1492 – 1734 Early Encounters Spanish Colonies

Key Ideas

1. Women played critical roles in the Spanish conquest of the Americas.

2. Women in the Spanish colonies found many ways to challenge and subvert the patriarchy of Spanish colonial society.

3. Indigenous women played a proactive role in tribal responses to Spanish colonization.

4. The cruelties of the encomienda and enslavement systems fell particularly hard on women.

Introduction

Johann Baptist Homann, Regni Mexicani seu Novæ Hispaniæ, Ludovicianæ, N. Angliæ, Carolinæ, Virginiæ et Pensylvaniæ, necnon insvlarvm archipelagi Mexicani in America Septentrionali, 1759. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division.

Women in the Spanish Colonies, 1492–1715

The popular narrative of the Spanish conquest and colonization of the Americas is hyper-masculine. In the traditional stories, daring male explorers returned to Spain with tales of vast populations and wealth, paving the way for brutal male conquistadors to invade and suppress the Indigenous populations who dared to oppose them. After the early years of invasion, the Spanish established two colonial territories on the mainland: New Spain in North America, and Peru in South America. Spanish elite grew rich off plantations and mines that they staffed with enslaved Indigenous people and Africans, while Catholic missionaries forced thousands of Indigenous people to convert to Catholicism through the oppressive mission system.

What this traditional narrative hides is that women were active participants in every part of the history of the Spanish colonies of the Americas. It was Queen Isabella I of Castile who funded the Columbus voyage of 1492 and who determined the shape and tone of the Spanish conquest. Conquistador Hernán Cortés’s conquest of the Aztec Empire may have failed without the guidance and skill of his enslaved interpreter, Malintzin. Finally, it is impossible to truly understand the horrors of or resistance to the Spanish conquest of the Americas without considering the experiences of Indigenous and African women.

Section Essential Questions

1. What were the rights and responsibilities of women in colonial Spanish society?

2. How did race, class, and social differences affect the lives of the women in the Spanish colonies?

3. How did women contribute to the establishment of new societies in the Spanish colonies in the Americas?

4. What gender-specific challenges did women face in the Spanish colonies?

Resources

Queen Isabella I’s instructions on the governance of Hispaniola in 1501 were the blueprint for the development of the Spanish colonies of the Americas.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
European colonization of the Americas, Spanish conquest, colonial society
Go to Resource
This 1522 illustration of the horrors of the encomienda system highlights the way women and children were particularly vulnerable to abuse by their Spanish overlords.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
European colonization of the Americas, Spanish conquest, Indigenous cultures of the Americas
Go to Resource
This poem by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz highlights the hypocrisy of gender relations in Spanish colonial society.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society
Go to Resource
This record of the slaving voyage of the English ship James contains records of women and girls who endured the brutalities of the Middle Passage.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
slavery, transatlantic slave trade, colonial society, race and racism
Go to Resource
This court document shows how a married woman in the Spanish colonies used her marriage contract to escape an unhappy marriage.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society
Go to Resource
These two clay pots illustrate how Zuni women participated in the cultural revival that accompanied the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Spanish conquest, Indigenous cultures of the Americas, European colonization of the Americas
Go to Resource
An enslaved woman in a convent sues for her freedom.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
slavery, race and racism, self-emancipation, Spanish conquest
Go to Resource
Labor agreements between Indigenous women and their employers.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society, Indigenous cultures of the Americas
Go to Resource
The diary of a formerly enslaved religious servant in a convent.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society, slavery, race and racism
Go to Resource

Life Stories

The story of the wife of the governor of New Mexico, who was arrested by the Holy Office of the Inquisition.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society
Go to Resource
The story of the enslaved Native woman who acted as the primary interpreter for Hernan Cortés during his conquest of the Aztec Empire.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Indigenous cultures of the Americas, Spanish conquest, slavery
Go to Resource
This story documents how the Native market women of colonial Quito fought in court to preserve their rights.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Indigenous cultures of the Americas, colonial society
Go to Resource
The story of a woman who led a community of self-emancipated people in colonial Cartagena.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society, slavery, self-emancipation, race and racism
Go to Resource
The story of a mestiza midwife who appeared before the Holy Office of the Inquisition.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
colonial society, Indigenous cultures of the Americas, Spanish conquest
Go to Resource
The story of the daughter of the Aztec emperor during the Spanish conquest.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Spanish conquest, Indigenous cultures of the Americas
Go to Resource
For more information and resources about the history of the Spanish colonies in North America, see our curriculum guide Nueva York: 1613-1945.