After a century of violent expansion Spain’s American colonies were reaching maturity by 1585, as a society dominated by the drive for conquest was giving way to a formal colonial system. Some peripheral regions remained unconquered, but the major agricultural and mining centers of Spain’s colonies had been in production for nearly 40 years. Colonial life was centered in the Viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru, both of which produced vast quantities of silver for the empire. By this date Spain’s colonies were also typified by a series of religious, political, caste, and economic hierarchies. Never as rigid in practice as they appeared on paper, these hierarchies nonetheless succeeded in reserving the majority of wealth and privilege in colonial society to a small number of Europeans.
Historians often refer to the period before the 1580s as the “Conquest of Labor and Souls,” referring to the fact that Spanish conquistadores had the dual mission of evangelizing indigenous peoples and extracting their labor and tribute. By the end of the 16th century these two endeavors were overshadowed by the desire to extract mineral and agricultural wealth from the colonies. Massive silver mines were discovered at Potosi (modern-day Bolivia) in 1545 and in Zacatecas and Guanajuato (modern-day Mexico) between 1548 and 1558. Often worked by forced Indian labor, Potosi was long the greatest silver mine in the world, but silver production from New Spain’s mines as well grew to 50 million pesos per year from the 1560s to the 1620s. Although production fluctuated, silver exports from these mines expanded to more than 100 million pesos annually by the 1750s.
Over time agriculture became similarly crucial to the colonial endeavor. Native producers in Spain’s colonies cultivated highly prized cochineal and indigo for the European market. Haciendas—agricultural estates based in part on the medieval idea of the seigneurial manor—also supplied both local and regional markets with foodstuffs and exported some goods to Europe. During the 17th century plantation agriculture also emerged in coastal Mexico and the Caribbean. The plantations, often known as inge-nios, were heavily capitalized, had significant investments in machinery and slaves, and produced for the international market. Plantation-grown sugar became the dominant export of the region in the 18th century, by which time Saint-Domingue (modern-day Haiti) and Jamaica (followed by the Portuguese colony of Brazil) became the largest sugar producers in the world. Cuban tobacco also became an important source of revenue for the Spanish Crown during the 18th century. By the 1740s the revenues from Cuban tobacco were more than four times the total income from New Spain.
Plantations and haciendas profoundly affected the demographics of the Americas, but they also produced lasting impacts on the ecosystem of the Americas. Oxen, mules, sheep, pigs, and horses, which were central to the development of agriculture by the late 16th century, also prompted environmental crises. With few natural predators and agricultural systems that were ill-suited to cope with their grazing patterns, European animals often turned fertile farmland into deserts. The Spanish plow had similar effects on the topsoil, leading to considerable erosion, particularly in those areas prone to torrential rainfall.
Spain’s colonial empire was designed to concentrate as much power as possible in the hands of a clique directly responsible to the Crown. The Council of the Indies in Madrid sat at the apex of a pyramid that included the House of Trade, viceroys (the supreme authority in each colony, controlling the administration, the treasury, and military and religious issues), and a series of subordinate officials. Each viceroyalty was divided into audiencias, which were in turn divided into corregimientos, alcaldias, mayores, and gobernaciones. The only source of local authority, cabildos (town councils), were theoretically elected bodies, but powerful local families typically controlled them.
In spite of these efforts at control, the sheer size of the viceroyalties and their layers of administration produced a highly decentralized system largely centered on the audiencias. (New Spain alone comprised the Caribbean, modern-day Venezuela, Central America, Florida, Mexico, and the western United States, and its audiencias were in Guadalajara, Mexico, Guatemala, and Santo Domingo.) Members of the audiencias typically acted as a brake on viceregal authority, often taking conflicts with royal officials to the Council of the Indies and ensuring that Madrid was kept abreast of affairs in the colonies. Nonetheless, the great distances between the colonies and Madrid made effective control nearly impossible.
Often described as a rentier state, the Crown used its political authority and economic restrictions to draw as much revenue as possible from the colonies, while royal officials generally used their positions to amass individual wealth. Official trade with Europe was tightly controlled, and merchant guilds kept local markets deliberately understocked, amassing their wealth through bottlenecks, scarcity, and monopolies. After 1550 the Crown also used the fleet system, which limited trade to two trading fleets per year, one of which traveled to Veracruz and the other to Panama. This generated a series of distortions in the colonial economy that was typified by shortages, underdevelopment of essential economic sectors, and, by the late 17th century, an informal sector that was larger than the “official” economy. As time passed fewer Spanish goods were involved in the trade, which itself began to break down in the 1620s. By this time most colonial production was simply funneled through Spain to the more dynamic economies of western Europe. By the end of century the fleet system was in a state of collapse, and contraband trade flourished.
