The New World

Learning focus

*Assess the wide impact of the Spanish conquest in the Americas

Refer to the Google Document sent to your Drive entitled, "8. The New World".

Wealth and trade

Gold and silver were the most precious goods imported from the Americas to Spain. From the wealth that flowed from Mexico and from the silver mined from Potosi, Spain became the 16th century world superpower. The mines provided Spain with enormous reserves of cash to fund their armies, construct trade and war ships, and build grand cities. Twenty percent of the gold and silver mined in the New World went directly to the monarch. The wealth that came through colonial control of the Americas gave the Spanish monarchy the opportunity to establish a great trading empire and real power in Europe.

European luxury goods and tobacco and a taste for chocolate and chillies rapidly developed into an international trade network. European marketplaces were also transformed by the sale of pearls, cowhides, sugar and fabric dyes plundered from the Americas. Crops introduced from the Old World, such as sugar cane, bananas and lemons, grew well in the tropical climate. By the 16th Century, entire forests of the Americas were cleared to make way for sugar cane and banana plantations. Slave labour meant that sugar could be cultivated and processed in the Americas much more cheaply than was possible when it was imported to Europe from the east.

With the growth of Spain's trading empire, the conquistadors were replaced by accountants and colonial administrators. The Spanish elite were appointed to all major positions in the New World to ensure that control of the Crown was maintained. Madrid was established as Spain's capital in 1561. For the next 200 years, all orders and government for the New World came from Madrid, as the centre of Spain's great Atlantic empire.

A new Christian culture

Christianity played a critical role in establishing and maintaining Spanish control of the Americas. Nevertheless, the decades after the Spanish conquest, he native pre-Columbian traditions survived by mingling with Christianity. In the first 100 years of colonial control of Mexico, more than 400 new monasteries were built in the Christian style and decorated by native artists, often using particularly Aztec imagery. The religions of the Americas were polytheistic, meaning the people held a belief in many gods. Christianity could be incorporated into Aztec and Inca beliefs and practices without total destruction of local traditions.

The multicultural Americas

Mining and agriculture grew together in Spain's empire in the Americas. With the growth of trade resulting from the importation of gold, silver and agricultural produce came the rise of Atlantic slave economy. Europeans brought manufactured goods to Africa in exchange for slaves, who were then transported to the New World to be sold as labour on sugar, tobacco and cotton plantations.

By the mid 17th century, the population of New Spain consisted of approximately 150 00o white Spanish, 150 000 mestizos (people of Spanish and Indian ancestry), 130 000 mulattos (people of Indian and African ancestry), and 80 000 African slaves. The result was the birth of a new society.

A new beginning

Powerful civilisations collided when the conquistadors arrived in the Americas. Spanish colonial power changed forever the people and landscape of the great continent. The conquistadors were replaced by Spaniards who travelled to the Americas to stay. The conquistadors deprived the Aztec and Inca people of their land, political independence and their lives. Nevertheless, many survived the upheaval that came with the creation of a New World. Inca and Aztec culture was not easily broken, and survives today through the deeply held heritage of languages, stories, pageants, music and song.