Rural/Urban

1
Society of castas Spanish America

• Rural/Urban
• Gender patriarchies and double
  standards--Native, Iberian, African
• Condition slave/not encomendado/not
• Race/calidad/casta español, indio,
  casta--phenotype (color), not enough
• Culture language, dress, food, social
  interaction
• Class, wealth poor, not

2
1580 colonial hegemony

• Spanish cities and towns 225 (tot. pop
  500,000)
• Native towns and villages thousands (5
  million)
• Spanish mines and plantations

3
Post-conquest society (Spanish America)
urban
rural
4
Gender patriarchies and double standards

• Native gendered division of laboruniversal,
  early marriage (15-16 yrs)access to village
  lands via household
• Iberiansex-ratio imbalance--5-10
  males/femalenearly universal, later marriage
  (17-18)equi-partible inheritance
• Africansex ratio imbalance--3 males/femaleslaver
  y threatened family, communityadvantage of
  informal unions

5
Ethno-racial composition, New Spain
6
Race/calidad/casta

• Racial lines more apparent than real
• Phenotype (color) not enough
• Flexibility calidad (character, reputation)
• Crossings

7
Three divisions

• Españolpeninsular, creole
• Indioencomendado,migrant (naboria)
• Castanegro (bozal)mulato, etc.

8
Marriageways

• Spain Better to marry than to burn--low
  illegitimacy in Spain.
• New Spain Better to be well fixed with a
  concubine than badly married.--high illegitimacy
  in Spanish America.

9
Slavery

• Indian rampant in the Caribbean (until the
  virtual extinction of the population) and on the
  frontiers (until the end of colonial rule)
• African first the earliest conquestssmall in
  number until 18th centurybut important in
  society, economy and even politics (militias)

10
Slave Traffic from Africa 1451-1870 (data
repeated on next 4 maps)

• 1451-1600 beginning (1/4 million)
• 1601-1700 growing (1.3 million)
• 1701-1811 peaking (6 million)
• 1811-1870 declining (2 million)

11
Slave Traffic (figures in thousands) 1451-1600,
beginning (1/4 million)(P.D. Curtin, The
Atlantic Slave Trade)
50
100
75
50
12
Slave Traffic 1601-1700, growing (1.3 million)
25
300
250
150
50
600
13
Slave Traffic 1701-1810, peaking (6 million)
350
1,400
600
1,400
450
1,900
14
Slave Traffic 1811-1870, declining (2 million)
50
600
100
1,100
15
Cacao Boom Venezuela, 4 regions occurred after
1680s(data for 1684, 1720, 1744)
Caracas
16
Encomienda and encomenderos

• Encomenderos conquerors and royal favorites
• Encomienda Grants of tribute and labor of native
  villagers, primarily to conquistadores
• Crown attempts to convert from private to royal
  control (New Laws of 1542)
• Attempts to restrict use of labor by encomenderos
  (personal service banned 1549)
• Labor drafts mita and repartimiento (1550-)

17
Potosí (Upper Peru), 1545 richest silver mine
in the early modern world
18
Inside Potosí native miners

• Migrant labor draft mita every 7 years
• 16 provinces lost 50 of pop in a century

19
End