"Item: We order and command that henceforward, for no cause of war or any other . . . can any Indian be made a slave, and we will that they be treated as our vassals of the Crown of Castile, as they are. . . . Furthermore, we command that the royal councils shall make it their principal care to see to the preservation and increase of the Indians . . . and that they be not encomendados [held in encomienda] by any person, but rather placed under our Royal Crown, to be taught and indoctrinated in the tenets of our Holy Catholic Faith."
— Emperor Charles V, New Laws of the Indies, 1542
Which of the following historical developments in the Spanish colonies during the sixteenth century is best reflected by the passage?
- AA shift from granting private land ownership to Spanish colonists toward state-regulated communal land grants for Indigenous communities.
- BA policy aiming to transition Indigenous laborers from temporary indentured servitude contracts to lifelong hereditary chattel slavery.
- Attempts by the Spanish Crown to assert greater centralized authority over colonial labor and curb the political power of local encomenderos.Answer
- DThe Crown's desire to safeguard the production of native American cash crops like wheat and sugarcane from the disruptions of local labor rebellions.
Answer
Attempts by the Spanish Crown to assert greater centralized authority over colonial labor and curb the political power of local encomenderos.
The correct answer is correct because the New Laws of 1542 represented an attempt by the Spanish Crown to reassert royal authority over the encomienda system, limit the exploitation of Indigenous peoples, and prevent the encomenderos from establishing a hereditary feudal aristocracy in the Americas.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
The Spanish Crown's efforts to regulate colonial labor systems and assert sovereign control over the encomienda system in the sixteenth century.
Estimated Time:2m 0s