Positive Impacts of the Spanish Colonialist Policy on Central and Southern America

Abstract

In the previous article (see Journal of Historical Studies 6 (331) 2003), we have discussed the negative impacts of the Spanish policy on their American colonies. This article will discuss the positive impacts of the Spanish policy such as: racial mixture, economic transformation, cultural exchange and acculturation, and so forth. To a certain extent, this sort of impacts brought significant changes to Central and Southern America, attributing to the formation of typical socio-economic and cultural characteristics of today Latin America. Obviously, these positive impacts were not intentionally created by the Spanish colonialists but accidentally occurred when they built infrastructures (churches, schools...) for a colonial economy and society. This, nevertheless, laid a base for the development of the Latin American culture later on.