Latin America

The new Latin American empires of Spain and Portugal maintained special contacts with the West. Western forms were imposed on indigenous cultures as the militarily superior European invaders conquered their lands. Latin America became part of the world economy as a dependent region. The Iberians mixed with native populations and created new political and social forms. The resulting mixture of European, African, and Indian cultures created a distinctive civilization. Indian civilization, although battered and transformed, survived and influenced later societies. Europeans sought economic gain and social mobility; they used coerced laborers or slaves to create plantations and mine deposits of precious metals or diamonds.
Spaniards and Portuguese: From Reconquest to Conquest. Iberians had long inhabited a frontier zone where differing cultures interacted. Muslims invaded and conquered in the eighth century; later small Christian states formed and began a long period of reconquest. By the middle of the fifteenth century, a process of political unification was under way. Castile and Aragon were united through marriage. Granada, the last Muslim kingdom, fell in 1492, and Castile expelled its Jewish population.
Iberian Society and Tradition. The distinctive features of Iberian societies became part of their American experience. They were heavily urban; many peasants lived in small centers. Commoners coming to America sought to become nobles holding Indian-worked estates. Strong patriarchal ideas were reflected in the family life, which was based on encomiendas, large estates worked by Indians. The Iberian tradition of slavery came to the New World. So did political patterns. Political centralization in Portugal and Castile depended on a professional bureaucracy of trained lawyers and judges. Religion and the Catholic Church were closely linked to the state. The merchants of Portugal and Spain had extensive experience with the slave trade and plantation agriculture on