Spain c. 1450 - c. 1750
(Cecilia)
click to edit
Exploration
Role in Columbian Exchange
Government
Religion
Social Structure
Ferdinand Magellan
Christopher Columbus
First to circumnavigate the world
Campaign to conquer the Filipinos (1565)
Manila became a Spanish commercial center
Actually Italian but was sponsored by Spain
Searched for a route to go to India
Found Bahamas instead
Eventually discovered the Americas in 1492
Brought deadly diseases to the Americas (small pox, measles, influenza, malaria)
Profited from silver and pursued cash crop cultivation
Exchanged foods like maize, potatoes, potatoes beans, peppers and cacao
Sugar eventually eclipsed silver in terms of profit
Ferdinand and Isabella
United Spain after the Muslim Golden Age in 1492
Roman Catholicism
Labor Systems
Encomienda System
Mit'a System
Hacienda System
Spanish government granted haciendas (land holdings) to conquistadors who explored
cultivation of sugar cane
leased land to lower class
beneficiary of system was granted responsibility over a number of natives
offered natives protection in exchange for labor
Basically the feudal system
Originally developed by the Incas
provided labor for empire by compelling certain people to work on public projects for a certain number of days per year
Spaniards compelled men to do dangerous silver mining