Introduction
Many communities have undergone various political, economic, and social changes mostly because of adopting the characters and values of the other communities they come in contact with. Early civilization and rulers used force against the weak communities they came into contact with for their own benefit. Communities that had a small population found it hard to compete with larger communities and thus found themselves being taken as slaves in the larger communities.
The process of conquering one community after another had various consequences, both negative and positive. Several communities leaders used different means to ensure that their community members were at advantage over their neighbors.
Spain is one of the earliest countries that used force against her neighbors to develop an empire for the benefit of her population.
The Early Spain Empire
Poverty has been a subject of concern for a long time in the memorial. According to Dinge, someone was identified as being poor if the person was in danger of becoming indigent. “Using this distinction, approximately 15 percent of the urban population could be classified as being poor, who were liable to fall into indigence in times of crisis,” (Elliot, 1990, 736). Many families have had to look for different means of survival to avoid falling into indigence, for instance through serving as buffers.
In most cases, some political maneuvering and compromise that accompanies efforts to contend with subsistence and epidemiological crisis have had effects on the lives of the poor. To control poverty in the city, lack of funds and uncertainty about who is to bear the costs hampered a system that could have created a centrally organized relief. Such cases made those who were elite in the society to look for short term measures that would solve an immediate problem, rather than developing a long term solution strategy to help the poor.
Poverty is one thing that made many people who were helpless to suffer in the hands of those who were powerful in the early centuries. This was through slavery and slave trade, as well as being put in forced labor. For instance, the Aztecs, alias the Mexican, underwent such cases. Aztecs was a small group in the Southwest United that lived a nomadic life.
They were not welcomed in many societies and even served as slaves in some places that had more civilized people on the shores of great Lakes valley of Mexico (Landes, N.d). In that period, slavery was a school for war and power. Those in power had to get more slaves to work for them in places such as the mines, and in their farms.
The working environment for the slaves was very tough and many of them received punishment from their masters if they did not work as supposed. Many of the punishments were very in humane. For instance, slaves were stripped naked, tied, and beaten. In some instances, they were even tied and left outside standing, or even tied upside down on rack structures while again being naked.
When the Aztec community, broke from slavery, they fled into reed-choked fastnesses and took refuge there until their numbers grew, and also became stronger. The community later came out looking for drinking water and conquered all those they came in contact with. The community used a combination of art, prowess and terror to unstrung their adversaries, and make them to surrender before being defeated. This terror took the form of industrialization of blood sacrifice.
When the Aztec conquered all the communities they came in contact with, they ended up to form the one of the earliest Spanish empire that later contributed into the world globalization.
One of the communities that the Spaniards conquered was the Indians. The Spaniards used various means to control the Indians. For instance, the “encomendero” was assigned land (“Encomienda”). The duty of encomendero was to take care of the religious education of the Indians subjected to him, in return, the Indians were supposed to pay tribute for protection and religious support (class 6). The Indians were therefore required to accept Christianity religion (requiremento), and those who refused, their slavery was permitted. The high priests were given the powers to baptize the Christian believes. King Charles (1542-49) passed the Leyes Nueyas, laws. These laws were aimed at protecting the Indians against the slavery of Indians.
The population of the Indians was very high before the coming of the Spaniards and other communities in America. But their population continued to drop as years went by. The population of the Africans (among major immigrants) continued also to grow in America and it is one race that was highly used in slavery and slave trade. The Africans were put to work in the agricultural plantations and other places for their masters. As Landes explains, “the brutalities perpetrated by these plantations and ingenious can only be explained by the assumption that the blacks were seen as no better than inanimate pieces of equipment, to be used up and replaced as needed, or as fuel to be consumed in the fires,” (chapter 8).
The agricultural development of the American society saw increased production of commodities such as maize tomatoes, cocoa, beans, tobacco, peanuts, squash, pineapple, pumpkin, vanilla and rubber. The country on the other hand received a lot of immigrants from other regions, domestic animals, coffee, sugar and bananas.
The farm works contributed to a high level of mistreating the black slaves. There was a lot of work during the grinding season. During this period, the workers did jobs around the clock. “Overseers and drivers imposed near continuous toil; adult males worked twenty hours a day,” (Landes chapter 8). The workers were provided food by their masters but some masters never felt any obligation to feed their workers. Furthermore, some masters gave a free Sunday to their workers to work on their own farms and gather food for the whole week, while others just left their slaves to fend for themselves. In this case Landes argues that the masters had “more care for the animals than for the slaves; resting them as needed–not presumably because of love for animals, but because these dumb creatures would simply stop where a slave, who had the mind and imagination to fear worse, would work on,”(chapter 8).
Slaves faced many problems in the community and in the working areas, among the problems were diseases. Smallpox is one such disease that affected the slaves in the early Spanish empire. The disease spread due to poor knowledge and education on how to handle the disease. The slaves used running water directly from the rivers, and this could have contributed to the spread of the disease among the slaves.
The increased agricultural production brought about trading between the Spanish empire and the regions that surrounded it. The trade used silver as a means of currency exchange. The major trade routes were between the Caribbean, Western Europe, and West Africa. This is part of the birth of the current globalization of the markets.
The Spanish empire also managed to grow strong in many areas due to the development of the Spanish grammar. The ability to read and write makes communication easier, and also increases knowledge and power among the community. The literature was thus an integral tool in the expansion of the Spanish empire.
Conclusion
The development and revolution of the Spanish empire showed how the communities that were able to conquer the weak and poor communities were able to manipulate them for their own benefits. The darkest side of the empire rule is depicted with the way the masters handled their servants, treating them more much less important than even animals.
The other dark side of early empire can be shown by the work of Tlacallel. The Aztec innovation was the work of a member of the royal family Tlacallel, king maker and advisor to series of emperors. “Tlacallel instituted blood orgies that lasted days and brought hundreds, then thousands, of victims to stone, their hearts ripped out while still beating, their blood spattered and wrinkled on idols, their bodies rolled down the steps and butchered to furnish culinary delicacies to the Aztec aristocracy”,(Landes, Chapter 8)
The early Spanish empire cannot however be blamed on the dark side alone, but needs to be given credit for contributing to the growth of globalization that has continued to benefit most economic areas in the entire universe. The development of the Spanish grammar is also a very important step that has obviously contributed to the general literature growth and international communication.
Reference:
Elliot J. H (1990): Spain and its World, 1500-1700, Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 21. No. 4 p 735-736.
Landes D.S (N.d): The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. Week 6 PowerPoint Presentation.