Early Latin America

1. Early Latin America Chapter 19

2. 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?

3. 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

4. Early Labor in New Spain 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

5. Spanish Conquests • 1519-1521 Cortez leads conquest of Aztec • 1532-1533 Pizarro leads conquest of the Inca • By 1540 the Spanish controlled large parts of Central and South America

6. Iberian Empires in the Americas • 1570 Large parts of C. and S. America controlled as semi-private estates of encomenderos • Worries the King of Spain • Sets up Audiencias (audience) to rule over them • Freelance conquering not organized by the crown

8. Bartolomeo de lasCasas 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.

9. 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

10. 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 Viceroy 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

11. Brazil: Portugal’s Colony in the New World • After 1500, the Portuguese king sent a governor to consolidate his claims and protect the land from the French and Dutch

12. 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 1800 over 600,000 Iberians moved to the New World

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. Mining and Agriculture in the Spanish Empire • Zacatecas in Mexico • Potosi in Peru • A mita, system which forced each town to contribute laborers to the mines. • Most were natives

17. Silver and the Spanish Economy • The Spanish gov’t kept 1/5 of all silver in taxes(QUINTA) • Used silver for huge navy and army against Protestants • This money also funded Spanish trade in silks, spices, other exotic asian good…global trade • Inflation because Spanish(artisans) could not keep up with cheaper Asian goods

18. 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)

19. 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!

20. Sugar, Slavery and Brazil • Portugal focused on the production and exporting of sugar from Brazil • Nobles and entrepreneurs established large plantations • Decline in native populations---slaves

21. 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 • Disease, malnutrition, tropic heat etc. • 5-10% perished annually • Death rates > Birthrates The Portuguese dominated world sugar markets until other nations established plantations in the colonies in the 17th century