Throughout the sixteenth century different factors such as economy, society and religion had varying effects on the government policies of the Spaniards before and after the colonization of the Americas. Government policy in the New World was wholly reformed due to the Spanish attitudes in relation to the lands and people they conquered. As the Spaniards established control over the Americas, labour policies were adjusted as to better exploit newly conquered lands and people. Since the Spanish thirsted for gold, they soon discovered many foreign resources that quickly became popular in the western hemisphere. These newly discovered resources caused Spanish trade and commerce to flourish. Silver was the main source of wealth in the Spanish colonies in the Americas. However while this was nice for the Europeans initially, the surplus of silver flooding European markets, as well as some Asian markets caused inflation where the value of silver decreased while the prices for products increased. The colonization of the Americas also led to the Columbian exchange.While this had a profitable impact on the Spanish, it had a detrimental impact on the Natives. The high demand for their products in Europe caused the Spanish to establish the ‘Encomienda’ system, a new labour policy where Spaniards were given legal rights to American lands and possession of …show more content…
Spanish attitudes towards the lands and people conquered in the New World substantially altered the government policy in the New
After meeting Montezuma, Cortés requested of the leader’s services to uncover the locations of the gold mines and to map the coastal waters. Cortés hopes to find regions along the New World’s coast safe enough to build forts to expand Spanish settlement and to transport tradable goods. Cortés’s urgency to locate the reserves extrapolates Spain’s focus in becoming one of the dominating world powers and an active player in the Afroeurasian trade competition. Cortés’s claim over the mines under the name of the Spanish Crown foreshadows the exploitation of the new lands to generate Spain’s wealth through the demand of gold.
The flow of silver from Japan and Latin American colonies to Europe and Asia led to massive wealth that would eventually cause problems such as inflation and trade imbalance in the economies of Spain and Ming China, as well as negatively affecting other nations. Spain was one of the major producers of silver. It controlled the mines in Latin America where silver was produced, and traded it around the world but especially to China. The Chinese economy required silver, and they traded many commodities in return for it .From
Spain Spain wanted to colonize America so they could build their empire, create additional trading ports and routes, to expand their military control, and to convert the native people to their religious beliefs. Spain explored america to look for gold. Spain also wanted adventure. Since Spain followed the mercantilism economic method, it damaged local industry, restricted trade, prohibited manufacturing and slowed down town growth in order to create economic environment. This is why Spain was had a huge advantage.
One of Spain’s primary goals of colonization was to fill their coffers via the New World gold and other precious metals, which was recovered by Spanish conquistadores like Francisco Pizarro who defeated the Incas of Peru and contributed to a massive amount of wealth to Spain. The Spaniards also gained large quantities of silver from mines in Mexico and Peru. While early English colonists fruitlessly searched for gold and silver like the Spanish, English colonies generated their wealth off of the cultivation of crops that had high demand in
Before the Spanish came to the Americas there were Natives who already lived on the land. Each Native tribe had adopted their own beliefs, their own culture, and way of living. As soon as the Spanish had arrived to the Americas, more so Mesoamerica they demanded that the Natives adapt to their culture and ways of life. The Spanish had viewed the Indians as savages and desired to convert them to Christianity or Catholicism. The Spanish had destroyed the Native Americans’ statues of their Gods, abused them in order to convert, and deprived them of their freedom.
The historical argument refers to the two conquests: Spain’s conquest of new worlds in 1492 and the United States’ expansion of its national borders in the nineteenth century. In the first conquest, the mixing of indigenous and Spanish exists. Two different races, cultures and religions blend together. The second conquest places Hispanic in a minority position within the United States who cares little for their history and well-being.
The goal of the Spanish conquerors and colonizers in the beginning was not to provide a Native American economic life, but to enrich the Spanish metropolis with riches brought from the America’s. The first goal was the exploitation for the Spanish Crown. The conquerors had not come to America to work or settle in distant lands and start a new life. Most conquerors wanted to find enough gold and riches to be able to live like a gentleman. Living the wealthy life would became impossible without creating some productive economy in the New World.
As stated in an article called Spanish Colonization Introduction it states "and Spain used the wealth of the Americas to finance nearly endless warfare in Europe, protecting the Americas with a vast navy and powerful army and bringing Catholicism to the New World" which means they were using the money they were making from the America's for their own uses.
Before the reign of Spain, the hacendados allowed the mestizos to increase their economy by selling coffee and cocoa to other places. Since Spain took over Venezuela, they restricted the trade of the mestizos to within Venezuela, decreasing the economic income. Even though their income had decreased, the Spaniards still expected the Venezuelans to pay their high
World Domination has been a common trait for Europeans in the 1500’s. Each countries’ ruler had a goal of ruling more land than their competition. This led to bloody wars and tense times between two neighboring countries. The Spanish rulers noticing that winning the land on their continent would be difficult decided to send explorer, Francisco Pizarro and crew across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. When the Spanish reached, they had won the land by having better transportation, mechanical advances, and having the motivation and drive to rule and conquer in their blood.
Spanish were benefiting from the colonial regions while imposing devastating social and economic changes and ironically these changes had no lasting benefit to the colonial empires either. Spain used the gold and silver for the consumption of Spainish elite which caused unproductive investment in government buildings and private villas. Cheaper luxury good were improted from Holland and Britain which created a flow of Spanish gold and silver to other European powers. The popular saying “Spanish held the cow and the Dutch milked it” was coming from here. Mexico
First, mercantilism and distribution of resources. As Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson (2001) say, the main objective of the Spanish and Portuguese colonialists in the 19th century was to obtain gold and silver from America. As a matter of fact, Spanish conquest of American land was directed at first at the Aztec and Inca empire, which, beyond of having large supplies of food and climatic diversity, also possessed enormous amounts of gold and silver (Bakewell 2004, Mann 2005) and had already good economical organisation. Another example was Mexico, which had the largest deposits of silver in the world, and which therefore became one of the key points in the Spanish empire (Hamnett 1999). Nevertheless, Acemoglu (2001) states that for instance the Spanish empire granted rights of exploitation for lands, gold and silver mines, as well as labour, to a few powerful individuals, encomiendadores.
After Spain laid claim to the New World in 1492, all subsequent Spanish social and economic relations with indigenous people were constrained by Royal Decree. Spain’s agenda for settlement and exploitation was undertaken primarily by priests, military men, and officials – not private individuals acting on their own. Their goals were to reap maximum economic, military, and spiritual benefit from a minimal investment of personnel and resources. Spain wished to establish an idealistic, pluralistic empire that reaped glory for the nobles who received commissions as field commanders and governors, jobs and opportunities for the Spanish middle class, riches for the Crown, and souls for the church.
Over who had power over Latin American. That was because Latin America needed lots of money because they weren't self reliant (Latin America).They paid their workers with vouchers that could only be used at their own supply stores (Latin America). Their wages were low and prices were
One of the most important in events in history is the discovery of the Americas. The invasion and exploration of the Spanish had a quite impact. In my opinion after reading and watching the video, I believe it brought a negative impact. One of the greatest tragedies in human history is the spread of communicable diseases, such as small pox, measles, influenza, whooping cough and mumps. Indian people were expose to these diseases that had no immunities to them, causing massive deaths.