🏛️ Spanish Colonial Society
This group, born in Spain, held the highest government and church positions in the colonies.
What is the Catholic Church?
This institution spread Christianity in the colonies and built schools and hospitals.
What is the Catholic Church?
This system used forced Indigenous labor in mines like PotosĂ.
What is the encomienda system?
This event in 1808 triggered independence movements when Napoleon invaded Spain.
What is Napoleon’s invasion of Spain in 1808?
This term describes strong military leaders who ruled through force after independence.
What are caudillos?
These people were of Spanish descent born in the Americas and were often wealthy but excluded from top power.
What is syncretism (syncretic religion)?
This is the term for blending Indigenous/African beliefs with Catholicism.
What is syncretism (syncretic religion)
This Incan labor system required people to work for the state.
What is the mita system?
This philosophy emphasized natural rights and government by consent.
What is Enlightenment philosophy?
This system of large estates kept economic inequality after independence.
What are haciendas?
This term describes people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry.
Who are mestizos?
Spanish missionaries destroyed these sacred Indigenous books and records, especially the Maya ones.
What are codices?
This leader led the Great Andean Rebellion against Spanish rule in 1780–1781.
Who is Tupac Amaru II?
This revolution created the first independent Black republic in the Americas.
What is the Haitian Revolution?
This region faced frequent coups, civil wars, and unstable governments after independence.
What is political instability in Latin America?
This system forced Indigenous people to provide labor and tribute to Spanish landowners.
What is the encomienda system?
This belief system led missionaries to justify destroying Indigenous religious practices as “devil worship.”
What is cultural destruction / cultural genocide?
This rebellion involved up to 100,000 followers but was eventually crushed by Spain.
What is the Great Andean Rebellion (1780–1781)?
This leader was known as “El Libertador” and helped free much of South America.
Who is SimĂłn BolĂvar?
This economic pattern involved exporting raw materials to foreign powers.
What is an export-oriented economy based on raw materials?
This mining city in modern Bolivia produced massive silver wealth but caused millions of Indigenous deaths.
What is PotosĂ?
This happened when Indigenous cultures were suppressed but still survived in modified forms.
What is cultural survival and blending?
This phrase means “to shake off unbearable burden” and was said by Tupac Amaru II.
What is Tupac Amaru II’s declaration against Spanish rule?
This priest rang the church bell in 1810 starting the Mexican independence movement.
Who is Miguel Hidalgo (Grito de Dolores)?
This is the long-term impact of colonial rule on wealth, culture, and politics today.
What are the lasting effects (legacies) of colonialism?