Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America

The colonial period started in the late 1400s with the arrival of Europeans in the Americas. The sudden confrontation between Europeans and Indigenous Americans “brought together two portions of the human race that until then had known nothing of each other’s existence” (3). Before the Europeans’ arrival, Indigenous Americans, who numbered anywhere between 60 million to 110 million, had been living in the Americas. Some of the societies from Central and South America, such as the Aztecs, Maya, and Inca, “rivaled the sophistication and splendor of Europe” (4). In North America, the Iroquois, with their representational form of government, ended up inspiring America’s founding fathers and serving as a model for United States democracy.

However, the arrival of Europeans resulted in the decimation of the Indigenous populations. Epidemics, massacres, and enslavement killed up to 90% of the population, by some estimates. Spanish explorers such as Cabeza de Vaca and Fray Bartolomé de las Casas wrote about the savagery of the Spanish. The English were no less savage, and Indigenous Americans often reciprocated the violence, resulting in deadly encounters well past the colonial period.

The two powers that would dominate the colonial Americas were the Spanish and English empires. Spain was the first to explore the region. Emerging from the Middle Ages, Spain grew powerful with the marriage of Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon. They financed early explorations in the Americas in the hopes of finding gold and silver: “By 1600, its colonies had already produced more than 2 billion pesos’ worth [of precious metals]” (21). Spain had the early advantage in settlement, especially in the southern and western parts of North America. The Spanish founded some of the earliest European cities in the United States, such as St. Augustine, Florida, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Conquistadores, many of whom had trained during the Crusades (specifically, the Reconquista), often led these early explorations. The experience of the Crusades added another dimension to Spanish motivations in the Americas: “During the Crusades, when Spain fought with and then ousted the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula, Spaniards saw themselves as the true defenders of the Catholic faith, bringing this conviction to the New World” (13). The Spanish created a massive network of missionaries throughout the Americas.

England emerged from the Middle Ages divided by strife. Unlike Spain, which unified by combining the two kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, England was embroiled in the bitter 30-year War of the Roses. Henry VII (House of Lancaster, symbolized by the red rose) defeated Richard III (House of York, symbolized by the white rose) and built a unified government with strong central control. Early English explorations in America were unsuccessful, however. For example, Henry VII sent John Cabot to America; Cabot landed in Newfoundland but died before establishing a colony. Not until a century later were the English able to establish a colony in the Americas.

The English crown’s power was not absolute; instead, it was limited by Parliament and English common law, which afforded the average citizen more rights than those of other European countries. Unlike Spain, whose explorations were controlled by the crown and the Catholic Church, these English explorations were often funded by private individuals and companies. The reliance on this new kind of business model, the joint stock company, allowed for shared risk and shared reward. Although many of the early settlers were driven to emigrate due to religious persecution (religious schisms that arose after Henry VIII broke from the Catholic Church), the investors funding these settlers were driven by the desire for profits.

Both Spain and England brought to the Americas their ideas about race. Like the Spanish fighting the Moors during the Crusades, the English also had experience fighting a group of people that they considered to be a “barbarian” population: the Irish. Their attitude of superiority toward the Irish was similar to their attitude toward Indigenous Americans. Indigenous Americans were often viewed as demonic by Anglo settlers, and little effort was spent trying to convert them. Thus, English society remained largely segregated, and intermarriage between English settlers and Indigenous Americans was taboo.

While Indigenous Americans were never considered equal in the eyes of Spaniards, Spain had different attitudes toward the region’s Indigenous peoples than the English did. Because of Spain’s desire to spread the Catholic faith, colonizing and converting were primary goals. Priests baptized Indigenous Americans, and “before the holy water could dry on their foreheads, the Indian women were routinely grabbed as concubines by Spanish soldiers and settlers […] thus, fostering and legitimizing a new mestizo race in America” (13). The intermarriage of Spanish settlers, Indigenous Americans, and enslaved Africans was tolerated, and multiracial children were accepted. This often resulted in the manumission of enslaved persons; it also led to a “rainbow spectrum” society that was very different from English settlements in the Americas.

In addition to accepting intermarriage and multiracial children, Spanish authorities often co-opted existing Indigenous American organizational structures, using these existing structures to govern. Further, the Spanish let Indigenous Americans retain leadership roles within this power structure. Overall, despite much violence and savagery, there was often much more interchange between Spanish and Indigenous Americans than ever existed between the English and Indigenous Americans.

