In three days Mexico will mark one of its most important and its most popularly celebrated patriotic dates, September 16, commemorating the beginning of this nation’s struggle for independence from Spain. For foreign residents and visitors in Mexico, September 16 often prompts the impulse to make comparisons. But they are not alone.
This exercise also attracts the attention of many Mexican citizens, especially today. The most frequent comparison made by a good many Mexican observers is between what happened to the 13 English Colonies once they attained their independence in 1783, and what happened when the much larger, older, more thoroughly established and much wealthier colony of Nueva España (New Spain) won its freedom from Spain 38 years later.
Comparison
In making such a comparison there is a tendency to focus on the most apparent advantages New Spain originally possessed when compared to the seemingly less culturally sophisticated, much poorer, much smaller and obviously more fragmented 13 Colonies.
But the most apparent differences between the two (New Spain founded its first university in 1553, 54 years before the English colonists even established their first settlement in the New World, for instance,) have not been the most significant ones in the histories of these two, sometimes similar, yet profoundly different societies.
What was to determine the futures of these colonies once they shook free of the rule of European monarchies was the political, economic and cultural instincts they inherited from their parent nations. And these often have not been as easily spotted as such things as relative size, wealth or historical priority. For example, conventional knowledge has it that Spain was growing rich during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries as the New World’s treasure of precious metals was poured into its coffers. Indeed, the years from 1500 to the end of the 1600s are known as Spain’s Siglo de Oro (Golden age). When King Carlos V, who had overseen the thorough colonization of most of the New World, died and his son, Felipe II, took the throne in 1556, the Spanish Empire was the largest on earth, possessed the best navy in the world and was considered superior to England in literature and to Italy in art. Spanish was the language of millions; all educated classes of the “civilized” world learned to speak it. Spanish architecture graced major cities on five continents. Seville would soon become one of the most important ports in the world.
Yet this huge and powerful empire, even as it grew larger, was crumbling from within; crippled by corrupt and inept management, it was up to its neck in hock. The Crown’s share of the treasure flowing to it from the New World was often pledged to foreign financiers for as much as four to five years in advance. Spain’s rulers developed no industry during this time and were dependent on other European nations for both food and manufactured goods of all kinds. Of these imports, what was not necessary for domestic consumption was exported to Spain’s New World fiefdom, which was forbidden to manufacture anything, to produce wool, olives, wine and scores of other products that Spain wished to sell abroad. The contradictions and the debilitating effects of such economic wrongheadedness were not perceived by Spain’s rulers.
During this time, Spain’s view of itself and of the world was a rigidly medieval one. On the other hand, England was struggling with change. It slashed and tore its way through a religious transformation, breaking with the Roman Catholic Church. Equally important for the 13 Colonies, it planted the beginnings of a capitalist economy, developed such classic bourgeois values as industry and thrift and began modifying its traditional monarchy and developing a parliamentary system.
As for England’s New World possessions, the apparent lack of immediate wealth in New England worked to the ultimate advantage of the colonists there. Because no fabulous riches seemed to exist, the English Crown refused to give much attention or support to the colonists. English monarchs granted charters to audacious groups and reckless individuals wishing to risk their fortunes and necks, but accepted none of the burden of financing such ventures and saw little benefit in getting drawn into extensive efforts in closely administrating the fledgling colonies.
Migration policies
The English also made no attempt to supervise European migration to their colonies, and in fact encouraged non-English Europeans to settle in their possessions on the American continent. Thus, from 1700 to 1776 non-English immigrants to the colonies greatly outnumbered those from Britain. For instance, more than 50,000 Germans settled in the Pennsylvania colony just between 1727 and 1740. By the time the War for Independence broke out, significant numbers of Dutch, French, Germans, Jews, Scots, Scotch-Irish, Swedes, Swiss, Welsh and other non-English Europeans were scattered throughout Britain’s colonies.
Spain’s policy of colonial settlement was quite different. The Spanish in retrospect, seem to have been paranoid in their desire to keep out all non-Spaniards and non-Catholics. Also the Crown tried to control the kind of Spaniards it sent to New Spain: clergymen, farmers, noblemen and tradesmen were sent in approximately the same numbers these categories represented in the Spanish mainland population. The Crown wanted to create an elite in Nueva España that was an exact replica of metropolitan Spain.
In the Anglo colonies of America, a broad range of protestant sects set up shop. Dissenting Protestants, especially, viewed the English colonies as a refuge where they could worship freely. By 1776 the Anglo-American colonies were burgeoning with Anglicans (of course), Baptists, Congregationalists, Moravians, Quakers and even Catholics and Jews. Statistically no single church could claim more than 17 percent of the total population of these colonies.
Spanish law in New Spain barred dissenters to Roman Catholicism, branding them as heretics and persecuting them in all of Spain’s possessions.
Social Structure
Another important difference between the Spanish and English colonies were their social structures. Spanish American populations possessed a wide variety of colors and castes. These were rigidly divided, stratified and totally immobile with a tiny but absolutely powerful elite at the top. English colonial structure, on the other hand, was relatively classless and mobile — with the exception of slaves. Colonists in Anglo-America were rather unique in the world at that time because with comparative ease they could move up the social ladder. The many opportunities of acquiring land and the economic and political status that went with that tended to make Anglo-America an exceptionally mobile community, a factor that was to be significant in the struggle for and success of independence in these northern colonies.
This is the first of a two-part series.