Colonial motivation

Several of my colleagues have concluded that, at least as interpreted by Stern, the Spaniards' primary motivation was profit (or greed) and I am inclined to agree with them. The colonials had "an insatiable thirst for the money-commodities" and "commercial capital, understood as buying (or producing) cheap to sell dear, became the lifeblood of the colonial economy" (37). This desire to ensure commercial gain above all else is what led to the entrenchment of colonial society; the redefinition of social relationships and the creation of coercive dependencies was more the result of Spanish profit/greed than another part of their outlook (157).

As discussed in class, this leads to Stern associating religion with economic motives rather than taking a more inclusive approach along the lines of Conrad & Demarest. This makes sense given that he is taking a Marxist-flavored approach, as indicated by the phrasing of a sentence in his closing chapter: "An important aspect of peasant resistance, therefore, was the attempt to assert internal solidarities which strengthened defenses, and imposed pressures on Indians to remain loyal to their own people" (193). One of Marx's views was that allowing oneself/one's society to be driven to capitalism led to a flawed society, and we can see that reflected in Stern's emphasis on the uneven and exploitative nature of colonial society. (He does discuss resistance, but this is both to show indigenous agency and to highlight the problems of this profit-driven society.)

Motivating Factors

Although Conrad and Demarest view religious ideology as the main motivating factor for historical change during the Spanish conquest, Stern argues that economic gain and greed were the true motivating factors. It quickly became clear that the Spanish conquistadors were mainly motivated by wealth. A major example of this Spanish greed can be seen in the exploitation of native Andean people as cheap labor to increase their wealth.  The Spanish conscripted a labor force of locals for many different tasks.  Mainly these mitayos labor forces were used in the colonial silver mines, however they were also used for obraje workshops, agriculture, ranching, or any other tasks that they could be used for. (p. 82) When more laborers were needed to increase the wealth of the Spanish, in the event of something like the discovery and the mining of silver, natives were simply conscripted and put to work. (p. 107)

Greed was not only in play on the side of the Spanish, many Indian communities, local chiefs and leaders especially, were easily swayed by their want of wealth promised by a cooperation with the Spanish.  Andean elites were often given gifts of slaves, livestock, and fine clothes in order to receive their cooperation in transforming the region as the Spanish saw fit. (p. 31)

Through the events that took place in the Andean region in the colonization period it is easy to see why Stern argues that economic gain and greed are the main motivating factors for historical change.  Without the Spanish’s obsessive quest for silver and riches, or the local elite’s lust for wealth and status in the rising Spanish colony the region would have so drastically.

last post! week 15

I believe that the motivating factor is economic gain.  Stern bases his entire book off the changing economy of Huamanga and the surrounding regions.  It is a well known fact that the Spanish were out for economic gains.  The dependency in which the Spanish were able to place on the natives furthered their goals and created a stronger hold on the natives.  The Spaniards luck of finding such a richly populated area of resources and manual labor helped them to achieve their "Gold, Glory, and God."  I however, think that Stern's book should be labeled Peru's Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Colonization, because the information that he presents shows that the Spaniards have already conquered the natives and made them dependent.  They have created a colony in which the natives must pay the colonials and Spain in order to live.  Stern believes that the conquest is still going on today in Peru (193), but I believe that is a different issue of Conquest.  The conquest of Huamanga was completed once control was placed over the natives.  The natives had uprisings but then taken care of.  In any colony there are groups who do not agree but ultimately the area is conquered and the people now work to support the mother country.  Stern's motivating factor of economic gain solidifies this idea of colonization.  It is through the economy that we can see how the Spanish strived for money through goods and resources such as the strong mining locations in the Andes, which ultimately enabled them to achieve more power.

