Week 15

Stern in his book mentions that Indians to some extent were integrating more in the legal system. There were also some improvements in cases that were considered abusive, especially in taxation. The author emphasizes that although the indigenous reaction was remarkable, the Spaniards were still acting, as they wanted. They even made unlawful practices in the legal field. These were recorded in much documentation. This originated the coexistence between both parties adapted especially in the case of indigenous peoples.

This group also suffered an “Europeanization,” leading to a new elite emergence. But far away from this phenomenon would result in an improvement, it led to a group transformation. The natives converted in elite took the role of the colonizers, which often become exploiters as well. Stern explains that despite the hardships endured by the Indigenous, they imitated the European customs. There were just a small number of them. Indigenous customs were denied and the foreign ones were accepted as the way forward. It created a discrepancy in both parties.  

The colonial consolidation after the initial period of overlap is also achieved in part by the native support. It is a complex, paradoxical and contradictory phenomenon. There was destruction, but also a creation. There was acculturation but at the same time assimilation. There was a syncretism especially in the religious aspect. There was an evolutionary phenomenon that could be applied to the rest of the colonized territories.