HIST/LAS 3401W: Study Guide for Stern, “The Indians and Spanish Justice”
           
This book chapter (a secondary work) analyzes how both Spaniards and Indians reacted to the post-Toledan reforms context and to the economy based upon mining and agriculture. Stern provides a good model for stating a thesis and building an argument to support it; evaluate the degree to which you find it convincing. He introduces the term “hegemony;” you should be able to restate his definition.

1.  Why does Stern say that the Toledan system brought "mixed blessings" for the Spaniards (p. 115)?

2.  Most of the chapter examines how the Indians used the Spanish legal system.  What disadvantages faced them when they went to Spanish courts?  What kinds of complaints did they air before the judges?  What kinds of tactics did they use?

3.  What were the "cleavages" within the colonial elite, and how could they work to the advantage of Indians?

4.  Try to put yourself in the place of different social types in colonial society (a common Indian, kuraka, Spanish landowner, priest or corregidor).  What are your goals?  What strategies do you use to pursue them?  To whom do you look for potential allies?

5.  How would you assess the overall achievements and limits of the Indian strategy of legal litigation?

6.  Hegemony continues to be an important concept for Stern.  How does it apply to the Spanish judicial system?  Do you agree with Stern that by fighting colonial abuses through the courts, Indians recognized Spanish authority as legitimate?  How does this case study change your understanding of "resistance"?

Please tear off this section and return to your T.A. when you have finished the reading:

EVALUATION OF STERN, “THE INDIANS AND SPANISH JUSTICE”

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