Spanish Colonization of the Americas (1491-6007)

Vocabulary flashcards covering the Spanish conquest of the Americas, the encomienda and casta systems, and the transition to enslaved African labor.

Roqua Meento

A legal document issued by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella that claimed the Pope gave Spain biblical authority to rule the Americas and threatened violence against any indigenous group that defied them.

Hernand Cortez

The conquistador who toppled the Aztec Empire by $1521$ through the use of alliances with indigenous groups and the spread of smallpox.

Francisco Pizarro

A conquistador who conquered the Inca Empire in South America, securing vast amounts of gold and silver for Spain.

incomienda system

A system of coerced labor where the Spanish crown granted land to Spanish encomanderos who forced indigenous people within those borders to work in mining and plantation-based agriculture.

encomanderos

Spanish landholders who required labor from indigenous people but were theoretically obligated to provide them with protection and Christianization.

Smallpox

A Spanish disease that weakened the Aztec leadership and contributed to the high death rate of indigenous slaves, leading to a breakdown in the indigenous labor system.

Guns

The most desirable good traded by Spanish and other colonial powers to West African groups in exchange for enslaved laborers.

Middle Passage

The ocean route used to transport enslaved Africans across the Atlantic, where cramped conditions led to a death rate of approximately $20\%$ due to disease and malnutrition.

Spanish cast system

Also known as the casta system, this social hierarchy ranked people in colonial society based on race and heredity, with those possessing more white blood at the top.

Cash crops

Agricultural products such as sugarcane, tobacco, and cotton that were produced for export to generate wealth for the Spanish colonies.

1491 to $6007$

The time period during which Spain was the dominant imperial power in the Americas.

Immunity

A factor that made enslaved Africans more reliable for the Spanish than indigenous workers, as they had better resistance to diseases like smallpox and measles.