Diversity within Latin America
Population: 527 million
7,000 miles long from Rio
Grande to Tierra del Fuego
8 million square miles
Sources of Socioeconomic Diversity
in Latin America
Influencing history and development of
regions within L. Am. are:
• Variations in Indigenous Presence
• Resources (physical geography and
human)
Indigenous Presence at time of
colonization
• Large, sedentary
population (Mexico,
Guatemala, Andes)
• Medium-sized, semisedentary population
(much of S. America)
• Small, non-sedentary
population
(Argentina, interior
Brazil)
Effects of Indigenous Presence on
Colonial Eco. and Labor Strategies
Where natives were present, Spanish crown developed
institutions to reward conquerors and develop labor
force
• Encomienda
• Repartimiento (mita)
Where natives were scarce, land remained unsettled or
plantation slave system was established
Encomienda as a Labor Strategy
Encomienda – land grant by crown to Spanish
colonist; required natives to pay tribute to
encomendero in exchange for physical protection
and religious instruction
Crown forbid the inheritance of encomiendas, and,
with passage of New Laws in 1542, the system died
out; replaced by repartimiento/mita system
Repartimiento as a Labor Strategy
Repartimiento required that natives be assigned to
Spanish employers to work for certain period of
time (mining, ranching, agriculture)
--referred to as the mita in Peru, and cuatequil in
Mexico
Evolved into system of debt peonage, which lasted
well into the 20th century in some countries
Plantation Slavery System
Where indigenous people had died off, or indigenous
people were scarce, plantation slave system emerged
–imported slaves from West Africa
Resources as Source of Diversity
“Gold, God and Glory” – Spanish approach to
colonization
Goal of Colonizers: Make themselves wealthy
Goal of Crown: Make the crown wealthy
Variation in Human Resources and
Physical Geography
The pattern and degree of economic development in
the Spanish and Brazilian colonies depended on
human capital (type of native population, type of
labor force) and physical geography (distance from
Viceroys in Latin America)
Core
Mexico, Peru
Periphery I
Periphery II
S. Cone, Costa Rica Cuba, Brazil, C. Am.
Indigenous
presence
settled empires
semi-sedentary
non-sedentary
Labor Structure
indentured
indigenous
European
settlers
African slaves
Link to
Colonizer
administrative/
trade centers
"boondocks"
ignored
Brazil: loose admin.
Cuba: like core
Eco/Pol
Development
criollos establ.
order, replace
peninsulares
domestic indus.
and relations
w/ foreign capital
local elite clings
to old empire
(to keep slavery)