Peninsulares
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- "Peninsular" redirects here. For the geographical formation, see peninsula.
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| Notable Peninsulares: Juan Ponce de León · Junípero Serra Bartolomé de las Casas · Pedro de Valdivia |
| Total population |
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| Peninsulares-Spanish Born 115,000,000 Descendants 28% of Hispanic American population Hispanics in the Spanish Empire |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Throughout Hispanic America |
| Languages |
| Religion |
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Predominantly |
| Related ethnic groups |
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Spaniards · Italian · Portuguese · French |
In the colonial caste system of Spanish America, a peninsular was a Spanish-born Spaniard or mainland Spaniard residing in the New World, as opposed to a person of full Spanish descent born in the Americas (known as creoles).
Most of the higher offices in the government of the Americas were held by Peninsulares. Apart from the distinction of peninsulares from criollos, the castas system distinguished also mestizos (of mixed Spanish and Amerindian ancestry), mulattos (of mixed Spanish and black ancestry), Amerindians, zambos (mixed Amerindian and black ancestry) and finally Blacks. In some places and times, such as during the wars of independence, they were called depreciatively godos (for the "Visigoths," who had ruled Spain), or in Mexico, gachupines.
Almost all viceroys, audiencia presidents and many audiencia judges, as well as captains general, were peninsulares, as they were more likely to have the connections to, and the required record of service to, the crown. Many other Peninsulares came to the New World as merchants, clerics and even indentured servants. Criollos held high positions in government and in the church, and owned almost all of the land. Mestizos could enter the priesthood, but were usually small farmers, craftsmen and artisans. Land ownership restrictions loosened up later in the Empire.
Colonial officials at the highest levels arrived from Spain or Portugal to fulfill their duty to govern Iberian colonies in Latin America. Often, the Peninsulares had large quantities of land. They defended Cádiz's monopoly on trade, upsetting the criollos, who turned to contraband with British and French colonies, especially in areas away from the main ports of call for the Flota de Indias. They worked to preserve Spanish or Portuguese power and acted as agents of patrol, in certain cases.
In colonial social hierarchy, the peninsulares were nominally at the top, followed by criollos, who developed a fully-entrenched powerful local aristocracy during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. In the French Revolution, the peninsulares were generally conservative.
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[edit] Twentieth Century use of the term
In the twentieth century, peninsular was a euphemism for white in Spanish Guinea. It is also used in the Canary Islands for a non-Canarian Spaniard.
The descendants of peninsulares and criollos in the Philippines, later extended to anyone in the Anglophone upper-class, came to collectively be known as konyos after their frequent use of the Spanish swearword coño. Their variant of English with Tagalog words is characteristic.
[edit] Other use
Peninsulares was also a Spanish brand of cigarettes.
[edit] References
Burkholder, Mark A. and Johnson, Lyman L. 'Colonial Latin America', sixth edition (Oxford University Press. 2008) ISBN 978-0-19-532042-8
[edit] See also
- Californio
- White Latin American
- Isleños. Some regions distinguished between Peninsular Spanish immigrants and those from the Canary Islands, the isleños.
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