motivating factors

We have read many different books in this class, and one thing they all seem to incorporate is the importance of monetary gain. Steve Stern agrees with the fact that monetary gain is the reason for expansion, as well as greed. If these so called conquerers weren't so greedy then there may not have been such strong motivating factors. An example of the limitless greed they portrayed in on page 27 in which Stern writes, "the looting of prestigious shrines and the European thirst for precious metals created the folk legend that Spaniards ate gold and silver instead of food"(Stern 27). It is known how greedy the Spaniards were at the time of conquest that there is even a black legend exaggerating that fact and feeding into what people thought of the conquerers of the time. They also exploited the indigenous people who were entrusted to them by the crown in order to gain monetarily and through the labor that they did. There are many example of the exploitation of indigenous including the mita system and wage labor, all of which kept the indigenous poor and it helped the Spaniards become more rich and powerful. As in any case there were other motivating factors, but wealth and greed seemed to be the most powerful one.

Motivating Factor that caused Historical Change

Throughout the readings that we have done, we have discovered that the main motivation for the change of history was the Spanish search for gold. Although I do agree that these were the intentions of the Spanish Crown at the beginning, in reality the motivation was later evolved to another kind by the conquistadors which was the desire to rise in the social hierarchy. As Matthew Restall states in his book, "the ultimate goal of every conquistador [was] royal confirmation of the governorship of an imperial province." (Restall, 21) Steve J. Stern also states this at the beginning of chapter 2 where he states "The Europeans, riding the crest of Spain's explosive search for gold, territory and Catholic salvation, wanted riches and lordship." (Stern, 27) This is also evident through the rivalry that Diego Velázquez and Hernan Cortés had going on when Cortés wanted the the license to conquer in order to become governor. The probanzas de merito was a key contributor to be awarded an encomienda because it was the way that a conquistador could report to the King of Spain all of his achievements, thus being granted an encomienda. Interestingly enough, Stern stresses the utopia of social precedence. This utopia "implied three achievements: escape from stifling subordination and constraint in an old society, rise to a position of command and authority over human dependents and clients in a new society, and acquisition of a recognized claim to high honor or service that legitimated reward and social superiority." (Stern, xxviii) As we can see, this transformation of motivation is very apparent throughout the readings.

reposted: 4 the black legend

I believe that Conrad and Demarest do no fully engage in the black legend. The black legend paints the native people as helpless and naive while the Spaniards are painted as ruthless barbarians who kill the natives without mercy or the special consideration due to women and children. The authors make an effort to make sure  the reader is not given an image of weak natives, they make sure to show the reader the fact that the natives were not helpless or docile people thus disagreeing with the first part of the black legend. On the other hand the authors do not try to make the Spaniards look good. And do in fact seem to agree with the image of the ruthless barbaric Spaniard who killed without mercy. They do focus more on the religiously motivated acts, and the forceful, even violent, suppression of native religions and religious practices. This focus though also helps to highlight how very not innocent and helpless the natives were. It mentioned the wars that the native people engaged in before the arrival of the Spaniards. It mentioned how they took people into slavery and practiced human sacrifice, neither of these fit with the black legend’s view of the Native Americans. Conrad and Demarest do not really hold true to the black legend. While they do subscribe to the image of the Spaniards as ruthless killers I do not believe that Conrad and Demarest truly subscribe to the black legend in their book Religion and Empire.

Motivating factor.

Throughout all the books we have read we see that the main goal for the Spanish conquerers were to gain more money/gold. Gold was a great incentive for them to come to the Americas. I say this because in the book the ambivalent conquest we see that a lot of the Spanish tried conquering the lands of the Mayans by searching for gold there. Even though there were not able to find any gold there they believe that there were some there and still kept searching (Conrad/demerast). Also in the book of Malinche we see that a lot of the system of the spanish when landing in the America's were set to establish an economic system. This is where encomenderos owned different parts of the lands of the Natives. This also shows that economics served as an important factor for the Spanish to go to America and to stay. In the Andean even before the Spanish arrived there was an economic system run by the Natives there. With the purpose of providing a factor within the Andeans to kept themselves alive and to keep their farming going. Classes were important and showed specific roles of the Natives. Once the Spanish arrive the system was kept, but someone the spanish gained some control over it where they were able to export raw material to Europe where products were made. This allowed for the rise of capitalism and somehow allowed the spanish to take control of the economic system in the Andeas. This shows that economic factor is very important(Stern). Overall, we see that economic factor was pretty much one of the fundamental basics for the Spanish to stay in the AMERICAS. Even before they arrived the were already a system that allowed the Natives to stay alive. Gold and other important metals were a drawn factor to the spanish. Although religion was used by the spanish as a decoy to stay there and say that they needed to spread christianity it was all about them gaining power, and go up in class. As the book summarizes good material, such as clothes, showed importance,they wanted that and more, therefore they stay in the Americas.

