What statements is true regarding New Spain in the 1500s - see discussion section for choices?

Answer 1

There are two questions with this wording or similar wording. As a result, check the questions and choices, before reading the answers.

Which of the following statements is true regarding New Spain in the 1500s?

CHOICES
(a) New Spain had not yet developed any kind of class system.
(b) The Spanish originally imported Africans to use as slaves for labor.
(c) The hacienda system eventually gave way to the encomienda system.
(d) Conquistadores experienced shortages of labor in the New World.
(e) About 300,000 Spanish came to America to escape overpopulation.

ANSWER
(D) Assuming that we are operating off the five choices above, the only completely true statement is (d) because the initial Spanish colonizers, led by the Conquistadors, did indeed experience massive labor shortages in the New World. When they initially put the Native peoples to work, an overwhelming percentage of them died, requiring Spaniards to look for an alternate labor source: Africans. (This is why (b) is false, Natives preceded the use of Africans for labor.) As for (a), (c), and (e): (a) is false because there was actually a very rigid class system in New Spain based on race and place of birth starting at the top with Spanish-born Spaniards or peninsulares and going all the way down to African slaves who were taken directly from Africa called negros bozales; (c) is false because the encomienda system gave way to the hacienda system, not the other way around; and (e) is false because only 200,000 Spaniards came to New Spain and there was no overpopulation in Spain as a result of the numerous deaths in the Reconquista Wars and the massive flight of Jews and Muslims because of the Spanish Inquisition.

Which of the following statements about New Spain is true?

CHOICES
(a) The Spanish and the Native Americans shared political power in California.
(b) The Spanish and the Native Americans borrowed language, foods, and customs from each other. (c) The Spanish and the Native Americans both opposed slavery.
(d) The Spanish and the Native Americans were constantly at war with each other.

ANSWER
(B) Assuming that we are operating off the four choices below, the only completely true statement is (b) because the Spaniards and Native Americans did engage in an exchange of languages, foods, cultures, and customs, although in each category there was a predominant direction in which the exchange went. In Mexican and Guatemalan Spanish to this day, many words for food items are based on the Nahuatl or Mayan word for that item as opposed to the word used later in Iberia. As for (a), (c), and (d): (a) is false because only Spanish-born Spaniards or peninsulares were allowed to govern in Spanish territories like California; (c) is false because the Spaniards strongly supported slavery while Native Americans were mostly ambivalent about the practice (unless they were being enslaved, which was rare); and (d) is false because warfare was simply not constant and there were numerous peaceful periods where trade continued, even with Native Americans resisting the Spanish colonizers.