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Difficulty: MediumSpanish Encomienda and Labor Systems

Read the excerpt below and answer the question.

"The native populations of this island have been so reduced by the pestilence and their flight into the mountains that the Spanish settlers can no longer sustain their estates or pay the royal taxes. Where there once were thousands of native laborers, now barely a few dozen remain to work the sugar mills. If your Highness does not grant licenses to import robust laborers from the West African coast, these lands will be entirely abandoned, and the revenues to the Crown will cease."
—Alonso de Zuazo, Spanish colonial administrator in Hispaniola, letter to the Spanish Crown, 1518

The conditions described in the excerpt most directly contributed to which of the following sixteenth-century developments?

  1. A
    The conversion of Spanish colonial estates into small, private land grants owned by Indigenous agriculturalists.
  2. B
    The exportation of native Caribbean sugarcane crops to establish new agricultural industries in Europe.
  3. The expansion of the transatlantic slave trade to supply labor for plantation economies.Answer
  4. D
    The widespread replacement of coerced labor with English-style systems of temporary indentured servitude.

Answer

The expansion of the transatlantic slave trade to supply labor for plantation economies.
The correct answer is correct because the catastrophic decline of the Indigenous population due to European diseases and colonial exploitation created a severe labor shortage on Spanish colonial estates. To sustain highly profitable cash crop agriculture, such as sugar production, Spanish colonizers successfully petitioned the Crown to import enslaved West Africans, accelerating the development of the transatlantic slave trade.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the primary source text for the primary cause of the labor crisis.
The author identifies disease ('pestilence') and resistance ('flight into the mountains') as the main causes for the collapse of the Indigenous labor force.
This establishes the historical context of a severe labor shortage in the early Spanish Caribbean.
2
Determine the solution proposed by the Spanish administrator to maintain production.
The administrator requests royal licenses to import laborers from the West African coast to sustain the sugar mills and preserve Crown revenues.
This identifies the direct transition point from reliance on Indigenous labor to African labor.
3
Connect the proposed solution to the broader historical consequence of the sixteenth century.
The rising demand for plantation labor in the face of Indigenous population decline directly expanded the transatlantic slave trade.
This confirms why the option concerning the transatlantic slave trade is the correct answer.

Key Concept

The transition from the encomienda system to African chattel slavery in the Spanish colonial empire due to the demographic collapse of Indigenous populations.
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Topics

Spanish Encomienda and Labor Systems

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