Stern’s work does not fall under the umbrella of the Black Legend as it would have implied the Spanish as evil dominant conquerors who simply overtook the defenseless, inferior natives. However, as outlined in the beginning of the book, the native Andeans had a set societal structure that the Spanish would respect to a certain extent. Economically, the Spanish implemented an encomienda system although they intelligently maintained certain customs to gain the acceptance of the natives; the kurakas agreed to the “modernization” of their system while establishing a system of encomiendas at the same time. However, the Andean system would remain intact as the natives were able to function and survive in an efficient manner which would exemplify the lack of dominance on the part of the Spanish. It was not for a lack of technology; however, as the conquistadors realized that the system in place would set themselves up for success although that would ultimately not be the case. With their arrival and their encomienda system taking its toll, the diseases would impact the population thereby impacting the overall goal of the encomienda system. With the structure of the allyu and the system of self subsistence that the Huamanga, they were able to establish a system of labor that extended well beyond blood kinship so “brother and sisters” were not always blood related but overall the arrival of the Spanish negatively impacted the system. The black legend simply dictates the Spanish as evil and the natives they encounter as helpless victims. Helpless victims would not have a hierarchal structure and if the Spanish were so dominant they would have uprooted the native systems but the hesistance to do so defied the black legend.
Stern’s relationship to the Black Legend appears to be as a challenger to the idea that the Spanish slaughtered wholesale numbers of natives. This is best exemplified after the Spanish began to regain control from the Taki Onqoy movement. Stern explains that the Spanish recognized that there were different levels of leadership and participation in the Taki Onkoy movement, (64). Had the Spanish really been cruel and unjust to the natives, which is to say that they weren’t, in this case by recognizing that not all the natives participated in the movement equally the Spanish are placing the rule of law before seeking revenge against those that betrayed God. Stern goes on to explain that even the “most dangerous subversives” did not receive corporal punishment or even death but, instead were exiled from their homes, possible to ensure that they would no longer be allowed to influence the community, (64). What made this region at the time of the Taki Onqoy movement different from the instance of idolatry found in the Yucatan is the special economic relationship between both Spaniards and natives. In fact it was in the best interest for the Spanish to not see wholesale numbers of Indians killed as punishment for straying away from church teachings because tribute in the form of labor was already hard to come by for use in the mines, (48). By killing their labor force the Spanish would in essence commit economic suicide. Also by cruelly punishing the natives involved in the Taki Onqoy movement, the Spanish would only be supporting the movement by convincing native elites that it would be in their best interests to seek independence from their European masters.
Precisely Pablo, the evidence you used from Stern’s book refute the Black Legend. In particular, the Spanish wanted to establish an economic platform in the region. By doing so, they needed to organize labor from the indigenous. So the Spanish avoided killing their labor force because the Indigenous people were essential for their economic venture. Basically, the main reason the Spanish placed the indigenous into the mines was for economic prosperity. To add onto your point, I would also like to bring up table 4.3, the debts of Lucanas mitayos, Castrovireyna from 1597-1603. Stern provided the percentages of wages on column one and on column two, the percentage of mitayos (86). With this debt record, there is clear indication that the Indigenous people had a working salary and were expected to pay taxes. It also indicates that since there were only 16.8% of the said indigenous that had a zero balance of debt, so clearly, the wages were low. From a broader perspective, the Spanish wanted to gain the most amount of capital as possible. In order to do so, they needed to enforce cheap labor and collect taxes from the indigenous. (85-87) Overall, as you mentioned in your post, the Spanish wanted to maximize their resources for their own economic prosperity.
