Deck 4: The Economic Foundations of Colonial Life

Question 1

Between 1519 and 1605, the indigenous population of central Mexico declined by about

A) 50%.
B) 30%.
C) 90%.
D) 10%.

Answer 1

90%.

Question 2

The main reason for Spain's inability to prevent massive foreign smuggling to the Indies was

A) its lack of sea power.
B) the closed-port system.
C) an inefficient and corrupt colonial administration.
D) its industrial weakness.

Answer 2

its industrial weakness.

Question 3

The repartimiento

A) was designed to lighten the labor burdens of indigenous peoples.
B) sought to regulate the use of an ever-diminishing pool of indigenous labor.
C) aimed to provide the Spanish with a more dependable and continuing pool of labor.
D) was applied only in the mining industry.

Answer 3

sought to regulate the use of an ever-diminishing pool of indigenous labor.

Question 4

The asiento was a

A) license for foreigners to introduce textiles into the colonies.
B) trading post established by a foreign company in Spanish America.
C) royal contract with a foreign company to sell black slaves in Spanish colonies.
D) Spanish garrison maintained to guard against foreign smugglers in the Indies.

Question 5

Debt servitude

A) was more common in areas where labor was plentiful than where it was scarce.
B) was more common in areas where labor was scarce than where it was plentiful.
C) assumed its harshest form in agriculture.
D) was based on free bargaining between workers and employers.

Question 6

A major cause of the encomienda's decline was

A) heavy royal taxes on encomenderos.
B) the flight of indigenous peoples from encomienda towns.
C) the catastrophic decline of the indigenous population in the sixteenth century.
D) church pressure on encomenderos to reduce their tribute demands.

Question 7

Until the eighteenth century, legal commerce with the Indies was restricted to

A) one colonial port.
B) two colonial ports.
C) three colonial ports.
D) five colonial ports.

Question 8

The Requerimiento

A) established a code of laws to protect indigenous peoples.
B) required Spanish colonists to convert, protect, and educate their indigenous serfs.
C) obligated indigenous peoples, on pain of war, to acknowledge Spain's sovereignty and the supremacy of the church.
D) proclaimed that indigenous peoples were slaves by nature.

Question 9

The colonial economy was

A) feudal.
B) capitalist.
C) a unique type of economy.
D) a mixture of feudal and capitalist elements.

Question 10

The supposed seventeenth-century colonial depression

A) affected all of Spanish America equally.
B) affected different regions unequally.
C) caused a catastrophic decline of the silver industry in New Spain.
D) was accompanied by a spectacular increase in export of treasure to Spain.

Question 11

Bartolomé de Las Casas proclaimed that

A) the encomienda, carefully regulated, was a sound system.
B) all Spanish conquests and wars in the New World were illegal.
C) the papal grant of America to Castile gave Spain rightful possession of the Indies.
D) the Requerimiento made reasonable demands on indigenous peoples.

Question 12

The most successful piratical attacks on Spanish America were made by

A) John Hawkins.
B) Sir Francis Drake.
C) Sir Walter Raleigh.
D) Henry Morgan.

Question 13

The principal source of royal revenue from the Indies was

A) mining.
B) agriculture.
C) commerce.
D) cattle raising.

Question 14

Black slaves were principally employed in

A) domestic service.
B) plantation agriculture.
C) mining.
D) the textile industry.

Question 15

The encomienda was

A) a grant of land and indigenous labor to a Spanish colonist.
B) the assignment to a colonist of a group of natives to serve him with tribute and labor.
C) forced native labor for a colonist, who was required to pay a small wage.
D) a royal grant of land in perpetuity to a conquistador as a reward for his military services.

Question 16

The device of composición was often employed to

A) protect small farmers from the advance of the hacienda.
B) legalize the usurpation of indigenous lands.
C) endow the church with land.
D) establish an entail to preserve land undivided in the hands of a landowner's descendants.

Question 17

Labor for the obrajes was often obtained by

A) raids on indigenous villages.
B) hiring poor Spaniards and mestizos.
C) ensnaring indigenous peoples through an offer of liquor or a small sum of money.
D) purchasing black slaves from foreign slave traders.

