivals a serious threat. In April 1521, conflict exploded between the Mactan peoples and Magellan’s forces. The Spanish were overwhelmed, and Magellan was speared and killed in the battle. The surviving Spanish retreated to Spain, bedraggled and defeated.
Fifty years after the defeat by the Mactan, the Spanish returned to the Philippines under the leadership of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. After that they remained a dominant presence in the Philippines, establishing a stronghold at Manila: “The Pearl of the Orient.”
With the Spanish domination of Manila came the spread of Catholicism. Augustinians, Jesuits, Franciscans, and Dominican friars and missionaries established themselves in the Philippines. And conversion spread throughout the Philippines.
Manila grew into a cosmopolitan city that outshone Seville in its brilliance and diversity. A unique, blended culture of Spanish, Chinese, Malay, Tagalong, and Muslim peoples and customs [4]emerged. But like its Portuguese rivals, the Spanish capital in the Philippines remained under threat of internal and external attack. The trade network which the Spanish had worked so hard to establish, flourished. However, it would not be long before new rivals threatened to destroy everything the Spanish had worked to create.
Primary Source: Letter from Christopher Columbus
Letter from Christopher Columbus [Abridged]
Christopher Columbus (1493)
On the thirty-third day after leaving Cadiz I came into the Indian Sea, where I discovered many islands inhabited by numerous people. I took possession of all of them for our most fortunate King by making public proclamation and unfurling his standard, no one making any resistance. To the first of them I have given the name of our blessed Saviour, whose aid I have reached this and all the rest; but the Indians call it Guanahani. To each of the others also I gave a new name, ordering one to be called Sancta Maria de Concepcion, another Fernandina, another Isabella, another Juana; and so with all the rest. As soon as we reached the island which I have just said was called Juana, I sailed along its coast some considerable distance towards the West, and found it to be so large, without any apparent end, that I believed it was not an island, but a continent, a province of Cathay. But I saw neither towns nor cities lying on the seaboard, only some villages and country farms, with whose inhabitants I could not get speech, because they fled as soon as they beheld us. I continued on, supposing I should come upon some city, or country-houses. At last, finding that no discoveries rewarded our further progress, and that this course was leading us towards the North, which I was desirous of avoiding, as it was now winter in these regions, and it had always been my intention to proceed Southwards, and the winds also were favorable to such desires, I concluded not to attempt any other adventures; so, turning back, I came again to a certain harbor, which I had remarked. From there I sent two of our men into the country to learn whether there was any king or cities in that land. They journeyed for three days, and found innumerable people and habitations, but small and having no fixed government; on which account they returned. Meanwhile I had learned from some Indians, whom I had seized at this place, that this country was really an island. Consequently I continued along towards the East, as much as 322 miles, always hugging the shore. Where was the very extremity of the island, from there I saw another island to the Eastwards, distant 54 miles from this Juana, which I named Hispana; and proceeded to it, and directed my course for 564 miles East by North as it were, just as I had done at Juana…
…The inhabitants of both sexes of this and of all the other island I have seen, or of which I have any knowledge, always go as 2 naked as they came into the world, except that some of the women cover their private parts with leaves or branches, or a veil of cotton, which they prepare themselves for this purpose. They are all, as I said before, unprovided with any sort of iron, and they are destitute of arms, which are entirely unknown to them, and for which they are not adapted; not on account of any bodily deformity, for they are well made, but because they are timid and full of terror. They carry, however, canes dried in the sun in place of weapons, upon whose roots they fix a wooded shaft, dried and sharpened to a point. But they never dare to make use of these; for it has often happened, when I have sent two or three of my men to some of their villages to speak with the inhabitants, that a crowd of Indians has sallied forth; but when they saw our men approaching, they speedily took to flight, parents abandoning children, and children their parents. This happened not because any loss or injury had been inflicted upon any of them. On the contrary I gave whatever I had, cloth and many other things, to whomsoever I approached, or with whom I could get speech, without any return being made to me; but they are by nature fearful and timid. But when they see that they are safe, and all fear is banished, they are very guileless and honest, and very liberal of all they have. No one refuses the asker anything that he possesses; on the contrary they themselves invite us to ask for it. They manifest the greatest affection towards all of us, exchanging valuable things for trifles, content with the very least thing or nothing at all. But I forbade giving them a very trifling thing and of no value, such as bits of plates, dishes, or glass; also nails and straps; although it seemed to them, if they could get such, that they had acquired the most beautiful jewels in the world.
