17 - Spanish Empire (abridged)

New Spain

Spanish colonial administrative unit including Central America, Mexico, and the southeast and southwest of the present-day United States; governed from the capital of Mexico City

Viceroyalty of Peru

Spanish colonial administrative unit including most of Spanish-ruled South America; governed from the capital of Lima

Spanish East Indies

colonies of the Spanish Empire in Asia and Oceania from 1565 until 1901: the Philippines, Marianas, Carolines, Palaos and Guam, as well as parts of Formosa, Sulawesi and the Moluccas

Manila galleons

first permanent trade route across the Pacific; heavily armed, fast ships made or two round-trip voyages per year between Mexico and the Philippines from 1565 to 1815; exchanged Asian spices and porcelain for Mexican silver

audiencia

royal court of appeals established in Spanish colonies of the New World; there were 16 throughout Spanish America; part of colonial administrative system; staffed by professional magistrates

haciendas

rural estates in Spanish colonies in New World; produced agricultural products for consumers in America; basis of wealth and power for local aristocracy

Jose de Galvez

(1720-1787) Spanish minister of the West Indies and chief architect of colonial reform; moved to eliminate Creoles from upper bureaucracy of the colonies; created intendants for local government

Tupac Amaru II

(1738-1781) mestizo leader of Indian revolt in Peru; supported by many among lower social classes; revolt eventually failed because of Creole fears of real social revolution

Zacatecas

Mexican settlement in New Spain founded in 1546 after the discovery of one of the world's richest silver veins; produced one-fifth of the world's silver by the 1700s

sistema de castas

colonial Spanish America social hierarchy based on racial origins; Europeans or whites at top, black slaves or Native Americans at bottom, mixed races in middle

Virgin of Guadalupe

an apparition of the Virgin Mary that appeared to a Mexican farmer in 1531; exerted a powerful attraction to surviving Amerindians of Mesoamericans; an icon of Mexican identity

Spanish Main

coastal waters of the mainland Spanish colonies on the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea; point of departure for enormous American wealth shipped to Spain in the form of gold, silver, gems, spices, hardwoods, hides and other riches; a ripe target for pirates and privateers

Spanish treasure fleet

first permanent transatlantic trade route connecting Spain and the Spanish colonies in the Americas; transported American agricultural goods, lumber, silver, gold, gems, pearls, spices, sugar, tobacco, silk, and other exotic goods to Spain

War of Spanish Succession

followed the Bourbon family's succession to Spanish throne in 1701; ended by Treaty of Utrecht in 1713; resulted in recognition of Bourbon dynasty in Spain, loss of some lands, grants of commercial rights to English and French

encomienda

grant of Indian laborers made to Spanish conquerors and settlers in Mesoamerica and South America; basis for earliest forms of coerced labor in Spanish colonies

mit'a

labor extracted for lands assigned to the state and the religion; all communities were expected to contribute; an essential aspect of Inca imperial control

Miguel Cabrera

mestizo painter of New Spain; created religious and secular art for the Catholic Church and wealthy patrons; his casta paintings depicted interracial marriage among Amerindians, Spaniards and Africans

Cerro Potosi

mountain in the Peruvian Andes; its rich mines provided vast quantities of silver for Spain; one of the largest colonial cities in the Americas

peninsulares

people born in Spain and Portugal living in the New World

mulatos

people of mixed European and African ancestry in the New World Spanish colonies

mestizos

people of mixed European and native ancestry in Mesoamerica and South America; particularly prevalent in areas colonized by Spain; often part of forced labor system

viceroyalties

two (later four) major divisions of Spanish colonies in New World; one based in Lima; the other in Mexico City; direct representatives of the king

Creoles/criollos

white Latin Americans of Spanish descent born in the New World Spanish colonies; dominated local Latin American economies and ranked just beneath peninsulares