The pictographic evidence of Guaman Poma de Ayala’s work offered a much potential contribution to the Black Legend. The Europeans were already familiar with works that the horrors of the conquest where vividly recounted such as Bartolome de las Casas. The Andean natives were being exploited in the fields and put to death in the mines. The Andean ethnic population was declining precipitously. The exploitation of indigenous labor and the spread of epidemic diseases would lead to an end to the Andean people and their culture according to Guaman Poma de Ayala. “The labor regime imposed by the European miners had been repulsive and harsh. Miners bent upon achieving riches sought to maximize their exploitation of native laborers. Natives personally carried heavy loads of fuel, salt. And other supplies from distant areas; in the mines themselves, laborers confronted brutal production quotas; after fulfilling their labor obligations, they faced a struggle to receive their wages.” (47-48)
The case of the Toledo’s economic design together with the “demographic decline” is an example of the existing paradigms for the interpretation of the history of early colonial America. Definitely have prevailed criteria as the black legend where thousands of Andean natives lost their lives under the abuse of the Spaniards, but the Toledo mita had much deeper implications than a mere “surplus extraction.” It is necessary to separate the design of economic policy from the implementation of this policy where in most cases any original program is likely to be affected by widespread corruption, and that is what happened with the policy established by the Viceroy Toledo. “The most oppressive and fearful institution, however, was the forced labor of the mita… The mitayo found himself consigned to a brutal relationship, in which colonial entrepreneurs tried to squeeze out the greatest amount of labor possible before the mitayo’s time expired. Long-work days and high production quotas shaped a grinding, taxing existence… Mitayos followed the old practice of taking along wives, children, or other relatives to assist them… exposed a larger group of people to the harsh realities of mita labor. Colonials raped women, commandeered the labors of relatives for secondary tasks, and set impossible production quotas to force mitayos to utilize the labors of their families.” Long, hard work in dangerous conditions pressed in on health…led victims to death.” (84-85)
I agree with this comment and the idea that Stern believes the black legend existed with the Andean natives. The examples of the Spanish cruelty were presented by Stern when he discusses the harsh conditions in which the natives had to work in, in order to meet production quotas. These productions quotas were rarely met due to the extreme amounts of workloads even when the children, brothers and sisters of whom was working, was helping them (page 84). "The mitayo found himself consigned to a brutal relationship...the greatest amount of labor possible before the mitayo's time expired" (page 84). This meant that the mitayo were worked as much as possible to their breaking point which was death, by the Spanish. The leading cause for the Spanish to treat the natives this way was pure greed. Greed for all the resources to be exploited by the encomienda system. The encomienda system, being an effective incentive for people to colonize the lands of the natives, also plays a major role in the brutality suffered by the natives. The political and also economic system set way for the Spanish to have a guaranteed number of slaves or workers specifically for each encomendero and this allowed for the Black Legend to be enforced by the Spanish all through the native Andean lands and everywhere else that was meant to be colonized. Stern does well to describe the new draft system imposed by Toledo which gives way to the evidence of the Spanish being concurrent to the Black Legend. Therefore, the Black Legend is implicitly depicted by Stern's point of view in the book because the Spanish do everything and anything possible to get the wealth they so much wanted and desired at any cost.
Stern does not succumb to the "Black Legend", in fact I believe he is staunchly defying the "Black Legend" through out his writings. To prove this we must establish what the basic ideas and thoughts of the "Black Legend" stands for. The first idea is that the Spanish were absolutely evil and cruel in their treatment of the Native populations they encountered in their colonial expeditions and exploitation of the people and their lands. The second idea is that the Native populations that the Spanish encountered were naive, defenseless, and backwater as a civilization. The Spanish, although cruel and evil by today's standards and foresight, were not practicing anything out of the ordinary for the time even among the cultures and peoples they were preforming these cruel acts too. The Native populations all practiced forms of slavery including slave markets for woman and children as well. The point I think that solidifies Sterns defiance of the "Black Legend" the most is when he writes about the Encomienderos, especially Maldonado, who Stern refers to as an "early ethnographer"(pg.42). Maldonado rarely used brute force in order to extract labor from the Andean peoples instead he would make agreements with the kurakas. Another instance for the sensible and forthcoming treatment of the Andean peoples by Maldonado was when Maldonado's Indians complained about how his herds were damaging their crops. Stern writes"he inspected the claims and distributed corn, potatoes, aji, and other products as compensation"(pg.33). This obviously shows the shortcomings of the reliability of truth in the "Black Legend" for if all the Spanish were that cruel and evil then why was Maldonado's generosity and kindness as well as his aversion to violence as a solution met with so much success as a "redistributive patron"(pg. 33) as Stern writes. The other idea that Stern routinely defies about the "Black Legend" is that the Native populations the Spanish confronted were defenseless, naive, and child like. If this is so why then were the Andean societies able to produce such a substantial labor force in order to work the harsh climate and unforgiving slopes of the Andes. If anything the only advantage the Spanish ever had in the Andes were their military technology, which they used to great effectiveness, but the agricultural ability and the kinship bonds that sustained such agricultural growth were the man reason for Andean societies ability to be self sustaining, a feat that was never accomplished by the Spanish because of their dependence on Native and slave labor, which would give no credence to the idioms supporting the "Black Legend".
