Episode 447: The New World Exploited

year sixteen hundred. Now, of course, mostly when we're talking about that time period and the New World, we're really talking about Spain. Spain's colonial efforts in the America between fourteen ninety two and sixteen hundred were ambitious, expensive, and often ruthless. Driven by a combination of religious zeal, economic ambition, and imperial competition, these efforts reshaped the Americas, leading to the establishment of one of the largest empires in history.

Of course, Spain's colonial colonization began with Christopher Columbus's voyages under the sponsorship of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. Columbus's arrival in the Caribbean in fourteen ninety two marked the beginning of European contact. We're not counting the vikings in Newfoundland Following his expeditions, Spain moved quickly to claim vast territories, motivated by the promise of wealth and the spread of Christianity.

The early decades of Spanish colonialization focused on the Caribbean islands, including Hispaniola, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. These islands served as bases for further exploration and conquest. Indigenous populations such as the Taiano and Aruak were quickly subjugated through violence, forced labor,

and disease. Spanish settlers established and comiendes, a system that granted colonists control over indigenous communities and their labor in exchange for the promise of Christianization, a promise which often never was kept. The most dramatic phase of Spanish expansion occurred with the conquests of the Aztec and Incan empires. In fifteen nineteen, Pranan Cortes led an expedition into Mexico

with fewer than six hundred men. He formed alliances with indigenous groups resentful of Aztec dominance, such as the Taclacans, using their superior weaponry, military tactics, and of course, a devastating smallpox outbreak that weakened the Aztecs cort Has captured Tenoshti Klon in fifteen twenty one, dismantling the empire and claiming its wealth for Spain. Similarly, Francisco Pizzaro's conquest of the Inca Empire in Peru between fifteen thirty two and

fifteen thirty three followed a comparable pattern. Pizaro exploited internal divisions caused by a civil war between the Inca brothers Atta Julpa and Huascar, capturing and executing Atta Juelpa. The conquest though, if you'll recall from the episodes, there were quite a few rebellions and a lot of back and forth here, but ultimately it gave Spain access to the immense wealth hidden beneath the Andes, including the silver mines

of Patassi, which became a cornerstone of the Spanish colonial economy. Now, most of this we've already discussed on the show, but it's time to talk a little bit more about Spain's administration of its overseas empire. So to manage these vast holdings, Spain established a colonial administration centered on viceroys and voice royalties. And these are essentially, if you want to think about them, like large Roman style provinces, each who have a vice

royalty governor that's in charge of them. So there's a couple. The Vice Royalty of New Spain, which was established in fifteen thirty five, included Mexico, all of Central America, and the entirety of the Caribbean. These are going to develop over time, by the way. Then there's the Vice Royalty of Peru, which governed South America. Local governance was handled by audiencias, which were royal courts and governors ensured that

the crown maintained centralized control. We've talked talked about all of this before, but Spain was, in a lot of ways when the exploration of the New World went into place, still kind of a medieval kingdom and a kingdom still focused on the idea of the reconquista, and in a lot of ways, Spain simply takes that idea and circumplants

it all over the New World. Clearly, it's a woeful inadequate structure for any sort of governance that's going to accomplish anything other than what the main goal of the Spanish is, which is extract as much wealth, ideally gold and silver from the New World as humanly possible at

the lowest cost possible to the Spanish crown. Because remember, throughout this period, even though the gold and silver, particularly silver of the New World is flowing into Madrid, the crown in that same kingdom is still hemorrhaging money as a result of all the endless wars that the Spanish crown finds itself embroiled in. So it's amazing that even though they get this huge influx of wealth, the Spanish

monarchs are never able to turn a positive budget. Now, a lot of that has to do with inflation and the fact that when you bring in millions of pounds of silver, the price of silver's going to plumme it. But this wasn't something that medieval Spain, or even New World Spain and New World Europe in general, really understood

at this point about how economies functioned. The other thing I want to point out, though, is remember that from the perspective of other European kingdoms, Spain's real economic situation didn't really matter that much. What mattered was the perspective or the belief that Spain had this atm called the New World that it could just draw on endlessly that's what countries like, at least initially England, France, the patchwork kingdoms in Italy, the Holy Roman Empire. That's what they believed.

It wasn't true, but it's what they believed, and a lot of that gets packed into the idea of the unbeatable Spanish juggernaut, which the Thirty Years War is the event that finally just pulls the wool down from everyone's eyes and there and behold, the Emperor has no clothes. Now. Of course, Spanish colonization extended beyond Mexico and Peru. Explorers ventured into Florida, the American Southwest, and the Rio de la Plata in modern day Argentinia. These efforts faced resistance

from indigenous groups that often led to violent clashes. The Spanish also explored the Pacific, with expeditions reaching the Philippines and establishing a trans Pacific route via the Manila Galleons. Essentially, the Spanish economy that was in the New World between fourteen ninety two and roughly sixteen hundred was shaped by the goals of the Spanish monarchy, the exploitation of indigenous African labor and the extraction of wealth, particularly precious metals.

