Comm

Rayana Bayley

Europe & World in Transition

Professor Steve Bachelor

02-16 -10

The Survival of Colonialism in Latin America

Colonialism survived because it offered economic opportunity to people which in turn, gave them a chance at a better life. Although there are arguments that some may choose to disagree with, the documented evidence provided by credible sources, some of who were there to witness first hand, has a convincing nature in answering the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ factor about the survival of colonialism.

According to the two passages written by a Carmelite monk that described work in the silver mines at Potosi and a textile mill in Puebla, Mexico, as well as a third passage written by a French merchant who resided in Brazil which described the social conditions on a Brazilian sugar plantation, provides the reader with credible sources on the mistreatment of the Indians and the blacks for the sole purpose of profit. The following quote is in regard to the maltreatment in the Mexican textile factory which puts forth the cunning affirmation of the iniquitous and unjust practices of those who ran the mills to the Indians -- “To keep their mills supplied with labor for the production of cloth and grograms they maintain individuals who are engaged and hired to ensnare poor innocents; seeing some Indian who is a stranger to the town, with some trickery or pretext, such as hiring him to carry something, like a porter, and paying him cash, they get him into the mill: once inside, they drop the deception, and the poor fellow never again gets outside that prison until he dies and they carry him out for burial. In this way they have gathered in an duped many married Indians with families, who have passed into oblivion here for 20 years, or longer, or their whole lives, without their wives and children knowing anything about them; for even if they want to get out, they, cannot, thanks to the great watchfulness with which the doormen guard the exits. These...