3.4: Americas 1500-1800

Spanish America

The major source of wealth for the Spanish government became the silver of Mexico and the Andes. The Spanish monarchy received in theory one fifth of all silver mined in the Americas. A lot of this silver would wind up in Spain’s pacific colony the Philippines where Chinese merchants would sell Spain luxuries. This silver and native tribute made the Spanish monarchy incredibly wealthy and powerful. In fact, Castilian Cortes lost all power, because the monarchy did not need it to raise revenue in the form of taxes on the people of Castile. There were no legislative assemblies in Spanish America. The most powerful figure was the king’s representative, the viceroys. At the local level, the king had corregidores who presided over the hundreds of cabildos. Similar to Spain, everyone was expected to be Roman Catholic.

In Spanish America, government was based on corporatism where people got the rights from their ethnicity or occupation. At its fundamental level, the Spanish divided their holdings in the Americas into two separate spheres. The Spanish sphere was called the republica de espanoles and the native sphere was called the republica de indios. The Spanish and the ethnic sedentary natives had rights. There were three other corporate groups: priests, officers in the military, and the guilds. Priests and military officers had their own court and judges called a fuero. Craftsmen such as carpenters, formed their own organizations called guilds which had special privileges as well. Members of a guild could select a leader to speak on their behalf before the viceroy if they were having a problem.

The Spanish tended to settle in cities and areas where there was a large sedentary native population. They formed their own cabildos and only the Spanish could go to the major universities and become higher ranking government officials or priests. There were primarily two groups of Spaniards. The Peninsulares were Spanish born in Spain while the Creoles were Spanish born in the Americas. For most of the colonial history, there were no major differences between the two groups. However, Peninsulares were the wealthy import-export merchants. All foreign trade went through them. Wealthy creoles tended to own haciendas. By 1620, the Spanish owned nearly one half of the arable land in central Mexico which produced wheat and maize. Spanish hacienda owners also generated wealth growing tropical cash crops.

The other major group were the ethnic sedentary natives. These natives were settled in cities or they farmed. They also were culturally native. Ethnic sedentary natives formed their own cabildos, had rights to their own communal land, and had their own laws and leaders. The Spanish government often protected the lands held by native communities from any type of encroachment. The Spanish recognized the validity of existing native laws with the exception of human sacrifice and polygamy. In return for these privileges, these natives had to pay a special tax to the Spanish monarchy (tribute).

The process of Catholic conversion was relatively gradual and steady. The Spanish considered that natives were pure because they did not mix with the infidels such as the Jews or Muslims. All major towns had a cabildo and a local priest. There were fewer non-sedentary natives who lived primarily in the far south or north: Argentina, and the great plains, Southern Chile, Mexican north. They lived outside of the system and were difficult to subdue.

Over time, a larger mix-raced group emerged called castas. The monarch permitted interracial marriage in 1501. However, a large number of mestizos (people part Spanish and part native) were the offspring of couples who were not married. Mestizos were associated with illegitimate birth and stigmatized by the late 1500s. These mestizos and other castas were under Spanish laws but did not have any of the rights that Spanish or the ethnic sedentary natives had. They had no cabildo and could not go to a major university or become a government official or priest. A small number castas could purchase very costly purity certificates that stated that they were Spanish called probanzas de limpieza de sangre. Over time, there were also culturally Spanish natives called foresteros who faced the same discrimination that castas faced: they did not belong in either republica. Nevertheless, there were some opportunities for these groups. For example, they could join the guilds or become officers in the military.

Brazil

The Portuguese established in Brazil as planation economy based primarily upon cash crops especially sugar. In contrast to Spanish America, there was not a large sedentary indigenous population. Therefore, society was not set up with the two separate republicas. Brazil was made up mostly of Portuguese and Africans who were brought over as slaves to primarily to work on sugar estates. The Brazilian government focused on stimulating and taxing the sugar trade. In 1689-90, gold was discovered in Minas Gerais, some 200 miles inland from Rio de Janeiro. As a result, the Portuguese brought their slaves with them to exploit the mines.

Similar to Spanish America, the system was based on corporatism. The Portuguese tended to live in towns and cities. They had local municipal government which governed the hinterland as well. There were no legislative assemblies and most international trade passed through merchants born in Portugal. Priests, military officers, and craftsmen in guilds had special corporate privileges like their Spanish American counterparts.

Colonial United States

The British thirteen colonies were distinctive in many ways from Spanish America and Brazil. When the English began colonization in the 1600s, there were three forms of Christianity in England and a powerful parliament. Under Elizabeth, England was moving toward religious pluralism and the colonies provided refuge in America for harassed minorities. The British government did not see the thirteen colonies as a major source of wealth. There were no tribute paying sedentary natives, precious metals, or land suitable for sugar production. Therefore, the British government remained unconcerned with North America and its natives.

The natives in North America did not have a separate set of laws and they were not subjects of the English crown. While the colonists in the thirteen colonies used germ warfare to kill off the natives to take their land, there is no evidence that the Spanish ever deliberately attempted to infect the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The Spanish saw the demographic collapse of the natives as a loss. The settlers in Spanish America needed native population to work in their fields and work in their mines. The Spanish government sought to protect the ethnic sedentary natives, because they paid taxes.