From The University of Texas at Austin, Thomas Jefferson Center for the Study of Core Texts & Ideas
Primary Source: Aztec Account of Spanish Colonization
In 1519 Hernan Cortés sailed from Cuba, landed in Mexico and made his way to the Aztec capital. Miguel LeonPortilla, a Mexican anthropologist, gathered accounts by the Aztecs, some of which were written shortly after the conquest.
Speeches of Motecuhzoma and Cortés
When Motecuhzoma [Montezuma] had given necklaces to each one, Cortés asked him: "Are you Motecuhzoma? Are you the king? Is it true that you are the king Motecuhzoma?"
And the king said: "Yes, I am Motecuhzoma." Then he stood up to welcome Cortés; he came forward, bowed his head low and addressed him in these words: "Our lord, you are weary. The journey has tired you, but now you have arrived on the earth. You have come to your city, Mexico. You have come here to sit on your throne, to sit under its canopy.
"The kings who have gone before, your representatives, guarded it and preserved it for your coming. The kings Itzcoatl, Motecuhzoma the Elder, Axayacatl, Tizoc and Ahuitzol ruled for you in the City of Mexico. The people were protected by their swords and sheltered by their shields.
"Do the kings know the destiny of those they left behind, their posterity? If only they are watching! If only they can see what I see!
"No, it is not a dream. I am not walking in my sleep. I am not seeing you in my dreams.... I have seen you at last! I have met you face to face! I was in agony for five days, for ten days, with my eyes fixed on the Region of the Mystery. And now you have come out of the clouds and mists to sit on your throne again.
"This was foretold by the kings who governed your city, and now it has taken place. You have come back to us; you have come down from the sky. Rest now, and take possession of your royal houses. Welcome to your land, my lords! "
When Motecuhzoma had finished, La Malinche translated his address into Spanish so that the Captain could understand it. Cortés replied in his strange and savage tongue, speaking first to La Malinche: "Tell Motecuhzoma that we are his friends. There is nothing to fear. We have wanted to see him for a long time, and now we have seen his face and heard his words. Tell him that we love him well and that our hearts are contented."
Then he said to Motecuhzoma: "We have come to your house in Mexico as friends. There is nothing to fear."
La Malinche translated this speech and the Spaniards grasped Motecuhzoma's hands and patted his back to show their affection for him....
Massacre in the Main Temple
During this time, the people asked Motecuhzoma how they should celebrate their god's fiesta. He said: "Dress him in all his finery, in all his sacred ornaments."
During this same time, The Sun commanded that Motecuhzoma and Itzcohuatzin, the military chief of Tlatelolco, be made prisoners. The Spaniards hanged a chief from Acolhuacan named Nezahualquentzin. They also murdered the king of Nauhtla, Cohualpopocatzin, by wounding him with arrows and then burning him alive.
For this reason, our warriors were on guard at the Eagle Gate. The sentries from Tenochtitlan stood at one side of the gate, and the sentries from Tlatelolco at the other. But messengers came to tell them to dress the figure of Huitzilopochtli. They left their posts and went to dress him in his sacred finery: his ornaments and his paper clothing.
When this had been done, the celebrants began to sing their songs. That is how they celebrated the first day of the fiesta. On the second day they began to sing again, but without warning they were all put to death. The dancers and singers were completely unarmed. They brought only their embroidered cloaks, their turquoises, their lip plugs, their necklaces, their clusters of heron feathers, their trinkets made of deer hooves. Those who played the drums, the old men, had brought their gourds of snuff and their timbrels.
The Spaniards attacked the musicians first, slashing at their hands and faces until they had killed all of them. The singers-and even the spectators- were also killed. This slaughter in the Sacred Patio went on for three hours. Then the Spaniards burst into the rooms of the temple to kill the others: those who were carrying water, or bringing fodder for the horses, or grinding meal, or sweeping, or standing watch over this work.
The king Motecuhzoma, who was accompanied by Itzcohuatzin and by those who had brought food for the Spaniards, protested: "Our lords, that is enough! What are you doing? These people are not carrying shields or macanas. Our lords, they are completely unarmed!"
The Sun had treacherously murdered our people on the twentieth day after the captain left for the coast. We allowed the Captain to return to the city in peace. But on the following day we attacked him with all our might, and that was the beginning of the war
From Miguel LeonPortilla, ed., The Brohen Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico (Boston: Beacon Press, 1962), pp. 6466, 129131.
