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 pure European blood But born in the New 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