Resistance, the Church, and a Comparison of Ceramics from Sixteenth-Century Caluco, El Salvador

Abstract

IMPACTS OF SPANISH INVASION Changes the Spanish brought include a reorganization of society (policía), with all natives lumped together as "Indian," and all the Indians beneath all Spanish (although there were different categories of Spanish-conquerors and descendants, then the middle class, followed by the poor) (Wolf 1982). There were commoners, nobility, and slaves in pre-Columbian society, but with the Spanish, the Indians became the slaves (Fowler 2006; Verhagen 1997). Colonial society in Central America was not stable: the different levels of Spanish society were often antagonistic towards each other (Wolf 1982), and the introduction of new diseases to the area wiped out large numbers of the indigenous population (MacLeod 2008; Wolf 1982). The Spanish unknowingly spread diseases throughout the Caribbean and Central and South America, with smallpox, measles, and malaria being some of the most prevalent (Wolf 1982). The population of Caluco was reduced from 700 tributaries to 60 by 1584 (MacLeod 1984: 92). During this time, 14 epidemics (and 17 in the Andes) spread throughout Mesoamerica (Wolf 1982). The restructuring of the Indians into labor forces for the Spanish made these diseases spread easier in some areas, Izalcos being one of the hardest hit regions because of the strength of its cacao production (MacLeod 2008). Cacao was a tribute item in pre-Columbian society (Fowler 2006; Sampeck 2007). Cacao was a luxury, and evidence of cacao beverages has been found throughout Mesoamerica (Fowler 2006; Sampeck 2007). The Izalcos region of El Salvador was particularly proficient at cacao production, and cacao itself was used as money, so large numbers of Spanish encomenderos, priests, and officials were drawn to the area (Fowler 2006: 310). The wealth cacao provided led to the construction of impressive churches, but the diseases that hit El Salvador between 1520 and 1577 reduced the population so much that the residents of Izalcos could not keep up with tribute demands (Fowler 2006; Wolf 1982). Another policy that had a large effect of the region was encomienda. Encomiendas were granted to Spaniards to reward them for their role in the conquest (Lockhart 1992). In the encomienda system, Indians were forced to work on plantations for little pay (MacLeod 2008). This was a practice taken directly from Spain (Verhagen 1997), where adelantados, or military leaders, rewarded themselves with land and slave labor after claiming land (Gasco 2005; Gosden 2004; Wolf 1982). Besides pay, it differed from slavery in that the workers were not uprooted from their homes and fewer died as a result (MacLeod 2008). The idea of encomienda came about because privately-owned lands were becoming more prevalent in Spain at this time (MacLeod 2008). The best encomiendas were taken by the conquistadors, and they gave the others to their friends, families, or allies (MacLeod 2008). When a small tract of land was purchased, the Spaniards many times would fence off more land than they had purchased (Fowler 1993). The crown did not approve o...