The continued desire of European nations to gain colonies in the Americas resulted from the enormous wealth garnered by Spanish conquests. That wealth transformed economies throughout Europe. Between 1500 and 1650, Spanish ships carried home more than 180 tons of gold and 16,000 tons of silver from Mexico and Potosí. About one-fifth of this amount was taken by the Spanish crown for taxes; the rest was spent on goods imported from the Americas, Asia, or other European nations. Very little of this wealth was invested in improving conditions at home. Instead, the elite displayed their wealth in ostentatious ways: elaborate silver candelabras, dresses drenched in jewels, and lavish tapestries imported from Asia. Meanwhile the rapid infusion of gold and silver fueled inflation, making it harder for ordinary people to afford the necessities of life.
In one area, however, employment for the poor expanded rapidly. King Philip II, who ruled Spain from 1556 to 1598, used American gold and silver to fund a variety of military campaigns, ensuring an endless demand for soldiers and sailors. The king, a devout Catholic, claimed to be doing God’s work as Spain conquered Italy and Portugal, including the latter’s colonies in Africa, and tightened its grip on the Netherlands, which had been acquired by Spain through marriage in the early sixteenth century. In response, the English aristocrat Sir Walter Raleigh warned, “It is his [Philip’s] Indian Gold that . . . endangereth and disturbeth all the nations of Europe.”
Despite the obvious material benefits, the Spaniards were not blind to the enormous human costs of colonization, and the conquest of the Americas inspired heated debates within Spain. Roman Catholic bishops and priests, royal officials, and colonial leaders disagreed vehemently about whether Spanish conquerors could simply acquire riches from foreign lands or were required to Christianize those they conquered for the glory of God. While Catholic leaders believed that the conversion of native peoples was critical to Spanish success in the Americas, most royal officials and colonial agents viewed the extraction of precious metals as far more important. They argued that cheap labor was essential to creating wealth. Yet brutal conditions led to the death of huge numbers of Indians, and many church officials insisted that such conditions made it nearly impossible to gain new converts to Catholicism.
By 1550, tales of the widespread torture and enslavement of Indians convinced the Spanish king Carlos V to gather a group of theologians, jurists, and philosophers at Valladolid to discuss the moral and legal implications of conquest. From Mexico, Hernán Cortés sent the king a message, insisting that there was no need to consider the natives’ views since they “must obey the royal orders of Your Majesty, whatever their nature.” But not all the participants at Valladolid agreed. Bartolomé de Las Casas, a former conquistador and Dominican friar, spent many years preaching to Indians in America. He asked, “And so what man of sound mind will approve a war against men who are harmless, ignorant, gentle, temperate, unarmed, and destitute of every human defense?” Las Casas reasoned that even if Spain defeated the Indians, the souls of those killed would be lost to God, while among the survivors “hatred and loathing of the Christian religion” would prevail. He even suggested replacing Indian labor with African labor, apparently less concerned with the souls of black people.
Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, the royal historian, attacked Las Casas’s arguments. Although he had never set foot in America, he read reports of cannibalism and other violations of “natural law” among native peoples. Since the Indians were savages, the civilized Spaniards were obligated to “destroy barbarism and educate these people to a more humane and virtuous life.” If they refused such help, Spanish rule “can be imposed upon them by force of arms.” Like Ginés de Sepúlveda, Theodor de Bry, the well-known illustrator of Documents 1.4 and 1.5, never visited the Americas, yet his depictions of the region shaped European impressions. Although Ginés de Sepúlveda spoke for the majority at Valladolid, Las Casas and his supporters continued to press their case as Spain expanded its reach into North America.
To examine two European depictions of interactions between Spanish and native peoples, see Documents 1.4 and 1.5.
At the same time, American riches increasingly flowed beyond Spain’s borders. The Netherlands was a key beneficiary of this wealth, becoming a center for Spanish shipbuilding and trade. Still, the Dutch were never completely under Spanish control, and they traded independently with their European neighbors. Thus gold, silver, and other items made their way to France, England, and elsewhere. Goods also followed older routes across the Mediterranean to the Ottoman empire, where traders could make huge profits on exotic items from the Americas. Thus, while some Europeans suffered under Spanish power, others benefited from the riches brought to the continent. By the late sixteenth century, the desire for a greater share of those riches revitalized imperial dreams among the French and English as well as the Dutch.
What motives were behind the Spanish conquest and colonization of the Americas? |
What were the consequences in Europe of Spain’s acquisition of an American empire? |