The Spanish peninsular , Known as peninsular targets in Venezuela, Were a social, economic and political class that was established with the colonists arrived at America directly from the Iberian Peninsula, at the beginning of century XVI, with the purpose to populate and to control the new territories conquered.
At the end of the fifteenth century, the process of conquest of America By the Kingdom of Spain. In a few years, the Spaniards became owners of immense territories with all the natural wealth they contained, as well as with the control of the native population that inhabited these territories.
When did peninsular or peninsular Spaniards settle?
Beginning in 1526, these new and recent masters of what they called New Spain, came directly from the Spanish peninsula to populate and evangelize the Native Americans.
These were the so-called peninsular Spaniards who established encomiendas for the distribution of both land and indigenous communities for the use of Conquerors And settlers.
These first colonists, also called gachupines or Goths, occupied the highest social hierarchy and enjoyed the greater economic and political privileges.
They assumed the most important positions of government and administration in the new territories attached to the Spanish crown. They also had the open road to occupy the highest ecclesiastical and army hierarchy. They were the representatives of Spanish power in America.
It is to be noted that the majority of Spaniards arriving in American lands in the middle of the sixteenth century were neither members of the nobility nor of the high Spanish social classes. On the contrary, many were sailors and adventurers who embarked on the long journey to the new continent in search of gold and riches.
For their bravery, in certain cases, they were given to some minor nobility titles (as the title of"Hidalgos") in recognition of their services to the Crown in the Indies.
The first settlers came mainly from Castile; Later Catalan and Mallorcan came to establish commercial enterprises. In general, all Spanish arrived directly from Spain belonged to the social class of Spanish Spaniards.
The new generation: Creoles
Shortly after the arrival of the first Spaniards who settled in American lands, a new social class emerged: the Creoles , Which in Portuguese means"negro raised in the house of the lord"(note the discrimination from the etymology itself), and that they were nothing other than the descendants of Spaniards born in American territory.
Although legally Spaniards, in the day-to-day life of colonial America, these sons of pure Spaniards were considered inferior, to the point of calling them Creoles rather than Spaniards.
Obviously, over time, the Spanish Spaniards were dying and the creoles were increasing in number.
It is estimated that by 1792, in Mexico, for example, there were scarcely between 11,000 and 14,000 peninsulares, or 0.2% of the total population; While there were approximately one million Creoles representing 16% of the total Mexican population.
The discrimination that existed in the society of New Spain was such that within the same class of the Creoles there existed certain"subclasses"determined basically by the color of the skin and the occupation.
Those who were as white as the peninsular, and also shared their social aspirations, could maintain close economic, political and family ties with the peninsular. This generated a powerful Creole oligarchy.
The other criollos began to demand their rights of"equality"with respect to the peninsular Spaniards and to the rest of the overvalued white criollos, claiming the possibility of occupying the same positions and acceding to the same prebends.
But the Spanish Crown seemed to put an indelible stain and a halo of mistrust on everything engendered in the new conquered lands. The high political and military positions were always reserved for the peninsular.
They also continued to enjoy privileges in commercial activities in New Spain. Creoles had to settle for middle positions and smaller commercial activities.
This segregation made by Spain to its own children, was the breeding ground for the later pro-independence campaigns.
When they could not be considered Spaniards, the criollos then began to feel American, to take more love to the soil where they were born than to the soil of their parents and, consequently, to fight for their independence from the Crown.
Classes and castes in New Spain
In fact, there were only three social classes that coexisted in colonial America:
The indigenous, native and native of the conquered territories
Basically they became the labor force to work the lands that peninsulares and criollos exploded. They had no access to education or to hold administrative or military posts. They were the base of the pyramid.
Creoles, descendants of Spanish born in America
With access to education and certain commercial positions, but without the same full rights of Spaniards Peninsular. They were the middle tier of the pyramid.
The Spanish peninsular, at the tip of the pyramid
Spaniards born in Spain with all the prebends and rights.
But from the mix of Spaniards, Creoles and Indians, social castes were born, which increased in number with subsequent migrations (for example, of Africans and Asians) after the conquest.
These racial mixtures in New Spain occurred over more than three centuries. They were the most discriminated and relegated social strata throughout colonial history, but it was those who gave America its great cultural wealth.
Social Castes Table
References
- Gloria Delgado de Cantú. Mexico history. Volume I: The process of gestation of a people. P.382, 383.
- Creoles and Spaniards in the Virreinato - Los Peninsulares - Social class. Spanish or Peninsulares vs. Creoles.
- The Creoles and Peninsular, 15th Century onwards / Latin America. Ceibal Plan Library. Recovered from contents.ceibal.edu.uy.
- Social classes and castes of New Spain. Recovered from historiademexicobreve.com.
- Oscar Mauricio Pabón Serrano (2012). The courts of Cadiz and the Spaniards of both hemispheres: The debate on equality of representation between Americans and peninsulares. Journal Themes No. 6. Department of Humanities Universidad Santo Tomás. Bucaramanga, Colombia.