Impact of Colonization

Colonial Administration• Spain: four viceroyalties• Intendant System• Official exercises broad powers• Reports to monarchy

Plantation and Encomienda System• Spanish men move and create haciendas• Import livestock• Plantations in tropical areas; sugar• Used natives as labor • Encomienda• Used natives as labor, or demand tribute

Effects on Native Americans• 1492: est. 50 million Native Americans• Disease decimates population (small pox, typhus, flu, etc.)• Overwork kills many• Forced work leads to malnutrition• Violence and warfare

Bartolome de Las Casas• Franciscan friar• Fiercest critic of Spanish actions• Convinced Charles V to tone down enconmienda system

Writing of Las Casas

Thus husbands and wives were together only once every eight or ten months and when they met they were so exhausted and depressed on both sides…they ceased to procreate. As for the newly born, they died early because their mothers, overworked and famished, had no milk to nurse them, and for this reason, while I was in Cuba, 7,000 children died in three months. Some mothers even drowned their babies from sheer desperation…In this way, husbands died in the mines, wives died at work, and children died from lack of milk… and in a short time this land which was so great, so powerful and fertile…was depopulated…

Spread of Christianity• Jesuit missionaries followed conquistadors• Converted natives to Christianity• Taught loyalty to colonial masters

COLONIAL LIFE

Colonial Cultures• First explorers maintain relationships with native women• Colonies with women take on European culture• England: strict line drawn between natives and English• France: encouraged relationships with natives• Most women were of African origin• Mixing creates complex identities• Mestizo: mixed Native American and Spanish decent

SOCIAL HIERARCHY

V

C

M & M

I & A

Viceroys Penisulares:Native Spaniards

Creoles:People of pureEuropean bloodBut born in theNew World

Mestizos: Indian +European blood

Mulattos:African +European blood

Indians and Africans

Columbian Exchange• Trade of goods, food, culture, disease between New World

and Old.

Columbian Exchange: Food

New World• Maize (corn)• White potatoes• Sweet potatoes• Peanuts• Tomatoes• Squash• Pumpkin• Pineapples• Papaya• avocados

Old World• Rice• Wheat• Barley• Oats• Rye• Turnips• Onions• Cabbage• Lettuce• Peaches• Pears• sugar

Columbian Exchange: Domesticated Animals

New world

• Dogs• Llamas• Guinea pigs• Fowl (some species)

Old World

• Dogs• Horses• Donkeys• Pigs• Cattle• Goats• Sheep• Barnyard fowl

Columbian Exchange: Disease

New World

• Syphilis???Old World

• Small pox• Flu• Mumps• Measles• Bubonic Plague• Dysentery• Cholera• Malaria• Typhoid