How Did The Spanish Conquests Influence The Native Americans

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(1450-1750) America, Home to the Native Americans, home to the Aztecs, the Incas, and a lot of woodland creatures. This is where the natives home was, where they could farm and hunt and gather. But, everything changed for good when Christopher Columbus, trying to reach the East Indies, discovered the “new world” or America (1492). This sparked the age of exploration when rumors of the new world’s wealth spread. Later, in the 16th century, the Spanish built a large empire in the Americas. The Spanish conquistadors conquered the Aztec and the Inca empires. Spanish explorers traveled through the borderlands of New Spain, claiming and conquering more land. Some of these explorers include De Soto, Coronado, Cortes, and Pizzaro. Theses conquests …show more content…

This is a system of forced labor on the Native Americans. This also gave settlers the right to tax local Native Americans or make them work. This is what the Spanish used when colonizing. They put the natives into forced labor to mine things like silver and to be put to other kinds of work. Unlike the Spanish, the Europeans did not use Encomienda. They displaced the Natives but did not subjugate the natives like the Spanish did. At first, the Europeans did not focus on the use of Encomienda or indentured servants but mercantilism. While the Europeans used mercantilism, the Spanish also did. Mercantilism. The purpose of colonies was obtaining raw materials (esp. gold and silver) and serving as markets for Spanish and European goods: profit. While private investors financed the Europeans, the Spanish did not have any private investments. The Spanish also built European-style cities. The America’s were soon brought into the global trade network. That includes the Spanish and Europeans. While the Spanish’s main products were sugar, silver, and gold, well at least down south; the Europeans main product was cotton, wheat, and …show more content…

In the British/English colonies, this was used more than any other labor source. The Spanish also had a type of labor source. Although the Spanish also had a type of labor source, the depended on slavery more than indentured servants. The servants they used were the Native American’s and African Americans. The Europeans also used African Americans. The Europeans that usually came to the new world, usually came with their family. Because of this, there were no mixed races between the Europeans and the natives. On the contrary, the Spanish did have multi-racial societies. The Spanish even set up a strict hierarchy. Peninsulares, creoles, mestizos, mulattos, and native/ African Americans were part of this hierarchy. The Spanish treated the natives harshly and subjugated them while the Europeans did not. Both the Spanish and the Europeans had set up plantations for their indentured servants or

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