Precolonizacion Y Colonizacion De America

Suanny Moreno
Dr. Tillson
HIS 313
18 November 2010
Before the conquest, America had about just over 80 million people, while the European population at that time was roughly 60 million, the Spanish and Portuguese who arrived on the continent were few in number but superior in weaponry and military prowess. Moreover, the population of large pre-Columbian civilizations like the Aztecs ofMexico, the Maya of Central America and the Inca of the Andes was soon decimated by epidemics of diseases brought by the conquerors. Those who survived, no more than 15% of the population, were in the service of the colonists working on plantations and mines. When the Indians began to decrease in number, slaves from Africa were imported to replace the Indians and were shipped to Brazil, theCaribbean islands and also other countries of Spanish America. Despite the dominance exercised by their owners, Native Americans and African Americans managed to preserve significant aspects of their languages, customs, religions, crafts and lifestyles which made modern America a melting pot of cultures from three continents.
The Spanish and Portuguese brought very few women to America and,consequently, there was a union between conquerors and conquered. At the end of the colonial period, the mixture of indigenous and blacks with the Spanish and Portuguese (mestizos and mulattos) was very popular in many of the colonies. This diversity of ethnicities and cultures helped design one of the most important characteristics of the region.
While racial diversity noticeably developed asimilar social structure throughout the region, a limited body of royal officials ruled the colonies in collaboration with the clergy and a small landlord class and merchants. Bureaucrats or American-born Spaniards (Creoles) formed, together with their families, ruling classes that were served by the majority of Indians, mestizos and blacks.
Clearly therefore, throughout the colonial period,Spanish America consistently conformed to the standards of a corporate society. In order to understand how, first of all it is important to define what we mean by a corporate society. As stated in class, “a corporate society is a way of thinking that says society is comparable to a group of organisms tied by fixed relationships” (Dr. Tillson). The term also refers to a type of society in which variouslarge-scale individuals with powerful vested interests are involved in the economic, social and political decision-making process.
With this in mind, I will begin by explaining how colonial Spanish America became a corporate society as a result of the decline of the indigenous population and the formation of new breed groups. The base population of colonial Spanish America consisted ofAmerican Indians from different ethnic groups, whose number is estimated at 15 million at the end of the sixteenth century. The massive decline of the indigenous population was caused by the abuses suffered by the colonists, who had no qualms about annihilating them with the excuse to get gold or simply, by the authority which gave them their charge.
In the seventeenth century, while the Indianswere still 75% of the population, Spanish began to arrive, particularly Andalusian, Galician, Asturian and Basque, Portuguese added thereto. Once the Spanish arrived in America, they were established in the cities or in surrounding rural areas in order to acquire land.
With the arrival of the Spanish population, an exceptionally birth-based Spanish American social hierarchy was formed. At the topof the social tree were Spaniards born in the Iberian Peninsula who had came out to America to take up an official position in government or church, or else to make their fortunes; they were known as peninsulares or gachupines (a local word for Spaniards). From there, it was always Spanish policy to favor the Peninsulars, in terms of appointments to high and profitable office, above the Creoles....