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.