Question 18

A major difference between preconquest and postconquest tribute demands was that, in preconquest times,

A) tribute demands were limited by the capacity of indigenous ruling classes to utilize tribute goods.
B) all Spanish tribute had to be paid in gold or silver.
C) the old ruling classes displayed a paternalistic interest in their subjects.
D) the clergy exercised a restraining influence on Spanish tribute demands.

Question 19

The New Laws of the Indies

A) permitted compulsory wage labor by indigenous peoples.
B) provided that all encomiendas were to lapse on the death of the holder.
C) made existing encomiendas hereditary and perpetual.
D) legalized debt peonage.

Question 20

The major colonial mining center before 1700 was

A) Huanacavelica.
B) Potosí.
C) Zacatecas.
D) Guanajuato.

Question 21

IDENTIFICATION
Bartolomé de las Casas

Question 22

IDENTIFICATION
asiento

Question 23

IDENTIFICATION
debt servitude

Question 24

IDENTIFICATION
mita

Question 25

The Manila Galleon was a part of the Spanish fleet system in which

A) the Crown encouraged unlimited expansion of colonial trade with Asia.
B) Spanish merchants flooded Asian markets with Spanish textiles.
C) Mexican merchants invested twice as much money as they earned in profits.
D) two ships annually sailed between Acapulco and Manila trading silver for silks.

Question 26

IDENTIFICATION
repartimiento

Question 27

IDENTIFICATION
yanaconaje

Question 28

IDENTIFICATION
alcabala

Question 29

The alcabalas were

A) excise (sales) taxes that raised royal revenues, but limited colonial market expansion.
B) elected colonial town officials responsible for collecting royal taxes.
C) royal gifts of indigenous people, who were forced to pay tribute to local Spanish officials.
D) Spanish traditions that preserved the territorial integrity of the great estates.

Question 30

IDENTIFICATION
composición

Question 31

The hacienda system dominated the colonial economy after 1550 largely because

A) acute food shortages created new demands for efficient agricultural production.
B) mayorazco assured the perpetuation of consolidated property.
C) the decline of indigenous populations and Spanish legislation weakened the encomienda.
D) intra-elite marriages consolidated the ownership of encomienda lands.

Question 32

IDENTIFICATION
New Laws of the Indies

Question 33

IDENTIFICATION
Requerimiento

Question 34

Congregación was a Spanish royal policy that

A) forced indigenous people to surrender ancestral lands to expanding haciendas.
B) enabled Spaniards to pay a fee to legalize defective titles that usurped indigenous lands.
C) assured the perpetuation of consolidated property.
D) promoted mixed-race marriages in order to increase indigenous populations.

Question 35

IDENTIFICATION
encomienda

Question 36

The encomienda originario took advantage of traditional Guaraní kinship obligations that

A) forced women in patriarchal families to provide labor services to the Spanish.
B) allocated Guaraní tributaries to Spanish masters according to their rank or merits.
C) granted labor and tribute services in return for Spain's help in defeating Guaraní enemies.
D) forced relatives of Guaraní women concubines to work for Spanish masters.

Question 37

IDENTIFICATION
visita

Question 38

IDENTIFICATION
Casa de Contratación

Question 39

IDENTIFICATION
hacienda

Question 40

IDENTIFICATION
obraje

Question 41

Trace the evolution of colonial labor systems from the encomienda to the so-called free or contractual labor. What are the constants in all these systems?

Question 42

Foreign smuggling to the Indies assumed ever larger proportions in the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. What were the causes of this contraband trade, and why was Spain unable to prevent it?

Question 43

IDENTIFICATION
repartimiento de mercancías

Question 44

Trace the evolution of Bartolomé de Las Casas' thought on the indigenous question.

Question 45

IDENTIFICATION
mercantilism

Question 46

IDENTIFICATION
mingas

Question 47

IDENTIFICATION
mayorazco

Question 48

Describe the seventeenth-century transformation of colonial silver mining and its economic and social consequences.

Question 49

IDENTIFICATION
congregación

Question 50

IDENTIFICATION
quinto

Question 51

The Spanish conquistador is often portrayed as a purely feudal type interested only in gold and plunder. What light does the career of Cortés throw on this stereotype?

Question 52

IDENTIFICATION
Manila Galleon

Question 53

Analyze the class or group interests that played a part in the making of Spain's policy toward indigenous peoples.

Question 54

IDENTIFICATION
Francis Drake

Question 55

IDENTIFICATION
encomienda originaria