The Settlement of New Spain

In 1521, the world witnessed the collapse of the illustrious Aztec Empire at the hands of Spanish conquistadors. Spain was looking to colonize as well as to expand and exert its dominance over the newly discovered Western world. Led by HernÐ'ЁÐ'Ñžn CortÐ'ЁÐ'Ёs, the conquistadors were carrying a message from Spain of expanding, conquering and capitalizing on an already developed country. Mesmerized by the Spanish presence; the Aztecs were initially oblivious to the colonization efforts. This enabled Spain to take advantage of MexicoÐ'ÐŽÐ'Їs development and create a dependent relationship between the two countries. Mexico was resistant to the colonization efforts at first; it had educated people, wealth, and sufficient military power to defend itself from the Spanish conquistadors. After time passed, the Spanish began to take control of the Aztec Empire and started the assimilation process. Now at this point it becomes evident that the colonization of New Spain by the Spanish was an example of a dependent relationship because it displays many of the eight major propositions of the dependency theory.

As Spanish immigration increased, a social structure or caste system began to solidify. It was setup to have Spanish on top and Mexicans at the bottom; this created a Spanish superiority and an aboriginal inferiority which had no room for moving up in the social hierarchy. Much like the rest of life for the aboriginals, the Spanish were viewed as the entitled, which paved the road for a dependent

relationship between the two sides. It now became the subconscious goal of the underprivileged Mexicans to cater to the every need of the Spanish. The gap between the rich and the poor was increased as the inevitable transformation into a dependent relationship was engraved into the socialization of citizens living in New Spain. This embodies the Marxist version of the dependency theory, which states that once a country falls under the influence of an imperialist country, such as Spain, it will never develop. This explains the need for Socialism as the inescapable resolution for capitalism.

Typically, Third world countries were poor while First world countries were rich. This is effective for creating a dependent relationship because it lets the First World country have an economic influence as well as a referent power; the Aztecs saw the conquistadors as gods initially. New Spain had a huge abundance of natural resources like silver, gold and rare jewels. These resources were part of New SpainÐ'ÐŽÐ'Їs economic centre called the tlatelolco. Mexico had a very self-sufficient economy where approximately sixty to eighty thousand people went to trade every day. HernÐ'ЁÐ'Ñžn CortÐ'ЁÐ'Ёs and his men realized the potential of this economy and they began to attempt to seize control over it. SpainÐ'ÐŽÐ'Їs capitalistic ideology monopolized many fields such as salt, gunpowder, mercury, pulque, and tobacco so that profit was only accessible for Spain and the Mexicans were restricted access to the industries. Spain took complete control of MexicoÐ'ÐŽÐ'Їs