Early Latin America

1
Early Latin America

• Chapter 19

2
Iberian Society and Tradition

• Spanish wanted to recreate themselves as nobility
  with Indian serfs
• Ecomiendaslarge estates with imported slaves
• Professional bureaucracy of lawyers and judges
• Cities laid out on a grid, not like European
  cities
• Body of lawslegalism

3
Conquest and Morality

• Who were the Indians?
• Were they fully human?
• Not fully human
• Born to serve
• Was it proper to convert them to Christianity?

4
Conquest and Morality

• Was the conquest of their lands justified?
• Used Aristotles argument, that it was
• Came to FREE Indians from unjust lords and bring
  the light of salvation
• Father Bartolome de las Casas argued that it was
  not they had never brought harm on Christians

5
The Chronology of Conquest

• Era of Conquest1492-1570
• Phase of consolidation1570-1700
• Period of reform and reorganization1700s
• Mass human destruction, millions of people
  brought under European control, massive flows of
  immigration and commerce

6
Exploitation of the Indians

• Priestly class eliminated
• Traditional Indian nobility remained and became
  the middlemen for taxes, etc.
• Originally encomiendas were given to conquerors
  and you could use or tax the Indians
• didnt have a reciprocal relationship
• Terms changed and they ended around 1620s

7
Exploitation of the Indians

• Colonial government expected labor and taxes
  (like Chinese) for state projectscalled mita
• Used to work in the mines
• Paid a wage, but system was abused
• Left land and preferred working in the city or
  for Spanish landowners to avoid mita?led to the
  growth of wage labor

8
The Silver Heart of the Empire

• Potosimajor silver mine in Peru
• Huancavelicamountain of mercury in Peru used to
  extract silver
• Spanish law says all subsoil rights belong to the
  crown, but mines owned by individuals
• Had to pay the crown 1/5th
• Stimulated other commerce

9
Industry and Commerce

• Americas were self-sufficient except for luxury
  goods
• Spain created a convoy system to protect its
  shipments back and forth from pirates
• Most silver flowed out of Spain to pay for wars,
  debts, and purchase of manufactured goods to ship
  back to the Indies

10
Ruling an Empire State and Church

• Judicial core staffed by university-trained
  lawyers from Spainletrados
• Council of the Indiesadvised the king and helped
  to make laws
• 2 Viceroys(Mexico Lima) nobles that were
  direct representatives of the king
• Audienciassubdivided viceroyalties into 10
  divisions of courts
• Magistratesappointed to collect taxes and assign
  work

11
Ruling an Empire State and Church

• Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits worked on
  conversions
• Recorded and analyzed Indian cultures in order to
  convert them
• Universities were established to train in law and
  theology (70)

12
Brazil 1st Plantation Colony

• Pedro Cabral discovered Brazil
• 150 sugar plantations by 1630
• 1600s about 7000 slaves imported a year 1700s it
  reached 20,000 a year
• Intellectual life was an extension of Portugal
  b/c no universities
• Mixed marriages was common b/c there was a
  shortage of European women?mestizos and castas
• CreolesEuropean born in Americas