Download Chapter 19: Early Latin America * Emperor of Aztecs: Moctezuma

Chapter 19: Early Latin America
* Emperor of Aztecs: Moctezuma
* Latin America was drawn into new world economy
* Creation of plantations worked by coerced laborers
Spaniards and Portuguese: From Reconquest to Conquest
* Iberian Peninsula: religious conflict, Muslim vs. Christian
* Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile: marriage and unification of kingdoms and
eliminate religious diversity
* Jews and Muslims were kicked out of Castile
* 1492: End of Granada War- sponsorship of Christopher Columbus
Iberian Society and Tradition
* Urban societies
* Encomiendas: large estates and grants of American Indian laborers in Latin America (grant of
indigenous people to individual Spaniards in a type of serfdom)
The Chronology of Conquest
* Conquest: 1492-1570: main lines of administration and economy were set out
* 1570-1700: phase of consolidation and maturity with colonial institutions taking their definite
form
* 18th century: period of reform and reorganization
The Caribbean Crucible
* Caribbean model for Spain in the rest of the Americas
* Caribbean was the home of Taino people
* Encomendero: the holder of an encomienda: able to use the people as workers or to tax
them.
* Priests came over with the conquistadors
* By 1510's immigration increased and included Spanish women and African slaves: shift from
an area of conquest to one of settlement
* Spanish accused people in Antilles with cannibalism: thus always subject to enslavement.
* Bartolome de Las Casas (1484-1566): Dominincan friar: conquistador turned priest.
The Paths of Conquest
* Spanish expeditions: between 50 to 500 men provided the spearhead of conquest.
* Two prong efforts: Mexico and South America
* Hernan Cortes: led 600 men in 1519 against the Aztecs (aided by traditional enemies of the
Aztecs), defeated Moctezuma II, conquered Tenochtitlan and renamed Mexico City
* 1532: Francisco Pizarro led the conquest of the Incas in Peru
* Francisco Vazquez de Coronado: 1540-1542: searched for mythical cities of gold, went into
SW United States ( to Kansas).
The Conquerors
* Many of the conquistadors were looking to improve their lives/ status
* Advantages of Spanish: technology: horses, firearms, and steel weapons
Conquest and Morality
* argument that natives were not fully human, and some peoples were "born to serve"
* Las Casas vs. Sepulveda
The Destruction and Transformation of American Indian Societies
* Spanish created institutions such as the encomienda and later the mita to tax the native
population or make them work.
* Central Mexico: 25 million in 1519 to 2 million in 1580
* Smallpox, influenza, and measles wreaked havoc on the Native American population
* Demographic collapse made maintaining traditional social and economic structures very
difficult.
* Cattle, Sheep, and Horses increased in the Americas
Exploitation of the Indians
* Enslavement of Indians, except those taken in war, was prohibited by the mid-16th c. in most
of Spanish America
* Encomiendas: grants of land and the use of Indians and servants, or to tax them. Declined by
1620's
* colonial government increasingly extracted labor and taxes from native peoples
* Mita: forced laborers for state projects: road building, mining, agriculture
* Growth of wage-labor systems away from villages
Colonial Economies and Governments
* Agriculture and mining were the basis of the Spanish colonial economy.
* 80% agricultural
* Precious metals: fit Latin America into the developing world economy: SILVER
The Silver Heart of Empire
* Potosi: upper Peru was largest mine of all: 160,000 people
* American Indian slaves and encomienda systems were gradually replaced by labor drafts
* Use of amalgamation with mercury to extract the silver form the ore-bearing rock
* Spanish law: all subsoil rights belonged to the crown, mine and processing plants were owned
by individuals
Haciendas and Villages
* Haciendas: rural estates
Industry and Commerce
* Spain allowed only Spaniards to trade with America and imposed tight restrictions.
Industry and Commerce
* Consulado= Merchant guild
* Galleons= large, heavily armed ships
* Wealth of Spain depended more on the taxes levied on its own population than it did on the
exploitation of its native American subjects.
Ruling an Empire: State and Church
* Papal grant: awarded the West Indies to Castile in return for its services in bringing those
lands and peoples into the Christian community
* Treaty of Tordesillas (1494): between Castile and Portugal: clarified the spheres of influence
and right of possession of the two kingdoms by drawing a hypothetical line: Portugal to east of
line, and Spain to west of line
* Letrados: university-trained lawyers from Spain
* Viceroyalties in 16th c.: Mexico City and Lima: led by Viceroys: further subdivided into 10
judicial divisions controlled by superior courts, audiencias
* Catholic church: widespread conversion of the Native Americans
* Much of intellectual life was organized around religion
* Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (1651-1695): author, poet, musician, social thinker, nun
Brazil: The First Plantation Colony
* Portuguese
* Sugar plantations with Native American, then African labor
* 1500 Pedro Alvares Cabral: explorer who landed briefly in Brazil
* 1549: Portuguese king sent a governor general to create a royal capital at Salvador: first Jesuit
missionaries as well
Sugar and Slavery
* Brazil= world's leading sugar producer
* Sugar production: large amounts of capital for machinery and large quantities of labor for the
backbreaking work.
* White planter families became an aristocracy linked by marriage to resident merchants and to
the few Portuguese bureaucrats and officials, and they dominated local institutions.
Brazil's Age of Gold
* Competition for sugar trade by Dutch, French, and English, against Brazil
* 1695: discovery of gold in the mountainous interior: called Minas Gerais
* Brazil became the greatest source of Gold in the Western World
Multiracial Societies
* Hierarchies of color, status, and occupation
* Master/ servant, Christian/ "pagan"
The Society of Castas
* Mixed marriages and informal unions led to people of mixed heritage
* Socidad de castas: social class system: Europeans/ whites on top, mixed races in middle, and
full blooded Africans and Native Americans were on the bottom
* Castas= People of mixed origin
* Peninsulares: whites actually born in Spain
* Creoles: whites born in the New World: increasing sense of identity (later many Creoles led
independence movements in Latin America)
* Patriarchal societies
* Women did have full rights to inheritance
* Upper-class women who were not married early were often put in convents
The 18th-Century Reforms
* Events on Iberian Peninsula eventually led to colonial unrest and movements for
independence
* Amigos del pais (friends of the country): Spain and colonies meetings to brainstorm reforms
The Shifting Balance of Politics and Trade
* Spain had foreign wars, increasing debt, declining population, and internal revolts
* War of Spanish Succession (1702-1713): Spanish king, Charles II, died without an heir. Philip
of Anjou, a Bourbon (an relation to King of France) was named successor to the Spanish throne.
Treaty of Utrecht: Bourbon rulers of Spain, but France got trade concessions, England could
trade slaves in Spanish America
The Bourbon Reforms
* Charles III (1759-1788) led Spain and worked for economic nationalism, strong centralized
government, expelled the Jesuits
* Reforms in America were linked to defense and military matters
* CUBA: full-scale plantation and slave colony- exporting sugar, coffee, and tobacco and
importing Africans
Pombal and Brazil
* Marquiz of Pombal: (1755-1776): Portugal's authoritarian prime minister. Wanted to apply
mercantilism, expelled the Jesuits from the Portuguese Empire in 1759. Abolished slavery in
Portugal, so that Brazil received a steady supply
Reforms, Reactions, and Revolts
* Rapid growth in population an productive capacity
* Comunero Revolt: 1781- Rebel army almost took over the capital and the viceroy fled Bogota
* Tupac Amaru (Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui), of Incan descent, led a rebellion against "bad
govt.", more than 70,000 joined against the worst abuses of the colonial regime. Tupac was
was captured and brutally executed.