1.5 Labor, Slavery, and Caste in the Spanish Colonial System

conquistadores, Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, , encomienda, asiento, Middle Passage, slave trade

conquistadores

Spanish explorers and conquerors that asserted Spanish dominance in the Americas, helping Spain expand in wealth and power

• Hernán Cortés - subjugated the Aztecs in Mexico

• Francisco Pizarro - conquered the Incas in Peru

encomienda system

system used by Spanish to control Native Americans - Spanish king granted natives who lived on a tract of land to labor for individual Spaniards

asiento system

the system under which the Spanish imported African slaves - colonists were required to pay a tax to the Spanish king on each enslaved person imported to the Americas

Middle Passage

voyage during the slave trade across the Atlantic Ocean, millions of deaths

Spanish caste system

1. pure-blooded Spaniards

2. people ordered by mixture of European, Native American, and African heritage

3. people of pure Native American or African heritage