How Profit was a movitating factor in Historical Change

The Indigenous communities were well organized and established in their allyus.  They were led by their Kurukas who represented the best in a recipricol relationship in which the commoners labored while the Kurakas took care of the spiritual needs (Stern,16-17) Profit was the motivating factor which allowed for the Conquistadors to corrupt the nature of Andean society.

Indian kurakas were showered with gifts by Conquistadors to recieve land and encomiendas (Stern, 31) In return, the Kurakas thought they would benefit by an alliance with the Conquistadors to advance their own interests.

The Spanish capitalist system in the Andes was new and, "Unleashed the key drive- profit, in "money" or easily exchangeable commodities... An insatiable third for the money commodities (precious metals) and the hope to make money "work" or grow." (Stern 37)

The indians became apart of European economics and they Indians too joined in the creation of a colonial society "impelled by the hunt for money and commercial profit." (Stern, 39)

As more opportunities for profit were discovered, labor problems arrose.   There were labor shortages because "there was an expansion for agricultural, ranching, manufacturing, artisanal, mining, and commercial interprises."  (Stern, 140)  All these enterprises were motivated by fortune-seekers looking to profit, causing labor shortages.

The result of the shortages of labor.  As a result forced/roational labor was unsustainable.  Fortune-seekers  implemented a new way for people to profit through wage labor. (Stern, 141)  Some indians began to abandon their allyus  for profit in wage labor, further affecting the indigenous communities ability to sustain themselves, which created a condition of dependency.

The idea of profit is responsible for the rise of the Conquistadors.  Profit is responsible for rivalries amongst the conquistadors and Andeans. Profit is responsible for the corruption of the Andean chiefs.  Profit is responsible for the break down the reciprocal relationship of the Andean Communties.  Profit created the system of dependency which is still evident today.

Motivational Factors in Sterns Book

Throughout this course we have discussed many topics relating to what motivated that Spanish to “conquer” Latin America. The books that we have read all share one common theme, and that is wealth. In Peru’s Indian Peoples and the Challenges of Spanish Conquest Stern discusses many issues in his book. The motivating factors in sterns books are multifaceted, however one in particular stands out wealth acquisition.  GOLD, god, and glory we have been drilled with this saying since middle school. Why is gold first? Wealth is the primary reason the Spanish came to the Americas. They functioned under the economic principal of mercantilism, which states that the “wealth of a nation depends on its possession of precious metals and therefore that the government of a nation must maximize the foreign trade surplus, and foster national commercial interests, a merchant marine, thee establishment of colonies.”

            Claiming new territory for the crown and converting souls to Christianity, were important. However I believe these two factors come secondary to search for gold and sliver. The Europeans acquired territory and salvation for the crown because they wanted riches and lordships (27).  The conquistadors knew that they had to meet this requirement in order to get wealth. As we know form pervious books we met, conquistadors would write probanzas de merito to the Spanish kings claiming that they had converted savages and fully had control of their lands. There motivation was wealth/gold.  Stern best sums this up when he writes, “The colonial ventures of Spain and Portugal created a genuine world market and commercial system which unleashed the key drive—profit, in “money” or easily exchangeable commodities--- which motivates capitalist production” (37). Wealth and greed were the motivating factors that lead change and caused the social systems to develop in Latin America. 

