The Spanish divided their conquests into large land grants, or encomienda, which were issued to the individual Spaniards (known as encomenderos) along with the presumed right to require Native Americans to do agricultural labor on plantations or extract precious metals in gold🥇and silver🥈mines.

Spanish colonists sent large quantities of gold and silver back to Spain, making the Spanish monarchy the wealthiest European monarchy in the sixteenth century (until the expense of maintaining a large empire led the Spanish Empire into decline).

Ultimately, the encomienda system was introduced to:

Brutally exploit and abuse Indigenous peoples for free labor
Convert Indigenous people to Catholicism ✝

The Asiento System

As European diseases 🦠 demolished Native American populations, there was a pressing need for a new labor source, which led to the importation of enslaved Africans to meet labor demands in plantations and mines.

The asiento system required colonists to pay a tax 💸 to the Spanish king on each enslaved person they imported to the Americas. As other Europeans established American colonies, they also imported enslaved Africans in large numbers.

The Spanish Caste System

The Spanish colonies were ethnically diverse, with a combination of Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans. In response to intermarriage, the Spanish developed a caste system that defined the status of people in the colonies based on their heritage.

At the top were pure-blooded Spaniards.
In the middle were several levels of people ordered according to their
mixture of European, Native American, and African heritage.
At the bottom were people of pure Indian or Black heritage.

1.6 Cultural Interactions Between Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans

The Europeans who colonized the Americas generally viewed the natives as inferior people who could be exploited for economic gain 💸, converted to Christianity ✝, and used as military allies 🪖.

Spanish Policy

One European who dissented from the views of most Europeans towards Native Americans was a priest named Bartolomé de Las Casas, who became disillusioned by the mistreatment and exploitation of Native Americans and advocated for better treatment.

He persuaded the king to institute the New Laws of 1542, which:

Ended Indian slavery
Halted forced Indian labor
Began to end the encomienda system

However, conservative Spaniards wanted to keep the encomienda system and successfully pushed the king to repeal parts of the New Laws, continuing the exploitation and mistreatment of the Indians.

Valladolid Debate

Las Casas argued that the Indians were completely human and morally equal to Europeans, so enslaving them was unjustified ❌
Another priest, Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda argued that Indians were biologically inferior and could not be expected to perform duties beyond manual labor ✔

English Policy

Unlike the Spanish, the English settled in areas with no large native empires to provide forced labor. Additionally, many English colonists came in families so intermarriage💍with natives was less common.

Initially, the English and American Indians coexisted, traded, and shared ideas
- The American Indians taught the settlers how to grow new crops such as maize 🌽 and showed them how to hunt in forests 🌲
- They traded furs 🦫 for an array of English manufactured goods, including iron tools and weapons
Eventually, conflict and warfare emerged as the English seized land to support their growing population
- Rather than subjugating them, they expelled the natives

French Policy

The French, looking for furs 🦫 and converts to Catholicism ✝, viewed American Indians as potential economic and military allies.

Compared to the Spaniards and the English, the French maintained good relations with the tribes they encountered
Seeking to control fur trade, the French built trading posts throughout the St. Lawrence Valley, the Great Lakes region, and along the Mississippi River
- At these posts, they exchanged French goods for furs collected by the American Indians

Because the French had few colonists, farms, or towns, they posed less threat to the native population than did other Europeans.

Resistance by American Indians

As Europeans encroached upon Native Americans’ land and attempted to impose their ideas about culture, gender roles 👫, family structures 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦, religion ✝, and the natural world 🌎, native peoples responded differently to protect their cultures:

One strategy was to ally with a European power
- Ex: In Mexico, several tribes allied with the Spanish to help them win freedom from the Aztecs in the sixteenth century
Other tribes simply migrated west to get away from settlers, but this often led them into conflicts with Native Americans already living in the region