Stern shows that the Black Legend is largely exaggerated because stern shows the level of fairness the Spaniards tried to be with the Andean population in terms of economy. The Spaniards paid the andeans and even gave them rights to fight for their rights in the Spanish courts which the Andean people took full advantage of. "They sued in colonial courts to lower tribute and mita quotas, convert tibutes in kind to tributes in money, fight off European intrusions on fertile lands, and the like" (90). The Stern shows how the Spaniards gave the Andeans the opportunities to economically run their ayllus to so they can themselves be profitable. "Toledo's reorganization, access to sufficient lands, animals, labor-power, and other resources, together with creative local adaptations to the commercial economy, allowed most communities to meet their subsistence needs, and even to accumulate surprising cash surplus" (90). At the Same time Stern also shows how the Spanish also resorted to violent discipline the Andeans. "Instead, they had to use physical punishment and humiliation as a living tool, a genuine threat, whose public display would prod natives into submitting to their political superiors" (104). While the Black Legend exaggerated the injustice done by the Spanish, Stern shows their was definitely a lot of violence use to control the Andean population. I think Stern show a balance and realistic version of the Spanish conquest of the Andean people.
At the beginning of Steve Stern’s book, one may believe that he does not support the Black Legend, for the Spaniards appear somewhat respectful of Andean community structure. In chapter 4 however, with Stern’s description of the Mita system which forced Indigenous to work long days in dangerous conditions at the mines, exposed to diseases, on top of low pay and high deductions (84-85). The Spaniards do to start to appear under the dark light of brutality and superiority over the weaker Indigenous community. Adding on, not only did they took advantage of the Mitayos but also their families whom sometimes were brought along to cook and help with the labor. Colonials seeing more people, tended to increase quotas and obligate the poor Mitayos and their family to produce more. And even worse, colonials would in many cases rape the women that came along (84).
Stern’s work does not fall under the umbrella of the Black Legend as it would have implied the Spanish as evil dominant conquerors who simply overtook the defenseless, inferior natives. However, as outlined in the beginning of the book, the native Andeans had a set societal structure that the Spanish would respect to a certain extent. Economically, the Spanish implemented an encomienda system although they intelligently maintained certain customs to gain the acceptance of the natives; the kurakas agreed to the “modernization” of their system while establishing a system of encomiendas at the same time. However, the Andean system would remain intact as the natives were able to function and survive in an efficient manner which would exemplify the lack of dominance on the part of the Spanish. It was not for a lack of technology; however, as the conquistadors realized that the system in place would set themselves up for success although that would ultimately not be the case. With their arrival and their encomienda system taking its toll, the diseases would impact the population thereby impacting the overall goal of the encomienda system. With the structure of the allyu and the system of self subsistence that the Huamanga, they were able to establish a system of labor that extended well beyond blood kinship so “brother and sisters” were not always blood related but overall the arrival of the Spanish negatively impacted the system. The black legend simply dictates the Spanish as evil and the natives they encounter as helpless victims. Helpless victims would not have a hierarchal structure and if the Spanish were so dominant they would have uprooted the native systems but the hesistance to do so defied the black legend.
ReplyDeleteStern’s relationship to the Black Legend appears to be as a challenger to the idea that the Spanish slaughtered wholesale numbers of natives. This is best exemplified after the Spanish began to regain control from the Taki Onqoy movement. Stern explains that the Spanish recognized that there were different levels of leadership and participation in the Taki Onkoy movement, (64). Had the Spanish really been cruel and unjust to the natives, which is to say that they weren’t, in this case by recognizing that not all the natives participated in the movement equally the Spanish are placing the rule of law before seeking revenge against those that betrayed God. Stern goes on to explain that even the “most dangerous subversives” did not receive corporal punishment or even death but, instead were exiled from their homes, possible to ensure that they would no longer be allowed to influence the community, (64). What made this region at the time of the Taki Onqoy movement different from the instance of idolatry found in the Yucatan is the special economic relationship between both Spaniards and natives. In fact it was in the best interest for the Spanish to not see wholesale numbers of Indians killed as punishment for straying away from church teachings because tribute in the form of labor was already hard to come by for use in the mines, (48). By killing their labor force the Spanish would in essence commit economic suicide. Also by cruelly punishing the natives involved in the Taki Onqoy movement, the Spanish would only be supporting the movement by convincing native elites that it would be in their best interests to seek independence from their European masters.