Motivating Factors

In many of the books that we have read this semester, we have seen that the motivating factors for the Spanish conquest was that fact that they were looking to find power, spread their religious ideologies, and find wealth. In Sterns book, Peru’s Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest we see that these motivating factors are very similar to those of the other books we have read. For instance, Stern states that Pizarro would distribute encomiendas to his conquistador allies. It was said that these conquistadores were free to do whatever they wanted in terms of commanding “…tribute and labor from his wards,” but he needed hold a higher standard, “As the personal representative of the Crown in the field, the encomendero could use lordship over “his” people to enrich himself, but he also carried the burden of forging colonial relationships with the new Indian subjects” (Stern 28). This shows that Stern distributed power along the new Incan territory that he had just discovered, and this is how he slowly was developing power of his own. By handing out this power, he was successfully networking. He was making connections with the Indians through his conquistadores by not having to personally build relationships on his own. This right here is just one of the many examples in Sterns book of the motivational factors that led the Spanish to change during this conquest. This particular example shows how they conquered land in order to gain power over their people. It was pertinent that they build a relationship with the Incans because that is how they would acquire this land and later on find wealth. 

What was their motivation?

As we briefly discussed in class, one of the leading motivating factors of change in the stern book was the desire for wealth from the Spanish. “The Europeans, riding the crest of Spain’s explosive search for gold, territory, and Catholic Salvation, wanted riches and lordship” (Stern, 27). The Spanish greediness of conquering land to obtain gold was one of their motivational factors, which of course led to other changes.

The idea of encomienda was used to force labor onto the indigenous in return of teachings of the Christian faith. Stern said, “The encomendero lord was charged with servicing the Crown’s military and political needs in the colony, and with tending to the material and spiritual wellbeing of the Indian pagans “entrusted” to his care. In exchange, he was free to command tribute and labor from his wards” (Stern, 27-28). This comes to show how they used the indigenous for labor, thus mainly benefiting the Spanish for their work. The use of wage labor was also mentioned in stern’s book, which I believe was another leading motivational factor. The force labor of the mita was the most oppressive and fearful institution (Stern, 84). “In exchange for two to four months of hard work under dangerous conditions, a mitayo earned not a remuneration sufficient to maintain his household’s subsistence economy and pay off tribute assessments, but rather the provided for a modest wage, along with food rations” (Stern, 85).  These forms of examples are only a portion of the kind of changes that were made as the Spanish conquered Peru, but I believe it was these changes that initiated the start of capitalism and the world system in Latin America. 

Historical Change

What created historical change in the Americas was Spanish ambition. When they came over to these new lands their motivation was to make money clear and simple. Huamanga is the perfect example of a colony that the Spanish set up in order to establish themselves in the region and make profit. This goes way back to Restall, the Spanish were entrepreneurs.  Sadly the natives would embrace the entry of commercial capital. They would be absorbed into the system and be the target of exploitation. The Spanish would create an economic system in which they would produce goods for cheap cost and sell them for higher price. This was the lifeblood of the colonial economy (p.37) They engaged themselves in agriculture, textiles, gold, silver,etc but they needed a constantly flow of labor. At first the Spanish would deal with the Kurakas to provide these needs. Things would later be reformed with Toledo where the Mita was established and the state would decide where labor would be sent. Finally it came to the point where the Natives needed the spanish to survive. They would work for them in order to receive subsistence. (p146-147) The colonials at times would go against the system itself and if the natives signed the contract they would protect them from Mita (p.145) This proves that ultimately money was the key to everything. Natives and the Spanish would undermine authority to make profit. Unfortunately it was a small minority of natives they were able to free themselves of poverty (p.158) Spanish ambitions shaped the region into a new world. If money were not important then Huamanga would have stayed the way it was in the pre-columbian time period the Spanish would not have bothered to change anything.

