The Spanish Frontier In North America Analysis

In David J. Weber’s The Spanish Frontier in North America, the predominant structural force that occurred within the overview, was colonization. Within colonization, we get sub-structural forces such as economics, diseases, etc. Due to Christopher Columbus’s arrival in 1492, Hernan Cortez along with the Spanish, came to the Americas to colonize the land in 1519. The Spain had an impact on the lives, institutions, and environments of the native peoples of North America, as well as on the lives and institutions of those Spaniards who explored and settled on what has now become the United States. Disease came about as a structural force when European illnesses such as smallpox, measles, and typhus affected native workers. natives reacted to this …show more content…
The encomienda system is a structural force that granted encomiendero a certain amount of natives, whom in return were to provide labor for them. With the encomiendas established, each encomendero was given the task of teaching Christianity and Spanish language to the new workers. There was many different opposing views towards the system, many times, the natives were forced into hard labor, and if they resisted, they would be punished or killed. The monarchy of Spain perceived these cruel punishments and passed the Law of Burgos on December 27, 1512. This prohibited the punishment and modified the way the Spaniards acted upon the indigenous groups. Spain’s King, Charles V, enacted the New Laws in 1512. These laws, prevented the exploration and abuse of the natives. However, some encomenderos rebelled against this, leading to the death of the first viceroy of Peru, Blasco Nunez, on January 8, 1548, who tried to enforce these laws. The system was eventually abolished in 1717, replaced by the repartimiento …show more content…
The system has its similarities to the encomienda system, in the sense that the monarchy allowed for the colonists to employ Indians for returned labor. However, they could now freely chose their own employer and terms of services. The Indians were either placed to work for agricultural purposes such as farming and ranching, or in the mines to search for gold and silver. This labor system was not seen as slavery due to the natives not being “owned” by the employer, and the fact that they had an increased amount of rights than before. The repartimiento came to a legal end by around 1820. Which was also an event which led to King Ferdinand VIII to completely abolish slavery in