Reflecting their own poor dynastic fortunes, Habsburg interest in the colonies declined during the 17th century. The practice of selling colonial offices became widespread, eventually reaching as high as the appointment to viceroy. Appointments on audiencias were increasingly sold to crio-llos (Spaniards born in the colonies), expanding local autonomy within the empire. During this period much of the wealth generated in the colonies managed to remain there to pay for public works and administration, and an increasing array of products were made in the colonies to satisfy local demands. This trend was reversed however, after the death of the last Habsburg monarch at the end of the 17th century and the ascendance of the Bourbon dynasty. The period 1713-62 was characterized by efforts to curb abuses, make the empire function efficiently, and improve revenue collection. The 18th century likewise saw a loosening of restrictions on foreign traders in Spanish American ports, weakening the power of the traditional monopolies. The Crown also increasingly turned to registering ships for trade and abandoned the fleet system by the 1740s.
During the 17th and 18th centuries defense also became a central issue for the colonies. Pirate attacks on Spanish shipping and ports grew more frequent (although the bullion was captured only twice, in 1628 and 1656), and during the 1620s and 1630s the English established settlements in the Caribbean, claiming Jamaica in 1655. Likewise, the French established colonies on Martinique and Guadelupe and ultimately seized the western half of the island of Hispaniola, renaming it Saint-Domingue. Unable to stop these incursions, Spain was forced to recognize the claims of other European powers. Piracy declined after the Treaty of Madrid between England and Spain in 1670, and with the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697 the Spanish recognized St. Domingue. Simultaneously, the Crown expanded the missions, presidios, and military colonies that ringed the northern frontier of New Spain, from California to Florida. In 1739 the need for defense also led to the creation of the Viceroyalty of New Granada, which included modern-day Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama.
As with the economy and political institutions, colonial society was defined by a series of hierarchies. Distinctions were made between criollos and peninsulares (Spaniards born in Spain), with most of the best positions in the colonies being reserved for the latter. European society was also divided among nobles, clerics, and commoners, with special privileges reserved for only the first two groups. Beyond this, the social hierarchy was based on the concept of limpieza de sangre, which organized society according to those whose ancestry could be traced most directly to the “Old Christians,” Spaniards without any mixed ancestry. This system delineated those of pure Spanish ancestry as gente de razon (people of reason), and Indians and other caste categories as gente sin razon (people without reason). Over time Spaniards developed an increasingly complex set of social conventions to maintain their privilege, a task that was incredibly difficult in an increasingly multicultural society. By the 18th century the hierarchy included no less than 19 categories to describe people of mixed ancestry (among them, mestizo, castizo, and mulatto).
Spaniards migrated to the colonies at a rate of between 3,000 and 4,000 per year during the period 1585-1650.
Immigration slowed after 1650, and by end of the 17th century only 500,000 Iberians had migrated to Spain’s colonies. Along with the native-born Spaniards, Europeans represented about one-fourth of the population (almost 600,000) by the end of the 17th century. After recovering from the epidemics of the 16th and early 17th centuries, the population of the colonies began a long period of growth around 1650, reaching 9.4 million by the mid-18th century. Broken down into ethnic categories, by this time the population was 55 percent Indian, 23 percent Spaniard, 15 percent mixed ancestry (castas), and 6 percent black.
Approximately 80 percent of Latin Americans lived in rural areas, residing mostly in small hamlets. Most were poor, peasant holders or workers on haciendas, but rural areas also held a tiny middle strata that included small-scale landowners, lower-level bureaucrats, traders, mule drivers, and peddlers. The countryside included relatively few Europeans, as Spaniards tended overwhelmingly to live in cities and have their lands run by hired managers. Cities were the core of colonial life and were vertically organized, with rich Spaniards living in the center around a central plaza and increasingly poor and less ordered barrios spreading out from there. By the close of the 17th century Mexico City contained 200,000 inhabitants, and while preferable for Europeans, this setting was also ideal for many castas (one-third of the population of New Spain at the time). Within the fluid social setting of the cities, the caste system was fairly difficult to enforce; able and fortunate migrants could move up the social scale. The metropolis also experienced occasional riots and upheavals, typified by the 1692 uprising in Mexico City, when crowds, suffering from famine and a general economic crisis, destroyed much of the viceregal palace.