Motivation

In Stern's book, the focus seems to be more on material goods such as silver and gold. The Spanish would go after these materials and get them using indigenous labor. The subsequent institutions set up after the Spanish conquest of the Americas would help them get their wealth they sought as well as help satisfy their greed.
"Mining profits depended greatly upon holding wages far below the subsistence needs of Indian family economies" (Stern 108). The Spanish greed did not stop at simply extracting resources for profit. They were willing to exploit the Indian population as much as they wanted.
Spanish greed for resources and wealth affected native populations and their entire societies as well

In Steve Stern’s book Peru’s Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest it is clear the motivating factor for historical change is the Spaniards greed for wealth and resources. The driving force behind Spanish expansion and colonization was purely for economic gain. A prime example of the Spaniards greed for resources comes from page 27 in Stern’s book, he states “the looting of prestigious shrines and the European thirst for precious metals created the folk legend that Spaniards ate gold and silver instead of food”. (Stern 27) One of the first things the Spanish did after establishing colonies was establishing an economic system where they took advantage of natives, through ecomiendas, as a source of cheap labor. This need for gold, land, and prestige ultimately changed the structure of society. 

Repost week 13

I like Stern’s Writing Style. It reminds me of Conrad and Demarest’s style in that there seems to be and overarching theme of reasoning in this book. While Conrad and Demarest have the idea of religious motivation tying in to most if not all of their conclusions in Religion and Empire, Stern has the Idea of economic motivation tied into the arguments and conclusions of Peru’s Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest. While the authors of these two books will disagree on motivation they do have a very similar way of presenting information so as to hold your attention. The way they describe events and seem to focus on the aspects that support their theories helps to hold my attention, if only to see at what angle they present a incident. This form of writing also helps the reader to look at history form a different angle, especially if you have more than one angle presented. Stern is especially good because not all of what he presents is obviously pointing to one central idea. This means that to find it you have to look and read carefully to find all the little tidbits of focused information. Thus leading to a more engaging and thought provoking book that encourages viewing the historical events at different angles so as to come to your own conclusion. This makes me happy and gives me more knowledge on how to argue my point in a historical paper or debate, and also allows me to search different texts for angled viewing or do so myself.

Repost Week 9

I believe that Malintzin’s Choices is a cross between a historical text and a biography. This belief is due to the historical nature of the text and that Camilla Townsend not only focuses on Malintzin’s life but the time before and after her life. While I believe that Townsend overstepped herself when she assumed what feelings that Malintzin “must” have had. The book reads like a biography with additional background in the time before and after her life, with some of the information throughout the book reading like a dry history text.

I believe Malintzin’s Choices is a non-fiction book. The book is based on facts and real events, and is also comprised of mostly logical and historically possible events. While there are aspects of the book that are highly questionable (the emotion thing) this does not take away from a reasonable interpretation of the possible events of Malintzin’s life. This makes it like most early history books which rely more on conjecture and inferred facts than written information which is generally biased. I believe this buts it firmly in the realm of non-fiction.

I believe that this book is about Malintzin’s life , its causes, and its results, as they are seen by Camilla Townsend. I believe that this book was written to help convey this view to others who might be open to the idea. The book is obviously focused on one idea and though I do not agree with the way Townsend writes it is not a fiction novel. I believe that this book is a non-fiction historically flavored biography about the life and times surrounding the life of Malintzin.

Historical Change

In Steve Stern’s book, Peru’s Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest, he discusses the transformation of specific Andean societies and systems into Spanish dominated and directed structures. Rather than choosing one specific factor that he attributes historical change to, Stern discusses several in his book.

In Chapter Three of his book, Stern addresses the role that religious ideology had in the Taki Onkoy resistance. For the leaders of the Take Onkoy, it was not about the accumulation of wealth. “The leaders of the Taki Onqoy sought to prove that in a battle against the Christian God, the united Andean haucas would inevitably win” (60).

Another element that alters the course of history is social climate. Stern discusses the change from the ayllu society into a society divided by class, nationalism, and, eventually, race (158,159). The struggle for social status was not directly related to the accumulation of wealth, but it had very close ties. Social status offered comfortableness, security, and attention apart from pure economic advantages (Chapter 7, 170-173).

