S PANISH & P ORTUGUESE C OLONIES

S PANISH C ONQUEST  Conquistadors toppled Aztec and Incan Empires in the early-mid 1500s  Established social hierarchy with Spanish- born Europeans at the top and natives at the bottom  Relations between Spaniards & natives common  Mestizos  Plantations & mines needed labor  African slaves introduced

S PANISH C OLONIAL S OCIETY  Blended Spanish, African, and Native cultures  Native styles of building, food, & canoes  Christianity & horses from Europe  African cooking, farming, dance, and song  Valued education  Church

E CONOMY  Wealth mainly from silver  Source at Potosí in modern Bolivia 1545  Other sources in Mexico over next few years  Gold also tapped, but in less quantity  Convoys of caravels carried precious metals back go Spain  20% went to the Spanish crown  Treasures attracted privateers from northern Europe  Piracy against Spanish fleet  Raised inflation in Spain & Europe

N EED FOR L ABOR  Initial reward for conquistadors: land  Grants known as encomiendas  Natives are “commended” to the conquistador  Entire villages often commended to conquistador, giving him a status similar to that of feudal lord  Treated natives as slaves  Worked plantations & mines  Natives placed at bottom of social hierarchy  New Laws of the Indies declared 1542 to protect natives on encomiendas  Peru – viceroy beheaded trying to introduce laws  Mexico – laws not even proclaimed  System finally ended in 18 th century, replaced by wage labour  Also utilized African slave labor  Relatively easy to transport to the Caribbean  Already familiar with highly organized tropical agriculture  First brought as early as 1502

M EANWHILE, I N S PAIN  Exploration in the Pacific as well  Philippines  Ferdinand II died in 1516  Spanish Crown + Castile, Aragon, Navarra, & Naples  grandson Charles  Descendent of Austrian House of Habsburg  Charles I  Assumed rule of Austria & the Low Countries  Peak of glory of the Spanish Empire  Followed by period of endless wars that drained Spain of wealth

S PANISH & P ORTUGUESE E MPIRES

P ORTUGUESE IN B RAZIL  Cabral claimed land in 1500  Conquered Tupian Indians  Aided by disease  Land grants began in 1530s  King would grant land if they shared profits  Economy  Not instant wealth from gold & silver like Spanish  Plantation agriculture + cattle  Highest number of slaves in the Americas  Some saw instant $$ from sale of brazilwood  Blended culture similar to that of Spanish Empire  Also original enslaved native peoples & Africans

R EVIEW Q UESTIONS 1.What groups of people were enslaved in Portuguese and Spanish colonies? 2.Where did natives work in the encomienda system? 3.What laws attempted to protect natives from harsh bosses? 4.What was different between the colonial economies of the Spanish and Portuguese? 5.In what order did these groups fall in the Spanish social hierarchy: Mulattos, Peninsulares, Creoles, Mestizos, Natives, and Africans?