What is Forced Labor and how was it like for the Indians to live it? Brutal forced labor has been going on before we were even born. It normally occurs in areas were there is few labor opportunities. There are different labor regimes that differ from each other by the way that they obtain their resources. Labor has been recruited by seasons depending for what season they need the people that were chosen from the villages and families. Some were chosen to specific timings, others were chosen without warning. This benefited the people who were in power, but it harmed those who were forced to work.

 

One example of how it was like for the people to go through forced labor is in Huanacavelica, a mine in Peru that had 400 Spanish residents. As one chaplain who lived there explained, “Every two months their majesty sent by a regular courier from Lima 60,000 pesos to pay the forced labor of the Indians... There are 3,000 - 4,000 Indians working in the mine.”

 

That chaplain, Antonio Vazquez de Espinosa, further explained working conditions:  

 

“When I was in that town the excavation so extensive that it held more than 3,000 Indians working away hard with picks and hammers, breaking up that flint ore; and when they have filled their little sacks, the poor fellows, loaded down with ore, climb up those ladders or rigging, some like masts and others like cables, and so trying and distressing that a man empty-handed can hardly get up them. That is the way they work in this mine, with many lights and the loud noise of the pounding and great confusion. Nor is that the greatest evil and difficulty; that is due to thievish and undisciplined superintendents.” 

 

It clearly seems like they had a very difficult time and labor conditions. No matter what they did, it would always be more than challenging. Carrying those heavy sacks back to the light was not easy, not even for the young people, now imagine those who were old and weak, how hard it was for them to get out. Many of the Indians died in the process of mining.

 

The situation did not get any better at Silver mining in Potasí which was a mine in Bolivia, it was highly complicated. The settlement was too big and because of that more voluntary labor as well as forced labor was needed to carry supplies up and silver ore down. The mine owners on this massive place have the right to the mita of 13,300 Indians in the working and exploitation of the mines. There was a person called the "Corrigidor" of Potosí to make sure that the 13,300 indians came rounded to the mine, if there were not enough, it was the Corrigidor's job to suspend the corrigidores that brought the natives to the mine.

 

The treatment that the Indians received was terrible, millions of assay pesos were extracted from the Potosí mine from 1545 to 1628. What was the cause of these forced labor? A revolution at long term towards the Spanish colonizers.

 

SOURCE: Antonio Vazquez de Espinosa, Compendium and Description of the West Indies, translated by Charles Upson Clark (Washington D.C.:Smithsonian Institution, 19420, vol. 102, 542-43, 623-24, 629.

 

The colony of New Granada suffered through the economic oppression of Spain in several different ways including heavy mercantilism, harsh gold mining and exportation, and heavy taxation during the bourbon reforms. New Granada being a colony of Spain was under Spanish mercantilism, meaning they could only trade with Spain and other Spanish colonies. Due to a weak Spanish rule in the colony the only resource leaving New Granada was gold from the Spanish mines. Because of the freedom that came from loose government the people of New Granada never felt the need to revolt, however when Charles the III of Spain became king he created new rules and laws to ensure that Spain would be getting the most out of their colonies. When the new laws were enforced the population of New Granada became unhappy which sparked the unsuccessful communero rebellion in 1718.

 

During the fall of the Hapsburg Empire and the rise of the Bourbon Empire New granada regained some of its old freedom as the bourbon monarchs were unable to set up and control an effective government in New Granada. They returned to exporting mostly gold, other products were kept internally inside the colony or exported in contraband. In 1810 Spain brought about with the bourbon reforms also referred to at times as “the second conquest of America”, a brutal reinforcement of laws and policies came down on the Latin Americans. The people of New Granada became unhappy once more, this time they turned to European trained military general Simon Bolivar who lead the revolution in 1819 gaining New Granada’s independence and creating the nations of Colombia and later Venezuela.

 

Works Cited

Lynch, John. "Simon Bolivar and the Spanish Revolutions." Editorial. History Today 01 July 1983: n. pag. History Today. History Today. Web. 15 Nov. 2014. <http://www.historytoday.com/john-lynch/simon-bolivar-and-spanish-revolutions-0>.

McFarlane, Anthony. "Colombia before Independance." Cambridge University Press (1993): n. pag. Web.