Question

1. The native population of the Spanish colonies declined rapidly between 1519 and 1605. Why did the native population decrease at such a drastic rate? Include at least three reasons in your explanation. How did the Spanish government respond to the decline?

Answer 1

The native population of the Spanish colonies (i.e., Native Americans in the area) died off due to wars between Spanish settlers and natives, poor working conditions in enslavement, and the tons of diseases brought over by the Spanish that Native Americans' bodies did not know how to fight all drastically wiped out native Spanish populations. They had to bring in a lot of slaves from Africa to make up for these losses.