Colonial government in English America lacked the wealth of Spanish America and Brazil. Who would pay for roads, ports, and the salaries of government officials? In the absence of silver mines and a significant settled native tax-paying population, government out of necessity was to be funded by the colonists themselves. To get the colonists to pay taxes, the colonists taxed themselves by forming colonial legislative assemblies in each colony. However, legislative assemblies were not necessary in Spanish America, because these colonies were wealthy and could be funded from silver and ethnic sedentary native tribute. Nevertheless, the Thirteen Colonies were not a democracy. Only white male property holders could vote in assembly elections, and about sixty percent of all white men meet the property requirements for voting.

Primary Sources: Government in Colonial USA

On June 4, 1639 the leaders of Connecticut assembled to agree on a charter or constitution for their colony. This charter granted the free men of the colony certain rights.

Discussion Questions

• How was this charter democratic?
• How was this charter not democratic?

THE 4th day of the 4th month, called June, 1639, all the free planters assembled together in a general meeting, to consult about settling civil government, according to GOD, and the nomination of persons that might be found, by consent of all, fittest in all respects for the foundation work of a church…

Query I. WHETHER the scriptures do hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men in all duties which they are to perform to GOD and men, as well in families and commonwealth, as in matters of the church ? This was assented unto by all, no man dissenting, as was expressed by holding up of hands. Afterwards it was read over to them, that they might see in what words their vote was expressed. They again expressed their consent by holding up their hands, no man dissenting.

Query V. WHETHER free burgesses shall be chosen out of the church members, they that are in the foundation work of the church being actually free burgesses, and to choose to themselves out of the like estate of church fellowship, and the power of choosing magistrates and officers from among themselves, and the power of making and repealing laws, according to the word, and the dividing of inheritances, and deciding of differences that may arise, and all the businesses of like nature are to be transacted by those free burgesses. This was put to vote and agreed unto by lifting up of hands twice, as in the former it was done. Then one man stood up and expressed his dissenting from the rest in part; yet granting, 1. That magistrates should be men fearing GOD. 2. That the church is the company where, ordinarily, such men may be expected. 3. That they that choose them ought to be men fearing GOD; only at this he stuck, that free planters ought not to give this power out of their hands. Another stood up and answered, that nothing was done, but with their consent…Hereafter should be admitted here as planters, should submit, and testify the same by subscribing their names to the order: Namely, that church members only shall be free burgesses, and that they only shall choose magistrates and officers among themselves, to have power of transacting all the public civil affairs of this plantation; of making and repealing laws, dividing of inheritances, deciding of differences that may arise, and doing all things and businesses of like nature.

Fundamental Agreement, or Original Constitution of the Colony of New Haven, June 4, 1639, in the Public Domain

Two separate societies formed in the thirteen colonies: plantation colonies and farm colonies. South of Pennsylvania, the plantation colonies produced high value semi-tropical cash crops in demand in Europe. These crops included tobacco, rice and indigo. Since these crops were produced on large estates using slave labor, there was an unequal distribution of wealth. At the top was a small white planation elite. Below them were the majority of whites who were poor subsistence farmers. Then, there were African slaves who primarily worked on cash crop estates. The farm colonies had mostly middle-class commercial farmers who grew corn and wheat and raised livestock like cattle. These farmers sold their products to the Caribbean, but they did not generate wealth to purchase slaves. The wealthy in the farm colonies were merchants and bankers. Many of these elites in the north participated directly in the slave trade.

Africans in the Americas

Initially, the Portuguese were heavily involved in the slave trade. Dysentery was the number one cause of death on the ships carrying slaves across the Atlantic. Before 1700, the mortality rate was 20% but dropped to 5% afterwards. A total of twelve million Africans were brought to the Americas. The most significant imports into Africa were Indian cotton cloth, rum, tobacco, weapons, and horses. In the Americas, African slaves primarily worked on cash crop plantations. Most slaves worked on sugar estates in the Caribbean and Brazil, because sugar estate owners were the wealthiest.

While the Catholic church perceived the natives of the Americas as potentially good Catholics and protected them, the Church not only did not question African slavery but owned African slaves. For the most part, in Iberian America Black race tied to being a Muslim. Natives were considered subjects of the crown who voluntarily accepted Christianity and Spanish rule. The Iberians believed that Africans and their descendants had not pledged loyalty to the monarchy voluntarily and did not freely accept Christianity. On sugar estates, slaves were often worked to death, because Spanish and Portuguese estate owners were generating so much wealth that they could purchase more slaves. The lives of the slaves themselves were not regarded as important. Figure 3.4.1 shows a sugar estate in Brazil. The estate not only included the fields that produced the sugar but a chapel and a mill to extract sugar from the sugar cane.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Sugar Mill with a Chapel by Frans Post, Fundação Maria Luisa e Oscar Americano, in the Public Domain

There were significant differences in the slave systems of the Thirteen Colonies and Iberian America. In the thirteen colonies, slaves tended to live longer. However, these slaves were unlikely to be freed or manumitted. In fact, it was difficult for a slave owner to manumit their slave even if they wanted to. In Iberian American, if a slave could survive, they had a much better chance at getting their freedom. In Iberian America, slaves would often be able to purchase their freedom.

Additionally, there were more opportunities for free Blacks in Iberian America. The lack of a powerful guild organization permitted Blacks to become craftsmen. Blacks were heavily involved in construction and many were carpenters. They could also join the militias and obtain a fuero. However, Blacks very rarely could purchase purity certificates. They also shared many of the forms discrimination castas experienced including lack of representation in a cabildo or the right to go to college.

Review Questions

• How were race relations in Iberian America different from the thirteen colonies?
• How was the economy of the farm colonies distinctive?