Burkholder And Johnson Summary Chapter 4

While in chapter three Burkholder and Johnson analyzed the imperial organization of the Spanish and Portuguese empires, in chapter four, Burkholder and Johnson discuss how the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese to the New World affected the region’s demographic makeup, and labor relations. They describe the changes in the indigenous populations in the New World, broken down by region, and the development of the Iberian population in the colonies. While the indigenous populations plummeted due to disease and abuse, Spanish immigrants began establishing families as their presence grew. Burkholder and Johnson also cover the development of new ethnic groups, caused by the introduction of African slaves and the significant racial mixing that