What made Spain so salient and monumental for its time period? Trade definitely played a significant role in making their empire so enlightened and immense, yet in the end made the empire become very poor. Trade in the New World aided Spain in becoming of the most diverse places. Moreover, trade made the empire become one of the most successful empires when they started to trade, but exhibited more negative impacts on them. Primarily, mercantilism assisted in causing much inflation which caused them to become very poor.
Lastly, due to overspending from King Philip II and King Philip III Spain became very weak and unstable (Economy under Philip III). Spain lies on the Iberian peninsula, which is primarily surrounded by water (Spain). Consequently, trade this facilitates trade and makes it much more attainable than lands that are not close to water. In addition, Spain and Portugal are neighboring countries, thus if one was to trade the other would want to compete. This develops competition between these countries in efforts to trade in the New World (Spain).
Trade may have occurred later if it wasn’t for Ferdinand and Isabella whom supported trade in the New World (Treaty of Tordesillas). There favoritism to explore and trade drove spanish explorers and even an Italian explorer named Christopher Columbus to trade in the Americas. If not for the Treaty of Tordesillas which was signed on June 7th 1494 trade may have occurred much later in the new world and the Spanish Empire would definitely would not be as prosperous (Treaty of Tordesillas). Spain got west of the line drawn by the treaty.
Despite many people assuming that they did not get the best deal out of it they ended up getting many places in the new world which ultimately helped them spread religion, ideas, goods, and expand their influences on the world. Hence Spain became more secular. Many factors that occurred early in the Spanish Empire’s history assisted in them trading in the americas. Mercantilism played a vital factor in making Spain merely see wealthiness, yet made them see more of poorness and poverty (Mercantilism in Spain). This was a result of the influx of silver and gold which caused much inflation (Green).
Inflation occurred as a result which weakened the government, environment, but made the upper class increase in wealth (Green). Mercantilism was supposedly essential to help make a nation to become more formidable and forceful (La Haye). In addition, to advocate for an internal trade economy and keep profits from getting to enemies (Sill). On the contrary, prices in Spain quadrupled four times, as a result of mercantilism (Lynch 278). At one point Spain was very rich due to mercantilism. Unfortunately, the spanish silk industry and agricultural industry diminished (Mercantilism in Spain).
As inflation occurred many items increased in price. Additionally, trade in the New World decreased as well as mining. Silver was a vital factor of why Spain ultimately fell (McAlister, 230). The silver industry and mercantilism exhibited a crucial impact on Spanish trade. Spain went bankrupt due the excess amount of silver production and how the empire never developed goods or manufactured goods on their own. They only relied on other empires through mercantilism to benefit only themselves (Sill). Even though mercantilism improved Spain economically at first, it caused many prices of to rise (Mercantilism in Spain).
Rulers in Spain such as Philip II also helped Spain become even more poor due to overspending and losing much capital( Mercantilism in Spain). Mercantilism was once perceived to be very positive in Spain, hence why the became very rich at first and were flourishing in trade with the New World. Furthermore, it essentially made Spain retrogress to a prior state of poverty stricken times and lessen their ability to trade with the west. The encomienda system was established in colonies in the Americas in order to give land to peninsulares whom were born n Spain in order to protect natives and try to convert many of them to christianity (Cracking the AP World History Exam).
This played a vital impact on trade because it was perceived to ease relations between the people living in the americas and the spanish born people. On the contrary the system did not accomplish that and was very harsh towards the natives. The system was established for supervision from the royalty of Spain (McAlister, 158). The system essentially was slavery and benefited the mother country Spain, yet many people were deliberately killed to convert to christianity (Economy in Spanish Colonization).
Though the Encomienda system played a significant role in Spain’s colonial colony, it ended up hurting Spain much in the long run as well. This was because the slaves who worked in the mines mined silver and gold frequently (Economy in Spanish Colonization). Silver receipts failed and made inflation increase, thus causing limited trade (Economy in Spanish Colonization). The workers in the mines who were usually african slaves ended up declining socially as well as the natives decline socially (Cracking the Ap World History Exam).
Some of the spanish conquistadors involved in the encomienda system took control of tributary networks such as the indian ocean to expand even more into economic relations around the world (Sill). The encomienda system made many people feel irate and many perceived it to be unfair. Moreover, the encomienda system killed off many native americans in the americas which caused a the african slave trade to occur in 1502 ( Sill). Bartolome de las Casas prompted a vast amount of colonists to trade slaves from Africa. Socially, the encomienda system weakened Spain, yet made many people to convert as a result of conquests
The african slave trade had an interminable effect on the New World and the Americas. Over 13 millions africans were forced onto ships and traded on the Middle Passage, which was from West Africa to the West Indies (Cracking the Ap World History Exam). Many african slaves were traded to Europeans and were exchanged guns and tools (Green). Spain was one of the first places to import and trade slaves. In addition, coffee and sugar were exchanged for slaves (Lewis). Primarily, the Spanish did not trade as much slaves directly from Africa and generally bought them from British or Dutch traders (15 Minute History).
The african slave even outnumbered all the spanish people in the spanish colonies. Thus, there was a vast amount of slaves in spanish colonies, despite these colonies not even having as other countries in the Americas such as Brazil. Though the slave trade benefited Spain in Europe, it made Africa weaken. In addition, to many slaves being tied up and murdered african leaders were killed as well if one did not cooperate (Cracking the AP World History Exam). As the population in Africa lessoned, the population in the spanish colonies increased heavily.
Furthermore, this was a result of the immense amount of black prevalent in the americas (McAlister, 338). In the encomienda system the Indians were protected which meant blacks, people born with a white parent and a black parent, and a child of a spanish and indian lost much power socially (McAlister, 336). The populations and social classes would never be the same in the New World after the African Slave trade. This occurrence made the Spanish Empire, become very wealthy as a result of the slaves working in silver mines, yet made Africa go to shambles.
Trade displayed many positive and negative impacts on the Spanish Trading Empire. Additionally, it changed many colonies in the New World socially, politically, economically, and culturally. Chiefly, populations increased heavily in the new world as a result of the african slave trade. This meant more workers in silver mines, hence more money for the Spanish Empire. On the other hand, many people were killed mining silver (Green). Trade also caused inflation which weakened governments and assisted in making the environment suffer (Green).
Though the lower class members of society remained poverty stricken, the high classes maintained being wealthy (Green). Gold in the Spanish Empire was generally traded to the upper class nobles and affected them in a positive manner, but again left the lower classes poor (McAlister). At one point the Spanish Empire was arguably the wealthiest empire due to silver mining of 150,000 tons of silver trade, yet the influx of silver caused the price of the silver to worth a fraction of what is once was (Green).
Spain only experienced a glimpse of wealthiness and unfortunately experienced more times of hardship as a result of trade. Despite, Spain declining economically, they became more diverse culturally as a result of more people living in their empire. Religiously, Spain had more followers of Christianity as a result of Spanish conquests and the encomienda system (Cracking the Ap World History Exam). In all, though Spain experienced a glimpse of success it could have been experience even more. Thought the empire declined and became very unstable, Spain exhibited a monumental impact on the globe.