It was a highly regulated system designed to benefit Spain operating under mercantilist principles. First, we should note that, as I mentioned, Spain followed a mercantilist policy, which essentially was the idea that you accumulate well through a favorable balance of trade. Mercantilism is an idea that's going to dominate throughout the early colonial period. Mercantilism if you think about it from the perspective of the colonies, the colonies are

there really for two purposes. One, they're there to serve as a source of raw materials for the home or mother country. Two, it's there to serve as a market for the mother country to export finished goods. And that's exactly what was the case here for Spain. The colonies were expected to provide raw materials to Spain and to

serve as markets for Spanish manufactured goods. The Casa de la Contracion the House of Trade, was established in fifteen oh three the control trade between Spain and the Americas, enforcing monopolies and regulating commerce strictly. This was not free market principles. Please keep that in mind. Now. The other hallmark of Spanish colonial administration was the extraction of precious metals, and I really mean mining, mining, particularly silver, was the

backbone of the Spanish colonial economy. The Spanish discovered vast silver deposit in Patoisse in present day Bolivia in fifteen forty five and Zacatecas in present day Mexico in fifteen forty eight. These minds provided immense wealth funding Spain's military and empire building efforts throughout Europe. And now, how did they get the people to work in the minds? And the answer is, really, especially when we talk about Pataca

and Bolivia, is what we call the meta system. The meta system was actually a system that was inherited from the Inca and then adapted by the Spanish. It was a means of forced indigenous labor. Indigenous people were compelled to work in minds under harsh conditions. Now, the crown got wealthy through all of this through what we call the Quinto Real. The Quinto real is a twenty percent

tax on all precious metals collected by the crown. And so it's important to point out that the thing I mean you have to keep in mind here is that Spain was trying to do all of this as cheaply as humanly possible. So what the Spanish crown endeavored to do was to grant a monopoly on the extraction of silver in a given region, the control of the mines to a given company or to a given individual, and then that individual would turn over twenty percent of everything collected.

The Spanish crown didn't have to spend anything, and it got a chunk of it in return, albeit a reduced rate that it would have gotten had it just made the investment itself. All of this went back and forth from Spain to the Philippines, also in China by a

system that was called the Manila galleon trade. Essentially, in China, the only import that China was interested in from Europe was silver was highly valued, and so what Spain was engaged in throughout this period, particularly if you take a look at the mines in Bolivia and previous ink and territory was you would extract the silver, you'd put it

onto galleons, get it over to China. We would trade it for porcelain, silks, other desired luxury goods, and that allowed China, quite frankly, to have the most favorable balance of trading all of this, but Spain wasn't really competing with China, so they didn't care. Now, the other way that these colonies were able to produce for Spain was

through the encomenda system. The encomendo system was established in the early fifteen hundreds and granted Spanish settlers and comienderos the right to collect labor and tribute from the indigenous people in exchange for quote unquote protecting them and converting them to Christianity. Now, this system led to widespread abuse and near slavery conditions. This system wasn't used as frequently

when it came to mineral extraction and mining. When you think the encomenda system, you need to think mostly about the production of food stuffs and then of course those highly coveted crops things like sugar cane, that are going to become such a hallmark of the Caribbean economy going forward. Now, by the mid fifteen hundreds, the new labor laws of fifteen forty two, promoted by Bartolome de las Casas, sought

to curb the worst abuses and phase out the encomendo system. However, new labor systems like the Ripartimiento continued to force indigenous labor, with now the added benefit of some wage compensation, though very, very very little. As the economy expanded, haciendas, which were large estates developed in Mexico, Peru, and the Caribbean. These were self sufficient agricultural estates producing goods like wheat, cattle,

and sugar. While originally worked by indigenous labors, increasingly African slaves replaced them, particularly in sugar pre reducing regions like the Caribbean and Brazil. Brazil, of course being run by Portugal, we should point that out. With the decline of indigenous populations due to disease and exploitation, the Spanish turned to

African slavery, particularly in sugar plantations and mining. As I mentioned before, this was also something that Portuguese were highly involved, and in fact Portuguese are going to be more involved in the slave trade and for longer than the Spanish are. By the late fifteen hundreds, the Transatlantic slave trade was well established, with enslaved Africans arriving in Spanish colonies via