ReplyDeletePrecisely Pablo, the evidence you used from Stern’s book refute the Black Legend. In particular, the Spanish wanted to establish an economic platform in the region. By doing so, they needed to organize labor from the indigenous. So the Spanish avoided killing their labor force because the Indigenous people were essential for their economic venture. Basically, the main reason the Spanish placed the indigenous into the mines was for economic prosperity. To add onto your point, I would also like to bring up table 4.3, the debts of Lucanas mitayos, Castrovireyna from 1597-1603. Stern provided the percentages of wages on column one and on column two, the percentage of mitayos (86). With this debt record, there is clear indication that the Indigenous people had a working salary and were expected to pay taxes. It also indicates that since there were only 16.8% of the said indigenous that had a zero balance of debt, so clearly, the wages were low. From a broader perspective, the Spanish wanted to gain the most amount of capital as possible. In order to do so, they needed to enforce cheap labor and collect taxes from the indigenous. (85-87) Overall, as you mentioned in your post, the Spanish wanted to maximize their resources for their own economic prosperity.
DeleteThe pictographic evidence of Guaman Poma de Ayala’s work offered a much potential contribution to the Black Legend. The Europeans were already familiar with works that the horrors of the conquest where vividly recounted such as Bartolome de las Casas. The Andean natives were being exploited in the fields and put to death in the mines. The Andean ethnic population was declining precipitously. The exploitation of indigenous labor and the spread of epidemic diseases would lead to an end to the Andean people and their culture according to Guaman Poma de Ayala. “The labor regime imposed by the European miners had been repulsive and harsh. Miners bent upon achieving riches sought to maximize their exploitation of native laborers. Natives personally carried heavy loads of fuel, salt. And other supplies from distant areas; in the mines themselves, laborers confronted brutal production quotas; after fulfilling their labor obligations, they faced a struggle to receive their wages.” (47-48)
ReplyDeleteThe case of the Toledo’s economic design together with the “demographic decline” is an example of the existing paradigms for the interpretation of the history of early colonial America. Definitely have prevailed criteria as the black legend where thousands of Andean natives lost their lives under the abuse of the Spaniards, but the Toledo mita had much deeper implications than a mere “surplus extraction.” It is necessary to separate the design of economic policy from the implementation of this policy where in most cases any original program is likely to be affected by widespread corruption, and that is what happened with the policy established by the Viceroy Toledo. “The most oppressive and fearful institution, however, was the forced labor of the mita… The mitayo found himself consigned to a brutal relationship, in which colonial entrepreneurs tried to squeeze out the greatest amount of labor possible before the mitayo’s time expired. Long-work days and high production quotas shaped a grinding, taxing existence… Mitayos followed the old practice of taking along wives, children, or other relatives to assist them… exposed a larger group of people to the harsh realities of mita labor. Colonials raped women, commandeered the labors of relatives for secondary tasks, and set impossible production quotas to force mitayos to utilize the labors of their families.” Long, hard work in dangerous conditions pressed in on health…led victims to death.” (84-85)
I agree with this comment and the idea that Stern believes the black legend existed with the Andean natives. The examples of the Spanish cruelty were presented by Stern when he discusses the harsh conditions in which the natives had to work in, in order to meet production quotas. These productions quotas were rarely met due to the extreme amounts of workloads even when the children, brothers and sisters of whom was working, was helping them (page 84). "The mitayo found himself consigned to a brutal relationship...the greatest amount of labor possible before the mitayo's time expired" (page 84). This meant that the mitayo were worked as much as possible to their breaking point which was death, by the Spanish. The leading cause for the Spanish to treat the natives this way was pure greed. Greed for all the resources to be exploited by the encomienda system. The encomienda system, being an effective incentive for people to colonize the lands of the natives, also plays a major role in the brutality suffered by the natives. The political and also economic system set way for the Spanish to have a guaranteed number of slaves or workers specifically for each encomendero and this allowed for the Black Legend to be enforced by the Spanish all through the native Andean lands and everywhere else that was meant to be colonized. Stern does well to describe the new draft system imposed by Toledo which gives way to the evidence of the Spanish being concurrent to the Black Legend. Therefore, the Black Legend is implicitly depicted by Stern's point of view in the book because the Spanish do everything and anything possible to get the wealth they so much wanted and desired at any cost.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteStern does not succumb to the "Black Legend", in fact I believe he is staunchly defying the "Black Legend" through out his writings. To prove this we must establish what the basic ideas and thoughts of the "Black Legend" stands for. The first idea is that the Spanish were absolutely evil and cruel in their treatment of the Native populations they encountered in their colonial expeditions and exploitation of the people and their lands. The second idea is that the Native populations that the Spanish encountered were naive, defenseless, and backwater as a civilization.