Though Stern touches on several factors that motivate historical change, the one he focuses on most is economic advantage. In the case of the Spanish Conquest, there were many different reasons for pursuing economic advantages. In the case of the Spanish, the objective of many of them was to obtain control over the native peoples and resources in order to exploit them for their own gain. In the case of the Andeans, many of the early alliances with the Spanish were motivated by disputes between native rivalries over land and agricultural production (31). Stern shows many factors to be catalysts of historical change, but focuses on economic advantages in Peru’s Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest.

week 15

Before reading stern book I thought that the most motivating factor for historical change was religion however, reading stern I realized that it is the economical gain. The desire that many had to become wealthy is what drove the Spaniards to other grounds. The Spanish when they went to the Andes found rich mines and minerals that led to the economic gains of the Spanish. When the Spanish got there they saw how much wealth they could extract from the Andean people and land and they decided to invest their time into the civilization. Not necessarily because they cared about understanding the ways of them but because they knew it would lead to better management of the wealth amongst the Spanish. The land always stayed within the encomenderos as a way of maintaining the wealth among a few. The reason as to why they had encomenderos and only a selected few that the wealth was shared amongst was not because they cared about the relations as their main goal but because they wanted to keep the most wealth. For example when stern explains on page 35 about how the economic system was formatted. When the Spanish arrived to the Andes they discovered the mountain filled with precious medal in Potosí and this was what fueled their desired for expansion of wealth. Although much of the goals and other metals were being taken to Spain some was remaining in the Andes as different forms of art such as architecture buildings like churches. There had to be a system in place for the mining to take place and it was what made the Spanish give land to the selected few because they needed people to work in the mountains to extract the goods.

week 15 post

In Peru’s Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish conquest it seems to me that Steve Stern is trying to covey his belief that the motivating factors for historical change are wealth and greed. On page 82 Stern goes into Toledo’s creation of a new draft system, which he says is motivated by a labor shortage. This system Toledo created is stated to be burdensome and a violation of Andean tradition. This system seems to be motivated by the desire for profit as there are several references on this page to cheap labor, and the chart on the next page even breaks down what would be made due to various forms of labor in Toledo’s draft system. Page 92 goes on to explain some of the ways the new draft system was maintained due to the changes in the way things were run. Throughout this you can see how profit, money and greed motivated these changes. Page 96 goes so far as to state that a Don “threw his energies into one driving purpose: to convert political eminence into quick profit” and further describes the way he went about making money in this way. There are several other people and groups that do things for their profit, such as the Spanish colonial leaders who engineered things to leave the natives always in debt so that they always had a source of cheap labor ( 82) .Overall in this book you can see where various people and groups did things not for religious racial or political purposes, but to feed their greed and make them as much profit as was possible at that time.

week 15

Money is the motivating factor in many things. Stern’s book is no exception. The desire for economic gain is the reason that drove the Spaniards to the Americas in the first place. This would not change in the later stages of conquest and colonization. The Spanish sought economic gain in a variety of ways: precious metals, agriculture, textiles and labor. This lust, however, was not confined to the Spaniards. As Stern explains, the “Indians joined in the creation of a colonial society impelled by the hunt for money and commercial profit…they sought to take advantage of the new trends and opportunities.” Most of which were the kurakas. The new society was created around the want for economic gain. For example, the labor structures such as the encomiendas and later the mita system. Hence, the Spanish, and the natives to a lesser extent, changed the society in order to meet their desires.

