The new territory in the Americas required many workers because the Europeans wanted to create new wealth from these territories through labor intensive industries such as mining and farming. The Native Americans have rebelled against the Europeans and resisted forced labor. However, the Native labor force was vulnerable to disease and the European conquerors needed a substitute for these dying laborers. The textbook asserts “Disease and the harsh demands of forced labor killed large numbers of natives in Spanish America throughout the sixteenth century […] four out of every five New Mexican pueblos or villages were abandoned as populations declined” (25). This dying forced labor required more laborers from outside of the Americas such as indentured