ReplyDeleteThe Spanish, although cruel and evil by today's standards and foresight, were not practicing anything out of the ordinary for the time even among the cultures and peoples they were preforming these cruel acts too. The Native populations all practiced forms of slavery including slave markets for woman and children as well. The point I think that solidifies Sterns defiance of the "Black Legend" the most is when he writes about the Encomienderos, especially Maldonado, who Stern refers to as an "early ethnographer"(pg.42). Maldonado rarely used brute force in order to extract labor from the Andean peoples instead he would make agreements with the kurakas. Another instance for the sensible and forthcoming treatment of the Andean peoples by Maldonado was when Maldonado's Indians complained about how his herds were damaging their crops. Stern writes"he inspected the claims and distributed corn, potatoes, aji, and other products as compensation"(pg.33). This obviously shows the shortcomings of the reliability of truth in the "Black Legend" for if all the Spanish were that cruel and evil then why was Maldonado's generosity and kindness as well as his aversion to violence as a solution met with so much success as a "redistributive patron"(pg. 33) as Stern writes.
The other idea that Stern routinely defies about the "Black Legend" is that the Native populations the Spanish confronted were defenseless, naive, and child like. If this is so why then were the Andean societies able to produce such a substantial labor force in order to work the harsh climate and unforgiving slopes of the Andes. If anything the only advantage the Spanish ever had in the Andes were their military technology, which they used to great effectiveness, but the agricultural ability and the kinship bonds that sustained such agricultural growth were the man reason for Andean societies ability to be self sustaining, a feat that was never accomplished by the Spanish because of their dependence on Native and slave labor, which would give no credence to the idioms supporting the "Black Legend".
Stern shows that the Black Legend is largely exaggerated because stern shows the level of fairness the Spaniards tried to be with the Andean population in terms of economy. The Spaniards paid the andeans and even gave them rights to fight for their rights in the Spanish courts which the Andean people took full advantage of. "They sued in colonial courts to lower tribute and mita quotas, convert tibutes in kind to tributes in money, fight off European intrusions on fertile lands, and the like" (90). The Stern shows how the Spaniards gave the Andeans the opportunities to economically run their ayllus to so they can themselves be profitable. "Toledo's reorganization, access to sufficient lands, animals, labor-power, and other resources, together with creative local adaptations to the commercial economy, allowed most communities to meet their subsistence needs, and even to accumulate surprising cash surplus" (90).
ReplyDeleteAt the Same time Stern also shows how the Spanish also resorted to violent discipline the Andeans. "Instead, they had to use physical punishment and humiliation as a living tool, a genuine threat, whose public display would prod natives into submitting to their political superiors" (104). While the Black Legend exaggerated the injustice done by the Spanish, Stern shows their was definitely a lot of violence use to control the Andean population. I think Stern show a balance and realistic version of the Spanish conquest of the Andean people.
At the beginning of Steve Stern’s book, one may believe that he does not support the Black Legend, for the Spaniards appear somewhat respectful of Andean community structure. In chapter 4 however, with Stern’s description of the Mita system which forced Indigenous to work long days in dangerous conditions at the mines, exposed to diseases, on top of low pay and high deductions (84-85). The Spaniards do to start to appear under the dark light of brutality and superiority over the weaker Indigenous community. Adding on, not only did they took advantage of the Mitayos but also their families whom sometimes were brought along to cook and help with the labor. Colonials seeing more people, tended to increase quotas and obligate the poor Mitayos and their family to produce more. And even worse, colonials would in many cases rape the women that came along (84).
ReplyDelete