Answer:
See explanation!
Explanation:
In the period after the Columbian Exchange, European colonizers slowly began to explore and colonize the Americas. Of these British colonizers were the Spanish, who had a significant amount of intermarriage with the Native Peoples compared to the British, Dutch, or French. This was due to the gender imbalance of colonizers, and their motives for colonization which resulted in a better relationship with Natives than groups like the British. This intermarriage slowly resulted in a social hierarchy, known as the caste system.
It went as follows:
Peninsulares were at the top of the pyramid and consisted of Spanish peoples that were born in Spain/on the Iberian Peninsula.
Next were the Creoles, who were of Spanish descent but were born in America.
After that were the Mestizoes, who were those of Spanish and Native American descent.
The Mulattoes came next, which were people of Spanish and African descent.
At the bottom of the pyramid were the indigenous Native Americans and the enslaved Africans.
This social structure/hierarchy was incredibly rigid, it was near impossible to move from one class to another. Groups in different classes were also given significantly different rights and treatments.
Hope that helps! You can also find some good diagrams on the internet that might help you visualize it as well :)