Primary Source: Las Casas Destruction of the West Indies
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies
Bartolome de las Casas (1542)
The Americas were discovered in 1492, and the first Christian settlements established by the Spanish the following year. It is accordingly forty-nine years now since Spaniards began arriving in numbers in this part of the world. They first settled the large and fertile island of Hispaniola, which boasts six hundred leagues of coastline and is surrounded by a great many other large islands, all of them, as I saw for myself, with as high a native population as anywhere on earth. Of the coast of the mainland, which, at its nearest point, is a little over two hundred and fifty leagues from Hispaniola, more than ten thousand leagues had been explored by 1541, and more are being discovered every day. This coastline, too, was swarming with people and it would seem, if we are to judge by those areas so far explored, that the Almighty selected this part of the world as home to the greater part of the human race.
God made all the peoples of this area, many and varied as they are, as open and as innocent as can be imagined. The simplest people in the world - unassuming, long-suffering, unassertive, and submissive - they are without malice or guile, and are utterly faithful and obedient both to their own native lords and to the Spaniards in whose service they now find themselves. Never quarrelsome or belligerent or boisterous, they harbour no grudges and do not seek to settle old scores; indeed, the notions of revenge, rancour, and hatred are quite foreign to them. At the same time, they are among the least robust of human beings: their delicate constitutions make them unable to withstand hard work or suffering and render them liable to succumb to almost any illness, no matter how mild. Even the common people are no tougher than princes or than other Europeans born with a silver spoon in their mouths and who spend their lives shielded from the rigours of the outside world. They are also among the poorest people on the face of the earth; they own next to nothing and have no urge to acquire material possessions. As a result they are neither ambitious nor greedy, and are totally uninterested in worldly power. Their diet is every bit as poor and as monotonous, in quantity and in kind, as that enjoyed by the Desert Fathers. Most of them go naked, save for a loincloth to cover their modesty; at best they may wrap themselves in a piece of cotton material a yard or two square. Most sleep on matting, although a few possess a kind of hanging net, known in the language of Hispaniola as a hammock. They are innocent and pure in mind and have a lively intelligence, all of which makes them particularly receptive to learning and understanding the truths of our Catholic faith and to being instructed in virtue; indeed, God has invested them with fewer impediments in this regard than any other people on earth. Once they begin to learn of the Christian faith they become so keen to know more, to receive the Sacraments, and to worship God, that the missionaries who instruct them do truly have to be men of exceptional patience and forbearance; and over the years I have time and again met Spanish laymen who have been so struck by the natural goodness that shines through these people that they frequently can be heard to exclaim: 'These would be the most blessed people on earth if only they were given the chance to convert to Christianity.'
It was upon these gentle lambs, imbued by the Creator with all the qualities we have mentioned, that from the very first day they clapped eyes on them the Spanish fell like ravening wolves upon the fold, or like tigers and savage lions who have not eaten meat for days. The pattern established at the outset has remained unchanged to this day, and the Spaniards still do nothing save tear the natives to shreds, murder them and inflict upon them untold misery, suffering and distress, tormenting, harrying and persecuting them mercilessly. We shall in due course describe some of the many ingenious methods of torture they have invented and refined for this purpose, but one can get some idea of the effectiveness of their methods from the figures alone. When the Spanish first journeyed there, the indigenous population of the island of Hispaniola stood at some three million; today only two hundred survive. The island of Cuba, which extends for a distance almost as great as that separating Valladolid from Rome, is now to all intents and purposes uninhabited;" and two other large, beautiful and fertile islands, Puerto Rico and Jamaica, have been similarly devastated. Not a living soul remains today on any of the islands of the Bahamas, which lie to the north of Hispaniola and Cuba, even though every single one of the sixty or so islands in the group, as well as those known as the Isles of Giants and others in the area, both large and small, is more fertile and more beautiful than the Royal Gardens in Seville and the climate is as healthy as anywhere on earth. The native population, which once numbered some five hundred thousand, was wiped out by forcible expatriation to the island of Hispaniola, a policy adopted by the Spaniards in an endeavour to make up losses among the indigenous population of that island. One God-fearing individual was moved to mount an expedition to seek out those who had escaped the Spanish trawl and were still living in the Bahamas and to save their souls by converting them to Christianity, but, by the end of a search lasting three whole years, they had found only the eleven survivors I saw with my own eyes. A further thirty or so islands in the region of Puerto Rico are also now uninhabited and left to go to rack and ruin as a direct result of the same practices. All these islands, which together must run to over two thousand leagues, are now abandoned and desolate.
From Modern History Sourcebook, Fordham University
Attributions
Attributions
Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_de_Mena#/media/File:Casta_Painting_by_Luis_de_Mena.jpg
Boundless World History
https://www.coursehero.com/study-guides/boundless-worldhistory/the-age-of-discovery/
https://www.coursehero.com/study-guides/boundless-worldhistory/spain-and-catholicism/
Work based around the ideas of Patricia Seed: Ceremonies of Possession in Europe's Conquest of the New World, 1492–1640