To work for them.
To work for them.
Essential parts of the economy of the Spanish and Portuguese colonies were land and the labor needed to work the land. Land was needed for agricultural products such as sugar and for the mines for gold and other precious minerals. Labor, essentially slave labor, was needed to work in the fields and the mines. The Spanish used Indian labor but paid them very poorly, believing that it was their duty to convert the Indians and that eternal salvation was a reward great enough to justify any possible mistreatment in this life. The Portuguese had problems using Indian labor so they turned to imported African slaves.
The main reason the Portuguese and Spanish enslaved Africans in New World colonies was to meet the demand for labor in industries like mining and agriculture. Africans were seen as a ready source of labor due to their physical capability, and the transatlantic slave trade provided a constant supply of enslaved people to support the economic development of the colonies.
In the 1540s, both Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the Americas were focused on exploiting indigenous populations for labor and resources. They followed a model of colonization that involved establishing plantations and extracting wealth from the land. Both empires also sought to spread Christianity and convert the local populations to Catholicism.
Native Americans and Africans forced into slavery.
The use of slave labor in the colonies of Spain and Portugal was the cost effective way to achieve their purposes since there were plenty inhabitants in the occupied territories in Central and South America, Africa and Asia as we understand these areas today.
"laborer" in Spanish would be "trabajador or trabajadora".
Natives
Natives
africans
Slavery spread in Spanish colonies due to the labor-intensive industries such as mining, agriculture, and construction. The Spanish colonizers relied on enslaved Africans to meet the demand for cheap labor because of the decline in the indigenous population due to diseases and mistreatment. Additionally, the transatlantic slave trade facilitated the importation of enslaved Africans to the colonies.
the colonists used natives for slave labor.