"This city and province is filling up with a great number of mestizos, who are the children of Spanish men and Indian women. Because they are born out of wedlock and raised without proper instruction, many of them wander idly through the countryside or settle in the towns of the Indians, where they commit many offenses and cause great disorder. If your Majesty does not command that they be gathered into communities, taught trades, and prohibited from wandering among the Indians, their growing numbers will pose a grave danger to the peace and security of this land."
— Luis de Velasco, Viceroy of New Spain, letter to the King of Spain, 1553
Which of the following social developments in the Spanish colonies is most directly illustrated by the concerns expressed in the excerpt?
- AThe Spanish colonial policy of treating all indigenous populations as a single, culturally homogeneous group
- The emergence of a racial classification system designed to preserve Spanish supremacy amidst demographic changeCevap
- CThe transition from the encomienda system of coerced labor to a system of private land ownership for mixed-race families
- DThe disruption of local economies caused by the introduction of New World crops like maize and potatoes into native agriculture