Indigenous_People_Exploited

The Spanish employed three labour schemes targeting the indigenous population at different time periods. The Demora, the Repartimiento and Encomienda system all led to the detriment of Indigenous and was mainly for the benefit of the Spanish. The Repartimiento physically disrupted the indigenous population as under its system the Indians were moved to different areas within the colony requiring their labour within a short period of time. For instance at one time they may have engaged in gold mining and at another time they may have moved them to partake in cultivating the fields. This was a form of instability as the indigenous people did not move of their own free will and so never had the opportunity to settle their minds and this could have affected them mentally. Family life was also disrupted as most of the strenuous labour tasks such as in the fields and mines were assigned to the indigenous men. Therefore, the separation of men for months at a time from their wives and children tore apart families causing emotional distress among the men, women and children. This separation of families also bore other problems. This also brought about a lack of procreation among the Indigenous as they were not able to have relations with each other due to separation or due to being too exhausted to have relations when reunited. With the men of the communities being taken away the women were solely responsible for their families and the work to be done within the villages or communities. They therefore had to take on the role of the men by looking after the plots of land and farms in addition to performing their normal role as women providing nourishment for their families and cleaning their abodes. Hence, not only were the women overworked and exhausted but because they were not familiar with the new roles assigned to them they were not able to fulfil them as the men would. This resulted in little food being available as the women did not have the strength and vigour to cultivate the lands efficiently and so malnutrition began to set in among the women and children affecting their health. Very young children were also put at major risk as their mothers because of being overworked and malnourished, they were no longer able to produce sufficient breast milk to their young ones. This was a fatal consequence as at such tender ages they are not able to survive without proper nourishment. This also affected pregnant indigenous women as they had to endure miscarriages as their bodies could not support the development of a child. Seeing the death of an unborn child and the hunger pains endured by their family members could have also affected them mentally and emotionally. These changes affected the pace of the indigenous people’s way of life as their normal routine was disrupted. Some of the Indigenous tended to live a more relaxed life and even those who were more heavily involved in production, such as the Incas, were not familiar with being dictated to by the Spanish and were not accustomed to the emphasis the Spanish placed on increasing production to increase wealth. This physically took a toll on the Indigenous people weakening their biological systems. Severe poverty also became a characteristic of indigenous population because part of the Spanish Repartimiento and Encomienda labour schemes involved a tribute system, whereby all the Indigenous produced inevitably belonged to the Spanish and so the indigenous people always seemed to be indebted to the Spanish and never had enough to sustain themselves. In addition, while the animals brought to the new World can be seen in a positive light as highlighted previously the cattle brought needed large amounts of land to graze on. These lands distributed for this purpose was often some of the land set aside to the indigenous for cultivation of their own produce to sustain them. Therefore this further limited the food resources of the Indigenous spiralling them further into poverty. The indigenous people’s social institutions of marriage and religion as well as their culture suffered at the hands of the Spanish. Many young indigenous women were not willing to be married to indigenous men as some became the mistresses of the Spanish men. In turn, the indigenous men did not want to marry the indigenous women in fear of losing their wives to Spanish men. Therefore, indigenous men resorted to public prostitution by indigenous women cultivating a breakdown in the values held by the Indigenous. Also, the indigenous traditions and religious beliefs began to die out as the Europeans christianized and Europeanized them causing them to no longer practice their normal way of life. Therefore, the future generation of Indigenous peoples were more influenced by the European’s way of life rather than their ancestors’ own and so with time the ways of the past diffused. With all these drastic changes some of the more peaceful indigenous people became aggressive in their nature as they could not endure the harsh conditions any longer. One such group whose behaviour changed from calm to hostile was the Tainos, a group whom Las Casas initially described as ‘gentle lambs’. The negative mental, emotional and physical impact on the indigenous also caused them to be demoralized and commit certain acts in an attempt to escape their new hated lives. Many committed suicide as they believed they would go to meet their ancestors in a more peaceful place and so that place looked more appealing than staying alive in the ‘hell’. Others committed infanticide and abortion to keep their children or unborn children from entering into a world of chaos and disaster. However, the most devastating of all the negative consequences of the Spanish conquest is without a doubt the mass genocide of the Indigenous. Plagued by overwork, starvation, disease, excessive punishments and cruelty and inadequate care the indigenous people soon began to diminish at shocking rates. The Spanish brought with them many pathogens which had not existed in the region prior to their arrival. As a result the indigenous people’s immune systems had no resistance to the diseases caused by these pathogens and so they proved to be fatal to the indigenous people. In light of this argument the sexually transmitted disease, syphilis, can be used as an example. At the time, dangerous forms of syphilis existed in Europe before contact with the Indigenous. Hence, when the Spanish men had relations with the indigenous women the painful and debilitating death caused by untreated syphilis was inflicted upon the indigenous without their knowing. Diseases apart, the surviving indigenous people were decimated by the harsh work they were subjected to under the Encomienda system. This routine of work made the Indigenous labour most of their days in the mines and provision grounds. The sheer force of work therefore accounted for a great proportion of the deaths as the natives were not accustomed to the harsh regimented gang labour. Las Casas wrote of the conditions of the indigenous labour stating, “Those people, though free,” referring to the Encomienda system where the Indigenous were claimed to be free,” have been made slaves......and their masters so constantly exact the hard tasks of work they set.” (Augier, 1962, pg.4) The unrelenting cruelty of the Spaniards also resulted in many more deaths. This was accounted for by a Spaniard Las Casas, himself where he wrote in one of his books, “On the mainland, we know for sure that our fellow countrymen have through their cruelty and wickedness, depopulated and laid waste an area which once boasted more than ten kingdoms.......the diabolical behaviour of the Christians have led to unjust and totally unwarranted deaths of more than twelve million souls, women and children among them.” Therefore, Las Casas gives evidence that the Indians were not only killed in pursuit of economic and religious ends but also as a result of bigoted intolerance and pure wickedness. Some Spaniards were known to have tortured and killed indigenous people by sadistically releasing hunting dogs upon them for entertainment and sport. The Indians of the Bahamas, the Lucayos, disappeared within fifteen years of Spanish contact and in less than a hundred years the native populations of the New World disappeared leaving tiny residues in Dominica, St. Vincent, Trinidad, Mexico, Chile and Peru. (Campbell, 2004, pg.13) Miscegenation also played a part in eradicating nearly the entire indigenous population. There was a deliberate policy of encouraging male settlers and soldiers to have relations with indigenous women to impregnate them so that upon the bearing of the offspring they would separate them from indigenous villages and bring them up as Spaniards( ). The idea was that with the passing of generations the indigenous culture would have died in favour of the European culture and as the mestizo offspring had relations with other Spaniards the trace of the Indigenous race would have eventually been wiped out. In places like Hispaniola, by 1514, about forty percent of Spanish men had officially recognised wives who were of some Taino descent. (Campbell, 2004, pg.42) Summing up, the ultimate way to describe the negative impact of the Spanish conquest on the indigenous is a ‘death sentence’. They were faced with the death of their culture, religion and most of all the physical death of millions of their people.