Motivating Factor

The motivating factor for historical change in the Stern book is economics and this was also discussed in class.  I agree with this because the reason that the conquest occurred in the first place was to find wealth for those that were not lucky enough to find it in the mother country of Spain.  It is the search for wealth that led to the discoveries of the varying empires such as the Aztec, the Inca, and the Maya.  As stern writes, “an insatiable thirst for the money-commodities (i.e., precious metals), and the hope to make money ‘work’ or grow now captivated a spreading entrepreneurial imagination.”  The reason the Spanish decided to stay and attempt to rule these native people was because they wanted wealth, they searched for gold, silver, and precious stones.  Their intentions were not to make peaceful contact and understand these civilizations, their culture, their origins, or their religion but to use the knowledge these people had of their land in order to find the gold.  The labor systems that are discussed by Stern rose because of the greedy conquistadors, elite Spaniards, elite Indians, and their ambition for wealth or their economic wellbeing.  Some of these labor systems are the encomienda, wage labor, and debt peonage with some of these, as we discussed in class, may fall under slavery or have some characteristics of slavery. The conquest became a conquest because the motivation for its beginning was economic, to get rich, to find land, to find gold, and to ascend the social hierarchy many could not achieve in Spain.  If the motivating factor would have been scientific, artistic, philosophical, or anthropological then the conquest could have been an exploration, an expedition of these foreign lands and amazing civilizations and not a conquest.  History would have taken a different turn if the motivating factor had been other than economic.

Wealth over Christianity

Like many of the books that we have read this semester, Stern discusses the reasons for the Spanish Conquest in the first place. Like Clendinnen's monograph, Stern emphasized that the Spanish's goals of imperialism and wealth were masked by the "want to convert" the indigenous. He stated, "But the aura could fade, particularly if the Spaniards tried to make the transition from simple plunder to territorial occupation, and, finally, to imperial rule". (page 27).
Stern also mentioned how other Europeans began to follow in the Spanish footsteps. "The Europeans, riding the crest of Spain's explosive search for gold, territory, and Catholic salvation, wanted riches and lordship" (page 27). According to Stern (and many other scholars), the main goal of the Spanish was to become wealthy.

The Irony of Integration

                Stern’s book explores the topic of integration of peoples and cultures while examining the Spaniards’ arrival in the Andes. While we have discussed how the Spaniards affected the way of life of the indigenous populations, we can also start to see how the indigenous communities responded after the process started to unravel. The Spaniards utilized the indigenous populations for their economic gains such as the encomiendas that were given out to conquistadors along with other interests. But, the indigenous populations’ cultures remained, and we even see the transpiration of legal development within the indigenous population to fight for their rights. (116) It is interesting that even with the challenges that were present, such as economic and social status, the indigenous won important local legal battles. The indigenous populations fought over land and labor laws that the Spaniards tried to implement at the expense of the indigenous populations. This integration transformed the area and its population in many ways producing a class division. The ironic part of the integration is that one of its main productions is this division between the different social and ethnic classes. The integration also saw the climb of a few indigenous people up the social and economic ladder. (158) Although it is clear that ideology plays a critical role in the transformation that occurred in this time period, Stern looks at how the integration of these peoples and cultures developed to make a new society.

The Main Motivation

I believe that the main motivating factor of the Spanish that Stern presents in his book is greed. Greed the desire for wealth through materialism. In the first half of his book, Stern points out the many material goods that the Spanish wanted from the Americas:

-          Gold, silver, mercury and copper from the mines and once Potosi was discovered, the Spanish claimed that as well (much of it going back to Spain, but a portion of it staying in the Americas in the form of church altars and decorations)

-          Cattle, sheep and other work animals

-          Textiles (wool, cotton, embroidered cloths) and uncommon dyes (indigo and cochineal)

-          Agricultural pursuits (sugar, coca) and vineyards

Much of the Spanish Conquest was fueled by a greedy desire to find the “City of Gold.” Once that reality was out of the picture, the Spanish needed, or wanted, something else to fill that empty desire. The mountain at Potosi filled the desire for precious metals, but after that the Spanish extracted everything else that they could from the lands.

Perhaps we could talk about another of the deadly sins here – sloth. Although the Spanish sought and got much of this material wealth, they didn’t do much of the work with their own hands. Also in the early chapters of his book, Stern points out the many ways that the Spanish extracted their wealth:

-          Through the work of ecomiendas

-          Through the work of yanaconas

-          Through the mita labor system

-          Through wage labor

-          Also through African slave labor

In the point of view of Stern’s book, the Spanish went to the Americas because they were greedy, lazy men, wanting much wealth but unwilling to lift a finger to get said wealth. Sloth fueled by greed.