Spanish Conquest of Mexico --

¶ … Spanish Conquest of Mexico -- the Racial Order

Chapter 2 was a very informative chapter for me because I had not been aware of the Spanish conquerors' specific strategic plan; they were smart to reward Aztec loyalty (creating "middlemen" -- Aztec kings -- to retain some governing power) to "placate the masses" (p. 50). And yet they were viciously brutal in discriminating against native Indians in Mexico.

Indian slavery: The government of Spain imposed the "encomienda" system, basically making native Indians "wards of the crown" that would then labor under the command of the Spaniards. The "Laws of Burgos" basically put the native Indians into slavery at the whim of the Spaniards serving the King of Spain. The encomienda system put forward the notion that the Indians were "savages without souls" (emphasized through opinions expressed in Gines de Sepulveda's books); but the Catholic Church believed that Indians did have souls, were humans, should be "Christianized" humanely and (according to Father Francisco de Vitirua) had the right to pursue happiness.

Intermarriage: The King of Spain initially encouraged his soldiers and others who moved to Mexico to marry native Indians. For the soldiers (officers) who married native Indian women, they were granted more land then non-married officers. However, having more than one woman (a concubine) was declared a sin by the Catholic Church. The Church urged soldiers to marry their concubines. The intermarriage strategy was also based on economic needs; the Laws of Burgos had declared that Spain would take care of orphaned children, but through the intermarriage system many of those orphaned children were housed and fed, taking some of the burden off the Spanish Crown financially. By 1575 the Spanish Crown changed it's rules and prohibited any more "…Spaniards of high social standing" to marry Indians. So, lower-ranking soldiers were encouraged to marry Indians but higher-ranking personnel were not allowed to marry Indians in order to form "…an elite ruling class" to "ensure racial purity" (p. 56).

African Slaves: The first few Black slaves from Africa arrived in Mexico 1527 and in total between 150,000 to 200,000 Black African slaves were brought into Mexico. By the year 1738 the last ships carrying slaves had arrived (p. 60). Why did the Spaniards bring so many slaves into Mexico? Because many of the native Indians had suffered and died from many diseases brought over by the Spaniards (the Indians did not have resistance to those new diseases), there was a need for cheap labor, and the Black slaves served that purpose.

The slaves were sold in many areas of Mexico, but the author explains that the four main areas where slaves were shipped included: Mexico City (more than half of the slaves that arrived in Mexico were brought to Mexico City); Tlaxcala-Puebla; Michoacan; and Zacatecas (p. 60). The Spanish Crown realized that the Catholic Church's missionaries found slavery to be repugnant, and so the Crown seemed to go along with the Church. However, in what could only be termed deception and skullduggery, the Crown needed the money that slavery brought to the royal family, so the Crown subcontracted with Portuguese and British businesses to bring slaves into Mexico notwithstanding their agreement with the Church to end this inhumane practice.

What rights did slaves in Mexico have? The "Siete Partidas" law code gave slaves the right to "…select their spouse" and those who owned slaves could not interfere with this process. The Catholic Church advocated for the Black slaves. The Church influenced the laws pertaining to Black slaves in Mexico; children born from Black slaves and Indian women were free from being slaves and could live with their mothers.