ABSTRACT
The conquest of populations that would not be incorporated into the body politic of the Iberian feudal kingdoms set the new age apart from the past. Portugal and Spain weren’t religious crusaders or city-states at war with each other for market advantages. Overseas ventures were royally sponsored imperial enterprises whose success was measured by the wealth that was added to their treasuries and to the pockets of adventurous commanders who planted their flags. Population displacement and destruction in pursuit of new wealth were a departure from leftover Roman and feudal practices. Confiscated gold and silver bullion came first, enslaved-labor-produced sugar followed. A golden age for Spain attracted rivals and imitators. Coercive oversight and administration of conquered populations created spatial separation practices, labor stratification codes and restrictions for admission to religious orders that were early foundations of racism. Profits from sugar and spices, at first traded for, then produced on land conquered for commercial production came next. Secular law and codes not made by religious authorities brought about innovative institutional life and made subordinated subjects into races from the Atlantic World to Africa and Asia. The Netherlands, then England, joined the deadly game in the sixteenth century.