In Spanish society two related notions, honor and virtue, were the essential social codes that determined status. Although people of the lower castes were denied both qualities due to their low birth, in elite circles the concepts of masculine honor and feminine virtue played important roles in determining the place of individuals and their families in the social, political, and economic hierarchy. Women were expected to be chaste and pure and to model their lives on the Virgin Mary. Men were expected to defend themselves and their families from any taint of dishonor, ranging from cowardice to illegitimacy to marriages with people of lower rank. These gender codes reflected the profound importance of the Catholic Church in colonial society. Although of marginal importance in many indigenous cultures, the Catholic Church acted as one of the most important social, educational, and economic institutions in the colonies. In some cases, however, the social codes created through Roman Catholic ideology could be breached, especially in families that had the financial means to cover up indiscretions by petitioning for legitimacy through the court and church. Wealthy mestizos and MULATTOES might also “whiten” themselves by marrying up the caste ladder, a practice that was not uncommon in the region.
Women were not considered citizens in a political sense in Latin America, but Spanish customs created opportunities for some women. Spanish inheritance rules dictated that daughters were entitled to an equal share of their parents’ estates and could continue to control their wealth after marriage. Women of means often conducted their own business, and wealthy widows sometimes became important landowners, MERCHANTS, and miners. Many young women also preferred the convents that proliferated in the colonial capitals to the vagaries of marriage. In convents they could conduct their affairs freely and live a life unencumbered by male authority. The Mexican Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (1651-95) was perhaps the most famous woman to choose such a life during the colonial period. Born the illegitimate child of a modest provincial family, she was given patronage by the wife of a viceroy to enter a Carmelite convent at age 15. In the convent she produced an opus of poetry that ranks her among the best poets Mexico has ever produced.
Poor and rural women were also essential in the economy, as most poor families relied on female labor. Given the frequency with which males migrated for work, it was common in indigenous communities for women to play a crucial role in trade, local agriculture, religious observances, and even rebellions. Furthermore, for those Indian women who survived the epidemics of the 16th century, the opportunities to acquire property expanded, although in many cases their social position eroded as their traditional roles were devalued under colonialism. Indigenous women faced diminished prestige within the Christian nuclear family, and missionary activities tended to lead to an exaggeration of female subordination.
Those at the lowest levels of the hierarchy were perhaps most deeply affected by colonialism. In the area that was to become New Spain, the population plummeted in one of the worst demographic disasters in world history. The 50 million to 100 million Indians in 1492 fell drastically after 1500 due to epidemics and abuse by colonizers. In the Caribbean the population was completely wiped out by 1570, while in central Mexico it declined from as many as 25 million in 1500 to 1 million in 1605. Because of this crisis, the Crown began to resettle Indian populations and passed a series of laws designed to protect the Indian population from further decimation. The reforms of the 16th century made it illegal for non-Indians to reside or hold lands within a specified radius of an Indian village, except for royal officials and church functionaries. The first new Indian villages, called congregaciones, were founded in the 1550s, followed by others between 1593 and 1605. They were governed by traditional indigenous authorities (caciques) who ruled in conjunction with the royal officials known as corregidores de indios. Although charged with protecting Indian communities, these administrators were often their worst exploiters.
The congregaciones represented both positive and negative developments for indigenous peoples. On the positive side, they afforded mechanisms to defend indigenous communities against Spanish colonizers. Due to the protections afforded by the Crown, some land-owning Indian communities survived the colonial period. In more commercially active regions, such as Mexico’s Bajio, Native Americans tended to be displaced from villages and became tenant farmers in spite of legal protections. However, in some regions, like Oaxaca, Indian villages successfully held on to their lands in the face of encroaching Spaniards. Far from using their legal protections to completely isolate themselves, in villages that maintained their land indigenous peoples often cultivated a mixture of wheat, maize, beans, and squash for domestic CONSUMPTION and local markets. They also produced other market goods, including pots, homespun cotton, wool, wooden items, and beeswax. Some even developed centers of silver working, weaving, and woodworking.
Native Americans in more remote regions often successfully continued their traditional cultures. These villages maintained solidarity through cofradias, religious organizations that funded local rituals and festivals. Religious life tended to preserve indigenous spiritual identities, even if local religious leaders shrouded their practices and beliefs in Catholic ritual. The synthesis between Native religions and Catholic iconography encouraged a type of superficial conversion, most clearly seen in the syncretic Guadalupe-Tonantzin, who remains the most venerated religious icon in Mexico to the present.