Portuguese and Spanish traders. So how did the trade and commercial networks work and function then, Well, there's a couple of things to point out. The first is what's called

the Floata system. Because not all of the silver is going in the direction of China, some of it is coming directly back to Spain, and Spain needs did a way to get that silver back to Europe safely, and so the flow to system was a fleet system in which ships traveled in giant convoys to protect silver and goods from pirates and privateers, notably the English and the Dutch. Generally speaking, there were two convoys that would go back and forth every single year, one in the spring and

then one in the fall. The crown also restricted colonial trade to ensure only benefited Spain, using trade monopolies to prohibit direct trade with other European nations. The last thing that the Spanish did was to try to establish key ports like Verta, Cruz, Havana, and Seville, which dramatically controlled the flow of goods back and forth. So there wasn't unlimited places that you could go if you wanted to

trade in the Spanish Empire. They restricted it to a couple of key points, again allowing them to run this whole system more efficiently and more cheaply. The Catholic Church was deeply involved in economic activities religious orders owned vast lands, rand missions, and controlled significant wealth. The Church also played a role in lending money, collecting tithes, and acting as a stabilizing force in colonial society. Overall, the Spanish colonial

economy was extractive, exploitive, and highly regulated. It relied on forced labor systems, mining and agricultural to generate wealth for Spain. However, its rigid structures, monopolistic practices and policies, and dependence on enslaved labor created economic and social tensions that are going to dramatically shape the later period. Next we will deal with the Catholic Church and how its institutions helped to shape the new world in conjunction with the Spanish crown,

but that will be right after this now. As you might expect, the Catholic Church played a central role in Spain's colonization up to the year sixteen hundred, serving as both a spiritual and political force in the expansion of Spanish rule across the Americas and eventually other territories. Its influence was deeply intertwined with Spain's imperial ambitions, acting as a means of cultural transformation, governance, and justification for conquest.

The Spanish monarchy, particularly under Ferdinand and Isabella, saw the spread of Catholicism as a divine mission. The patronato reale royal patronage, granted by the Pope, gave the Spanish crown control over the appointment of clergy and religious oversight in

the colony. The fourteen ninety three Papal Bowls of Donation, particularly the Interkita, issued by Pope Alexander the sixth, granted Spain the right to conquer lands in the New World under the condition that indigenous peoples were converted to Christianity. Catholic missionary orders, including the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and later Jesuits,

played a significant role in evangelizing. These missions sought to convert indigenous peoples to Christianity, often using a mix of persuasion, instruction, and coercion. They established missions which functioned as centers of religious instruction, economic production, and cultural assimilation, introducing European agricultural

techniques such as education and social organization. Indigenous religions were systematically suppressed with idols, temples and rituals just simply destroyed, oftentimes replaced with Christian churches just right on top of them and Christian practices, the church was closely linked to Spain's colonial administration. Bishops and clergy often served as advisors to colonial officials and were sometimes involved in governing indigenous populations.

The encomenda system, which granted Spanish settlers control over indigenous labor in exchange for christianizing them, was justified in part by religious motivations. However, it often led to severe exploitation, as I'm sure you guessed. While many clergy participated in the oppression of indigenous peoples, there were some notable figures

who spoke out against abuses. The most famous of these was Bartolemy delas Casas, a Dominican friar who advocated for indigenous rights and criticized Spanish mistreatment in his work A Short Account of the Destroyer of the Indies, published in fifteen fifty two. His efforts contributed to the passage of the so called New Laws of fifteen forty two, which

sought to regulate the incomendo system and reduce indigenous enslavement. Unfortunately, however, enforcement of this legislation in far off Madrid was weak. The church played a key role in education, founding the first schools and universities in the Americas, such as the University of Santo Tomas in Bogota and the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, founded in fifteen fifty one, often cited as the first university founded in the New World.

Missionaries developed indigenous language and grammars and dictionaries to facilitate conversion, which helped to preserve native languages in written form, even as they worked to replace indigenous religious traditions with Christianity. The Church became one of the wealthiest institutions in Spanish America, owning massive tracts of land and receiving donations, tribute, and

taxes from settlers and indigenous people. Religious orders operated plantations, ranches, and mining enterprises, sometimes leading to conflicts with colonial officials over economic power. Spain's colonial efforts had far reaching consequences. The massive influx of wealth from the Americas transformed the Spanish economy, funding the Crown's European ambitions, but also contributing to inflation and economic instability. The forced labor systems and

diseases decimated indigenous populations, leading to demographic collapse. Culturally, Spanish colonization imposed European language, religion, and customs on the Americas, while also giving eyes to a unique blend of cultures known as the Mestize, which combined Spanish, indigenous, and African elements. The Spanish language and Catholicism both became defining features of

Latin America. By sixteen hundred, Spain had established a vast colonial empire, stretching from modern day California to Argentina and from the Caribbean to the Philippines, setting the stage for centuries of Spanish influence in the Americas. Next week, we turn our attention to the other main colonizing power on the Iberian Peninsula, Portugal,