How did the different labor systems employed by the Spanish, French, and English affect the indigenous populations of the Americas?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The economy of New Spain was based on a highly exploitive system of forced labor. The Spanish used a system known as the encomienda that was not much different than slavery. Indians were considered "vassals" who owed their labor to noblemen, who would save the souls of the Indians by converting them. This system led to a high mortality rate among the indigenous population, which resulted in the Spanish using other types of labor, including conscript labor, wage
labor, and slavery.

The French encounter with Native Americans was much different. They sought to maintain good relations with the local tribes because they depended on them to provide furs for trade. The French population often intermarried with local Indians (with the encouragement of the French government) in the hope that this would facilitate a gradual assimilation of the Indian population into the French culture of New France. The French were just as eager as the Spanish to convert the Indians, but French missionaries lived among Indians and learned their customs instead of imposing Catholicism by force.

The English would create a slave-based labor system in the Americas in the form of plantations. In this system, the indigenous populations would be kicked off of their lands, which would be repopulated with colonists, instead of incorporated into their culture.