The Influence Of The Spanish Imperial System In Latin America

To start off, the Spanish along with the Portuguese conquered the Aztec and Inca civilizations in the 1500's and European culture started to make their way through into the America's. As a result of this, African slaves were introduced to the America's. After that, disease started wiping out the Natives and about 90% were killed and it also wiped out many cultures. Next, Spain organized an imperial system to explore and also exploit the land along with also exploiting labor. The Spanish empire had become the biggest European empire since ancient Rome. As stated in an article called Spanish Colonization Introduction it states "and Spain used the wealth of the Americas to finance nearly endless warfare in Europe, protecting the Americas with a vast navy and powerful army and bringing Catholicism to the New World" which means they were using the money they were making from the America's for their own uses.

It benefited only few and those of which were the Spanish who conquered the land only until much after the conquest. It did not benefit the Spanish because once they conquered the land it states in the book "Soon after conquest Spanish America came to rely on silver mines for foreign exchange and Portuguese Brazil on sugar. Gold, found in many parts of Spanish America, was discovered in Brazil just before 1700" (Lane, Restall 67). They had to depend on other sources for gold and sugar. Even after they came across problems such as slaves revolting against them, problems with the maroons, and/or runaways. Just like the Spanish, its inhabitants of the land encountered problems as well; like their labor being exploited. They also came across the Catholic religion being imposed on