Western Civilization

an economic and social system that permitted the conquer-

ing Spaniards to collect tribute from the Indians and use

them as laborers. In return, the holders of an encomienda

were supposed to protect the Indians, pay them wages,

and supervise their spiritual needs. In practice, this meant

that the settlers were free to implement the paternalistic

system of the government as they pleased. Three thousand

miles from Spain, Spanish settlers largely ignored their

government and brutally used the Indians to pursue their

own economic interests. Indians were put to work on

plantations and in the lucrative gold and silver mines. In

Peru, the Spanish made use of themita,asystemthat

allowed authorities to draft native labor to work in the

silver mines.

In the New World, the Spanish developed an adminis-

trative system based on viceroys. Spanish possessions

were initially divided into two major administrative units:

New Spain (Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean

islands), with its center in Mexico City, and Peru (western

South America), governed by aviceroyin Lima. Each

viceroy served as the king’s chief civil and military officer.

By papal agreement, the Catholic monarchs of Spain

were given extensive rights over ecclesiastical affairs in

the New World. They could appoint all bishops and

clergy, build churches, collect fees, and supervise the

affairs of the various religious orders that sought to con-

vert the heathen. In the early years of the conquest,

Catholic missionaries converted and baptized hundreds

of thousands of Indians. Soon after the missionaries

came the establishment of dioceses, parishes, cathedrals,

schools, and hospitals—all the trappings of civilized

European society.

New Rivals on the World Stage

Q FOCUSQUESTIONS:How did the arrival of the

Dutch, British, and French on the world scene in the

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries affect Africa,

India, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan? What were

the main features of the African slave trade, and

what effects did it have on Africa?

Portugal and Spain had been the first Atlantic nations

to take advantage of the age of exploration, starting in

the late fifteenth century, and both had become great

CHRONOLOGYThePortugueseandSpanishEmpires

in the Sixteenth Century

Bartholomeu Dias sails around the tip of

Africa

1488

Voyages of Columbus 1492–1502

Treaty of Tordesillas 1494

Vasco da Gama lands at Calicut in India 1498

Portuguese ships land in southern China 1514

Magellan’s voyage around the world 1519–1522

Spanish conquest of Mexico 1519–1522

Pizarro’s conquest of the Inca 1530–1535

Aztec Victims of Smallpox.The

indigenous populations of the New

World had no immunities to the

diseases of the Old World, such as

smallpox. By 1520, smallpox had

spread throughout the Caribbean

and Mesoamerica. This sixteenth-

century drawing by a Franciscan friar

portrays Native Americans afflicted

with smallpox. The pustules that

often covered the body are clearly

depicted. The figure at the lower

right twists in agony—representing

the immense pain experienced by

those who contracted the disease.

Biblioteca Laurenziana, Florence//NYPL/Science Source/Getty Images

New Rivals on the World Stage 337

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