Nevertheless, multiracial children were seen as second-class citizens in Spanish colonies, and Indigenous Americans who attained leadership roles were still subservient to the Spanish elite. This hierarchy can be seen in patterns of land use. Indigenous Americans did not believe land could be owned by individuals since they felt the land was meant to be used by all; however, both the Spanish and English had very different ideas and quickly claimed ownership of the lands they conquered or settled. In Spain, the domination of the crown and Church, as well as the size and extent of the empire itself, led to massive bureaucracy. Land was granted through the system of “mayorazgo.” The biggest land shares went to the conquistadores. This land was passed down through generations of eldest sons. As land grants merged through marriage contracts, estates grew. The tiny white population (“Criollos”) owned most of the land, while others were forced to be the laborers on that land.

The British Crown had less oversight over the English colonists than the bureaucratic Spanish empire had over its own colonies. English colonies were decentralized and more privatized. The indentured servant system allowed laborers to get their own land once they finished their service. Where land in the Spanish colonies was owned by a powerful few, land in the English colonies was held mainly by small farmers and fishermen. These colonists were:

simple, unassuming, skeptical of far-off government control, and determined to create a new life out of an immense and fertile wilderness [and] would form the cultural core of the new North American society, or at least of its white majority (23).

Still, despite these modest lifestyles, there were a few families able to use land speculation and corruption to create enormous fortunes.

Before 1836, the United States of Mexico and the United States of America were roughly the same size. However, by the end of the century, the Spanish empire was in fragments while the United States dominated the continent.

The common theory as to why is that the Anglo-Saxon Protestant work ethic allowed the US to thrive, while massive bureaucracy and the Catholic Church’s tyrannical hold hampered Spain. Gonzalez contends that the Anglo settlers’ constant desire for land was the main factor in creating enormous success for the English while weakening the colonies of the Spanish from the 1600s-1800s. From the 1900s to the present day, American individuals and companies, sanctioned by the US government, have stripped Latinx lands of their workers and resources.

When Spanish colonies first began seeking independence in the late 1700s, they expected that the United States government would support their desire for freedom. They soon realized that Americans did not want to help Spanish colonies with these goals and instead wanted their lands for themselves.

The United States began amassing lands inhabited by Spanish speakers in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States at that time. Even though Florida was retained by the Spanish, Anglo settlers began pushing on to that land as well, settling and claiming land for themselves. Spain realized that Anglo desire for Florida would not end, so in 1819, it signed the Adams-Onis Treaty, which gave the United States Florida in exchange for $5 million. Spain hoped that this treaty, which determined the Texan border, would keep Anglo settlers out of Texas. President Monroe also established the Monroe Doctrine, stating that lands in the Americas were off-limits to European colonization. At first, Latin America cheered this doctrine, until those living there realized that America had no intention of following a similar hands-off policy.

The Spanish government’s plan did not work. Anglo Americans continued to settle on Spanish lands, often claiming a “filibuster,” or uprising, to demand land. This led to war with Mexico, a war seen by many as unjust: “[General] Grant later admitted the war was ‘one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation’” (44). The battle of the Alamo has been mythologized in white America as the heroic and beleaguered last stand of a group of settlers fighting for their rights. Rather, these settlers were grabbing land for themselves, much like the filibusteros. The 1848 Treaty with Mexico ceded the United States not only Texas but also California and areas in what is now the American Southwest.

California was truly the prize. One year after the United States took this land, gold was discovered in California, leading to the California Gold Rush, a discovery that ended up putting millions in the hands of American investors. Not only was Mexico deprived of these riches, but it also lost out on the resources in New Mexico, with its great herds of sheep, and Arizona, with its copper resources. Further, Mexico lost many of its workers, who began moving north to labor in various industries.

Beginning in the 1850s, American expansionist desires shifted south to Central America and the Caribbean. Gonzalez begins to describe some of the expansionist schemes attempted by Americans, which he continues to describe in the “Branches” section of the book, showing how Americans were greatly desirous of exploiting the potential markets they saw in these lands.