On the negative side of the equation, in payment for defending indigenous rights the Crown demanded labor and tribute from Native Americans. Indian goods were taxed, and a head tax was exacted on all Indian adult males. Royal officials forced members of Indian communities to buy goods, mules, and clothes under a system known as the repartimiento de mercancias. Labor demands for public works, haciendas, and mines came through the repartimiento (taking the form of the mita in Peru), which obligated adult male Indians to work 45 days each year for the Crown. However, indigenous peoples quickly adopted strategies, ranging from buying their way out of the work requirement to taking flight. Their resistance was so successful that in most regions the repartimiento quickly became unfeasible. Although it survived in Central America into the 19th century, by the end of the 16th century most mineworkers and agricultural laborers in New Spain were Indians hired as wage labor and retained through debt peonage.
The work of enslaved Africans was also essential to this system. The first African slaves arrived in the region in the early stages of conquest, with some even acting as conquistadores. By the 1570s slaves were being imported in significant numbers, arriving mostly from present-day Senegambia, Congo, and Angola, with their population reaching 75,000 by century’s end. Initially, slaves mostly worked in urban areas but within a few decades constituted a key source of labor for mines and plantations. There were 3,700 slaves in Mexico’s silver mines by 1570, representing about 45 percent of the labor force. By 1590 their number declined to 20 percent of the labor force (approximately 1,000 people), and they mostly worked in less dangerous jobs. Slavery in Mexico reached its height during the 1650s, when there were 35,000 African slaves in the colony. After this date slavery steadily declined in both Mexico and Peru as the plantation complexes of the Caribbean and Brazil came to dominate. Estimates of the numbers of slaves brought to the Americas by the end of the 18th century vary widely, but the total was about 8 million. Most of these slaves were taken to the Portuguese colony of Brazil or to French, Dutch, and British colonies in the Caribbean. Spanish colonies, including the mainland colonies of New Spain and Peru, along with their colonies in the Caribbean (notably Cuba), imported about 1 million slaves of the total.
The tempo and type of economic activity was decisive in determining the experience of slaves. In the Spanish colonies African slaves occupied a wide variety of jobs, in agriculture, domestic service, and in some cases even urban trades. Some slaves lived apart from their masters and even traveled as muleteers and sailors. By contrast, life for the millions who found themselves immersed in the plantation complex was horrific. Slave life on the plantations was characterized by short lifespans (as little as seven years for newly imported slaves), sex ratios seriously skewed in favor of men, linguistic diversity, and harsh labor conditions. Slaves born in the region rarely lived beyond their 30s, and those brought from Africa had even shorter lives. Prosperous plantations tended to be the worst, because the cost of replacing a slave was often lower than the cost of maintaining healthy workers. A typical plantation in Latin America had about 50 slaves, most of whom lived in communal barracks. Women worked in the fields alongside men but were excluded from more skilled jobs, making their escape from the backbreaking labor unlikely.
In other parts of the region manumission was an uncommon but realizable goal. Slave artisans might use money earned from their trades to purchase freedom for themselves and others. Sex, consensual and forced, between white owners and slave women produced a growing mulatto population, some of whom were freed by their masters. By the end of 18th century there were 650,000 free black and mulatto people in Spanish America, more than twice the number of slaves. In the urban areas of Spanish America African slaves enjoyed an active communal life through their own cofradias. They preserved African social organizations, customs, languages, and religions, creating syncretic cultures that drew from African, European, and indigenous traditions. Escaped slave communities, known in Spanish as palenques and Portuguese as quilombos, also provided opportunities to undermine the dehumanizing practices of slavery and to challenge the institution of racial bondage. These communities flourished in the Caribbean, parts of Mexico, Central America, and Brazil. At least 35 existed in Brazil, some reaching several thousand members.
By the time of the seven year’s war, Spain’s American colonies had been a mature system for 200 years. Although still central to the colonial enterprise, the extraction of silver was increasingly overshadowed by the rich plantation complex of the Caribbean. This was itself problematic for the empire, as a region that once had been the preserve of Spain alone was being contested by more prosperous and aggressive colonial competitors. Conquered by the British during the war, Havana was both a strategic and economically crucial lynchpin of the empire. All along the northern frontier as well, the empire was under siege, meaning that expanded militarization (and increased revenue to pay for it) would likely be the only way of preserving the colonies in the future. This was an ominous sign for the casta, indigenous, and African peoples throughout the region because growing quantities of their labor, tribute, and military service would be demanded in order to save the empire.
Further reading: D. A. Brading, The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots and the Liberal State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991); Alfred Crosby, The Colombian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of1492 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1972); Nancy Farriss, Maya Society under Colonial Rule: The Collective Enterprise of Survival (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1984).
—Alexander Dawson
World History
