1. Spain’s Overseas Empire
Lesson 4
Vocabulary
frontier
missionary
enslave
mestizo
How did Spain’s empire in North America expand?
Reading Skill
Cause and Effect
Teacher Notes
Essential Question: How did Spain’s empire in North America expand?

2. Spain’s Overseas Empire
Complete the chart to show the change that occurred after the Spanish explored North America.
Cause
Effect
More workers were needed to work on the encomiendas.
Enslaved Africans were brought to New Spain.
Those who escaped started maroon communities.
Yanga led a rebellion.
Teacher Notes
Many expeditions brought diseases that killed more Native Americans.
Spanish rulers gave encomiendas, large areas of land, to colonists who were loyal to them.
Land included the Native American villagers who lived there. They were forced to work for Spanish landowners.
Many Native Americans died from starvation, disease, or overwork.
Some missionaries spoke out against the cruel treatment.
The Spanish brought the first enslaved Africans to the Americas.

3. New Spain Social Pyramid
By the middle of the 1500s, three different groups of people - Native Americans, Spanish, and Africans – had created a new society.
Viceroy: New Spain’s ruler
Peninsulares: Spaniards from
Criollos: People born in New Spain of Spanish Parents
Mestizos: People were both Spanish and Native American
Native Americans and Enslaved Africans: People were forced to work without wages.