immediate consequences were the physical decimation of local populations, the destruction of their way of life and their enslavement in mines, plantations and mills. Estimates indicate that pre-conquest Mexico had a population of between and . million, the Andean region a similar number while Central America had between and million. The natives on the eve of the arrival of the Europeans totalled million.
A century and a half later, they had reduced to . million. Warfare and disease were primarily responsible for this. The sudden destruction of the two major civilisations – those of the Aztecs and the Incas – in America highlights the contrasts between the two cultures in combat.
Both with the Aztecs and the Incas, the nature of warfare played a crucial role in terrorising local inhabitants psychologically and physically. The contest also revealed a fundamental difference in values. The Spanish avarice for gold and silver was incomprehensible to the natives. The enslavement of the population was a sharp reminder of the brutality of the encounter.
Slavery was not a new idea, but the South American experience was new in that it accompanied the emerging capitalist system of production. Working conditions were horrific, but the Spanish regarded the exploitation as essential to their economic gain. The capitalist system of production is one in which the means of production and distribution are owned by individuals or corporates and where competitors participate in a free market. Sketch of a typical Spanish township in South America.
The silver mines in Peru began to function in the 1550s, and the monk Dominigo de Santo Tomas reported to the Council of the Indies that the Potosi was a mouth of hell which swallowed Indians by the thousands every year and that greedy mine owners treated them like stray animals. In , Philip II of Spain publicly banned forced labour, but made arrangements by a secret decree for its continuation. Things came to a head with the law of , which gave full freedom to the local people, Christian and non-Christian alike. The European settlers were enraged, and