ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by family portraits,

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the perfect picture of everything wrong with your relatives.

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Heh. Yeah. Well, we've been there. We know that movie.

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Relationships like the one shown in the image

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resulted in the development of... what?

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And don't say film.

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And here are your potential answers.

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[ mumbles ]

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All right. What can we take from this picture?

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We see that the guy has a lollipop or a rattle of some kind,

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and the baby has a shaker.

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So we know these people are fond of accessories.

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Also, the caption says the family has a

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"mestizo child."

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So we know that we're dealing with the mixing of ethnicities

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common during Spanish colonization of South America.

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Let's check out the answers and see if we can

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DTR (define the result) of this relationship.

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Did relationships like this one result in the development of

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a smallpox outbreak?

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Well, sure relationships can be toxic -

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you watch reality TV? - but smallpox feels a little extreme.

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And besides, the conquistadores spread smallpox

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way before these interracial marriages started to occur,

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so we're about two to three hundred years too late for that.

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So that knocks out A.

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Would these mixed relationships have led to B - the encomienda system?

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Well, actually, these relationships were in many ways a result

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of the encomienda system.

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Spanish settlers would forcibly assemble a workforce

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of American Indians and, because of the lack of Spanish

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female settlers, plantation owners would

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"marry" the women working for them.

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So that eliminates B.

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Could these kinds of relationships have resulted in C - the African slave trade?

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Hmm. Well, let's think that one through.

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The African slave trade came about in South America

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partially because the native population perished

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from infectious diseases,

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not because they suddenly started marrying wealthy Spaniards.

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That eliminates C, as well.

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Which means that relationships like the one in the image

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resulted in the development of D - a complex caste system.

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So, whoop, there it is. The Spanish were very open to

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intermixture with Native Americans,

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unlike their English brethren up north,

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which eventually led to the development of a complex caste system

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based on race. So D is the correct answer.

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By the end of the Spanish colonial period, there were over 100

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different types of racial categorization.

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Sounds like OCD,

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obsessive caste disorder.

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