AP U.S. History · Lesson 3

Spain builds an American empire

Know Know it

Conquistadors toppled the two largest Native empires: Hernán Cortés took the Aztec capital in 1521, and Francisco Pizarro captured the Inca ruler Atahualpa in 1532. Silver from mines such as Potosí in the Andes, found in 1545, helped make Spain the strongest power in Europe in the 1500s.

Spain needed workers. The crown gave colonists encomiendas, grants that let them demand labor and tribute from the Native people of an area in return for a duty to protect them and teach them Christianity. In practice the system was often brutal. Over the 1500s, colonists also turned more and more to the Atlantic slave trade for enslaved Africans.

Colonial society was ranked by the casta system: Spanish-born peninsulares at the top, then criollos born in the colonies to Spanish parents, then people of mixed ancestry such as mestizos, with Native and African people at the bottom. Intermarriage and mixed ancestry were far more common in Spain's colonies than they would be in the later English colonies.

Spaniards argued about all this. The friar Bartolomé de Las Casas, once an encomienda holder himself, condemned the cruelty of the conquest. The crown's New Laws of 1542 tried to limit the encomienda, and at the Valladolid debate (1550 to 1551) Las Casas argued against Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, who defended war against Native peoples.

On its northern frontier Spain built forts and missions: St. Augustine in Florida (1565) guarded the treasure fleets and pushed out French rivals, and in 1598 Juan de Oñate led settlers, soldiers and Franciscan friars into the upper Rio Grande valley among the Pueblo peoples.

Trap A grant of labor, not a deed of ownership

The encomienda did not legally make Native people the property of the colonist; it granted their labor and tribute. That legal difference did little to stop abuse, which is why reformers like Las Casas attacked it. Do not mix it up with chattel slavery, which treated enslaved Africans as property for life.

Worked example Easy

In Spain's American colonies, the casta system ranked people mainly by

  1. their service as soldiers
  2. the church they chose to join
  3. the size of the farms they owned
  4. their ancestry and birthplaceAnswer

How to solve it

  1. Recall the labels: peninsular, criollo, mestizo.
  2. Each label describes where a person was born and who their parents were.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Incorrect. Military service could bring rewards, but it did not decide a person's casta label.
  • B. Incorrect. Catholicism was the only legal faith, so there was no choice of church to rank people by.
  • C. Incorrect. Wealth mattered, but the casta labels were set by ancestry, not by the size of farms owned.
  • D. Correct. The ranking put Spanish-born people first and people of Native or African ancestry lowest, so it turned on ancestry and birthplace.

Explain Explain it

Task verbs: explain, compare

When you explain why something changed, give each reason its own sentence and tie it to a specific place and time. Two reasons that say the same thing in different words count as one, so check that your second reason adds a new cause.

Worked example Medium

At Valladolid in 1550 and 1551, Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda disagreed mainly over

  1. whether Protestant settlers could live in New Spain
  2. whether Spain or Portugal had the stronger claim to Brazil
  3. how Spain could justly treat Native peoplesAnswer
  4. which metal should serve as the empire's main coin

How to solve it

  1. Recall who Las Casas was: a friar who condemned the conquest.
  2. Sepúlveda took the opposite side, defending conquest.
  3. So the debate was about how Native peoples could rightly be treated.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Incorrect. Protestants were barred from Spanish colonies, and their presence was not what Las Casas and Sepúlveda argued over.
  • B. Incorrect. The claim to Brazil had been settled by the Treaty of Tordesillas and was not the subject of this debate.
  • C. Correct. Sepúlveda defended war and forced service; Las Casas argued that Native peoples had full rights and should be converted peacefully.
  • D. Incorrect. Which metal to use for coins had nothing to do with the debate, which was about the rights of Native peoples.

Explain Your turn

Give two reasons why Spanish colonists in the Caribbean turned to enslaved Africans for labor during the 1500s: one reason about the Native population or the rules for using Native workers, and one reason about the work colonists needed done or where captives could be bought.

Write it, then compare. Nothing you type here is saved or graded.

Compare with a model answer

A full answer does this

  • Gives an accurate reason about the Native population or the rules for using Native workers
  • Gives an accurate reason about the work colonists needed done or where captives could be bought

Model answer

First, the Native population of the Caribbean islands collapsed, killed by smallpox and other diseases and by overwork in mines and fields, so there were far fewer Native workers to force into labor. Second, sugar plantations needed large numbers of workers for hard, year-round labor, and Portuguese traders already shipped enslaved Africans across the Atlantic, so colonists bought captives to fill that need.

Apply Apply it

Practice these topics. AP Practice questions on exactly what this lesson covers, with an explanation for every answer.

Practice these topics