Colliding Worlds: The Spanish Caribbean

Question 1

Where did the contact between Native Americans and the Spanish first begin?

Answer 1

• the caribbean

- -where the Tainos lived

Question 2

Describe the Tainos before their contact with the spanish

Answer 2

• Before:
• –most prominent people in the region
• –cultivated manioc and other crops
• –small villages under chiefs who allocated land and supervised community affairs
• –liked glass, beads, metal tools from the Spanish

Question 3

Describe the Tainos after their contact with the spanish

Answer 3

• After:
• –became brutal gold miners and farmers under the labor system (encomienda)
• -couldn’t revolt because of bad weapons
• –disease
• -by 1515. Taino had decreased population on the larger islands

Question 4

explain the encomienda system

Answer 4

• gave spanish settlers (encomenderos) the right to compel Tainos to work in their mines or fields
• in return for labor, encomenderos had to look over the health/welfare of the people and try to convert them to christianity
• when disease hit, spanish started kidnapping/ enslaving Tainos

Question 5

explain how the encomienda system functioned over time

Answer 5

• -the spanish stopped caring about the health and welfare
• -by mid-century, they started demanding tribute instead of labor
• -eventually went out of use —b/c people used debt peonage

Question 6

How were workers treated on encomiendas

Answer 6

–overworked and punished hard when quotas weren’t met

Question 7

Describe the economic activities in the Caribbean after the mid 16th century

Answer 7

-they found silver in mexico and peru so

-caribbeans became the sleepy backwater of the spanish
(isolated and peaceful)
with some english pirates hoping for silver
-english, french, dutch started plantations with imported african slaves