The Spanish-American War ended with the Treaty of Paris (1898), in which Spain was forced to give up Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States. This chapter explores the consequences for these former Spanish colonies. The chapter is divided into five sections: Puerto Rico, Cuba, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua. Each section demonstrates how the United States, despite being apprehensive about occupying the role of colonizer, quickly worked to pursue its economic interests in each of these countries. The US government used American soldiers to protect not only US citizens living in these countries but also the US businesses operating in these countries. To sway public opinion, the US government and multinational companies developed propaganda portraying leaders of many of these countries as sinister. Under the guise of democracy, the US government planted the seeds that allowed American capitalism to bloom.

In Puerto Rico, many citizens rejoiced at the end of the Spanish-American War, happy to be rid of their Spanish colonizers. Little did they realize that they would lose more rights under the control of the United States, which would turn Puerto Rico into a direct colony and eventually a commonwealth, a designation that persists into the 21st century. In the 1950s, Puerto Rico had the highest average incomes in Latin America, which some pointed to as a reason for supporting US intervention. However, these numbers masked the great migration occurring from the countryside to the cities and from Puerto Rico to the United States.

Cuba was considered the “juiciest plum” of the Caribbean, as it had even more resources than Puerto Rico. Cubans were not easily subdued, however; they had a battle-hardened army that had fought in the Cuban Independence wars in the 1870s. The Platt Amendment designated Cuba as a “protectorate,” which led to more and more Americans living in Cuba. During the 1920s, unemployment forced Cubans to flee, leading to the rise of Cuba’s first modern dictator, Gerardo Machado. Popular resistance to Machado led to a liberal revolution. The US supported a coup led by Fulgencio Batista, who ruled from 1934-1944 and, after bloody resistance, again from 1952-1958, until Fidel Castro landed in Havana on January 1, 1959.

In Panama, President Teddy Roosevelt wanted a canal to be built to benefit US business interests. Engineers determined that Nicaragua was a better location for a canal, but a hefty donation swayed the Republican Party chairman, Mark Hanna, to secure a congressional majority for the Panama route. The canal took 10 years to complete, from 1904-1914, with the United States bringing in West Indian laborers to do the work. After the completion of the canal, the US presence in Panama continued, as the US remained in charge of a 10 km zone on either side of the canal.

When Cubans and Spanish fled from Cuba to the Dominican Republic, they brought technology that helped to transform the Dominican Republic’s economy to one based on sugar. Dictator Heaureax left his country heavily in debt, and after his assassination, President Roosevelt stepped in to consolidate the debt, so that the United States—not Europe—would be in charge of the sum owed.

Roosevelt did not want any possible European intervention to jeopardize his canal project. The Dominican Republic became a “financial protectorate,” benefitting foreign investors. Worried about a possible alliance between the Dominican Republic and Germany on the eve of World War I, President Wilson sent in marines for an eight-year occupation of the Dominican Republic that made the country dependent on American financial interests. Land laws were transformed to make it easier for US interests to take over mayorazago lands. The military also created a national police. When the marines left, Rafael Leónidas Trujillo would rise through the ranks of the national police to become the most notorious dictator in Latin America for the next 30 years. The United States preferred the installation of Trujillo to economic instability despite the massive toll on the Dominican people.

At the start of the 20th century, Nicaragua was the most prosperous country in Latin America. Much of this was due to the leadership of President Zelaya, a popular Liberal president who led Nicaragua from 1893-1909. His government was well-run but also nationalist, favoring Nicaraguan interests. Foreign investors were not given any special favors, much to the chagrin of American corporations.

Zelaya gained stature in 1907, when Nicaragua was on the verge of war with neighboring countries. The creation of the Central American Court of Justice brought Zelaya stature and credibility. When Taft took over from Roosevelt, his secretary of state, Knox, used “dollar diplomacy” to take over Nicaragua’s foreign debt from European investors, much as it had in the Dominican Republic. The US vilified Zelaya as “El Jefe,” and Zelaya was eventually ousted by US-backed rebels. However, these rebels were defeated, handing the United States its first major loss in Latin America. Before leaving, however, the US Marines trained a new military unit led by Anastasio Somoza García. In two years, Somoza would take over, assassinating his predecessor, Sandino, and installing himself as dictator until the Sandinista revolution in 1979.