Chapter 19 Early Latin America Flashcards
A. Cortes conquers Aztecs
- Amazed at beauty of Tenochtitlan - uncomparable
B. Pattern of conquest, continuity and rebuilding
- Spanish tried to utilized Native resources similarly
- Spanish tried to utilized Native resources similarly
a. Used materials from ruins to build own houses
b. Used similar forced labor system
c. Allowed to follow ancient customs
C. Impact of invasions
- Huge Spanish/Portuguese empires
- Latin America pulled into new world economy
- Hierarchy of world economic relationships – Europe on top
- New societies created – some incorporated, some destroyed
- New societies created – some incorporated, some destroyed
a. Distinct civilization combining Iberian Peninsula w/ Native
C. Impact of invasions
- Created large landed estates
- Europeans came to Americas for economic gain and social mobility
- Exploited precious metals
- Iberian Peninsula on the Eve of Exploration
a. Tradition of military conquest and rule over other peoples
b. Ferdinand and Isabella – unified and destroyed religious diversity
b. Ferdinand and Isabella – unified and destroyed religious diversity
a. Jews expelled
b. Religious contributed to acceptance of Columbus’s idea
B. Iberian Society and Tradition
- Recreating Iberian life
- Recreating Iberian life
a. Urban cities surrounded by American Indians
b. Conquerors as nobles with Indians as serfs
c. Precedent of controlling African slaves
- Political rule
a. Professional bureaucracy
b. Theocracy – religion and Church influenced politics – vice versa
- Role of merchants
a. Trading posts in Africa, but estates in Atlantic islands
b. Trade factories turned into plantations - Brazil
C. The Chronology of Conquest
- Era of Conquest – 1492>1570 – administration and economy set-up
- Consolidation and Maturity – 1570>1700 – colonial institutions
- Reform and Reorganization – 1700>1800 – Reform and reorganization
- Reform and Reorganization – 1700>1800 – Reform and reorganization
a. Seeds of dissatisfaction and revolt
D. The Caribbean Crucible
- Early island conquests – Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Cuba
- Treatment of natives – Taino natives distributed to encomendero
- City precedents – gridlike around central plaza – church, town hall, governor’s
- Methods of rule – governors, treasury officials, notaries, Spanish laws brought
- Early immigration
- Early immigration
a. Import African slaves
b. Women came also – conquest goal turned to settlement
c. Gold hunting phase initial then replaced by sugar plantations
D. The Caribbean Crucible
- Treatment of Natives – enslavement, disease, murder
7. Attempts at reform
- Attempts at reform
a. Clerics and priests tried to end abuses
b. Bartolome d Las Casas – wrote of complaints
E. The Paths of Conquest
- Taking over Central Mexico – between 1519 and 1535
- Taking over Central Mexico – between 1519 and 1535
a. Not a movement, but series of individual initiatives
b. Cortez defeats Aztecs in Tenochtitlan
- Taking over South America
a. Pizarro and Incas – Peru by 1540
- Further exploration
a. Densely populated areas first, then went after semisedentary/nomadic
b. Coronado searches for gold goes into US
c. 1570 192 Spanish cities and towns
F. The Conquerors
- Motivation
- Motivation
a. 1/5 of all treasure to crown
b. Money then divided among men signed up, priority to friends/relatives
- Types of people that were conquerors
a. Hoping to improve selves
b. Serve God by conquering heathen
c. soldiers, gentlemen, some women
d. saw selves as new nobility
- Reasons for Spanish success
a. Weapons – firearms/steel weapons
b. Effective/ruthless leadership
c. Epidemic diseases – smallpox, influenza, measles
d. Internal divisions rivalries between Indians
e. Mobile, nomadic tribes stiffer resistance than centralized states
- Who replaced conquerors?
a. bureaucrats, merchants, colonists
b. sometimes conflict over transfer of power
G. Conquest and Morality
- Reasons why treatment of Natives justified
- Reasons why treatment of Natives not justified
- Spanish crown tried to make changes, but too late
- Reasons why treatment of Natives justified
a. Aristotle argument – freeing Indians from unjust lord
b. Indians not fully human
c. Born to serve
- Reasons why treatment of Natives not justified
a. Rational people
b. Never done harm like the Muslims
c. Admirable customs and accomplishments
d. Conversion should take place peacefully – Indians our brothers
- Decline of population
a. Caribbean population almost disappears – slavery, mistreatment, disease
b. Mexico – 25 million > 2 million, Peru – 10 million >
1. 5 million
- Reasons for loss of population
a. Disease
b. Disruption of economic social structures – those left in chaos
c. Cattle replaced Indian population on Spanish farms/unclaimed land
B. Exploitation of the Indians
- Native American life preserved
- New methods of labor and taxation
- Resiliency to exploitation
- Native American life preserved
a. Nobility kept in place to facilitate tax collection, labor demands
- New methods of labor and taxation
a. Encomienda system – use Indians as workers/servants/tax them
b. Often arbitrary, excessive
c. Without reciprocal obligation/protection – what have you done for me lately?
d. Encomiendas ended because Spain didn’t want to compete with new nobility
e. Thousands of Indians mobilized for state projects
f. Some left towns and worked for Spanish – start of wage labor system
- Resiliency to exploitation
a. Some adapted and learned to use language, legal system, law courts
b. Selective in their adaptation of European foods, technology, culture
IV. Colonial Economies and Governments
IV. Colonial Economies and Governments
A. Introduction
- Agrarian society – 80% worked on farms
2. Precious metals – mining efforts/booty of conquest essential activity