Spanish Colonization of the Americas

1
Spanish Colonization of the Americas
2
Gold, Glory God
3
Technology

• Caravels
• Lateen Sails
• Astrolabe improvements
• Compass

4
Portuguese

• Colonize the east primarily
• Also the Canaries and Madeiras
• Sugarcane plantation economy
• African Slave Trade
• Later taken over by the Spanish

5
Three Commonalities Between All Nations

• Mercantilism (see map)
• Intra-colonial trading system
• The Columbian Exchange
• Disease killed 90
• African Slave Trade (see map)

6
Christopher Columbus (1492 1504)

• Thought world was smaller than most believed
  He was wrong
• Queen Isabella supported him
• Took four voyages
• Reason to believe he knew he reached the new
  world

7
Treaty of Tordesillas - 1494
8
Hernan Cortes Francisco Pizarro
Conquers Aztecs 1521 Established estates in New
World Dies a wealthy man
Conquers Incas - 1532
How was Cortes able to conquer so many with so
few?
9
Economics of Spanish Colonies

• Established plantations on W. Indian islands
• Silver gold mines of Central and South America
• Both required manual labor

10
Pirates

• Spanish transported lots of wealth
• Opened the door to privateers and eventually
  pirates
• Channel between Florida and the Bahamas was the
  best place to go after Spanish merchant ships
• Spanish founded St. Augustine 1565
• Oldest city in US

11
Labor System - Encomienda

• Encomienda - The expedition commander would give
  trusteeship over parcels of land and that lands
  inhabitants to his conquistadores.
• Encomiendero collected taxes from natives and
  force them to work
• Encomiendero would provide protection and
  Catholicism to the natives.
• Used on mainland

12
African Slavery

• Used primarily on the islands of the Caribbean
• Sugar, coffee, tobacco plantations
• Native had died from disease

13
Colonial Government under Crown Control

• Conquistador autonomy concerned the Spanish crown
• Created two provinces
• In Mexico - New Spain,
• In Peru - New Castile
• Each governed by a viceroy. Voice of the king
• All important decisions on colonial management
  came from Spain.

14
Caste System

• Peninsulars
• Creoles
• Mestizo
• Mulattoes

15
Bartolome de las Casas

• Catholic Priest
• Came to the Americas shortly after Columbus
• Critic of the American conquest encomienda
  system
• Fought to preserve rights of Native Americans

16
DeSoto Coronado

• De Soto unleashed violence through SE and
  Florida
• Coronado Unleashed violence through the Great
  Plains
• The City of Cibola

17
Spanish in North America

• Why did they not conquer periphery Indians (North
  America)?

18
New Mexico Colony

• Santa Fe (1608) was founded as a religious colony
• In the sticks
• Little respect for Natives
• Pueblo Indians were willing to add Christian
  beliefs

19
Popes Rebellion - 1680

• Pueblo Indians resent the Spanish
• infringing on Pueblo culture
• Disrespectful
• Making natives second class citizens
• Pueblos attack New Mexico settlements
• Kill priests settlers
• Burned settlements
• Set Spanish back in that area

20
Fall of the Spanish colonial Empire

• Defeat of the Armada 1588
• Centralized Control
• Increase in wealth caused inflation
• Exploitation colony
• Conversion efforts drew focus away from economic
  gains.