Raimo Kangasniemi
@rk70534.bsky.social
A useless humanist with a love for art, astronomy, history, literature, science, human rights and social justice. I hate oppression.
https://linktr.ee/raimokangasniemi
https://linktr.ee/raimokangasniemi
Pinned
Accounts that support Western Sahara's liberation from Moroccan occupation.
United Nations Security Council now supports annexation of entire nations by their neighbours through military invasions and occupations.
First #WesternSahara, but others will follow.
bsky.app/profile/rk70...
United Nations Security Council now supports annexation of entire nations by their neighbours through military invasions and occupations.
First #WesternSahara, but others will follow.
bsky.app/profile/rk70...
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
Back tomorrow to discuss the 1896 German dockworkers strike in Hamburg.
November 20, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Back tomorrow to discuss the 1896 German dockworkers strike in Hamburg.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
The best book on these issues is Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Slavery of Indian Enslavement in America. You should read it.
November 20, 2025 at 3:13 PM
The best book on these issues is Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Slavery of Indian Enslavement in America. You should read it.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
This is what created the rich landowner and the peon, under complete control of the hacienda owner. It was just completely rank exploitation. This did not really end until the 1917 Constitution in the Mexican Revolution.
November 20, 2025 at 3:12 PM
This is what created the rich landowner and the peon, under complete control of the hacienda owner. It was just completely rank exploitation. This did not really end until the 1917 Constitution in the Mexican Revolution.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
The encomienda bound people to the land, including their descendants. This was the closest things got to the chattel labor system being established by the Europeans in other parts of the colonial empire, mostly with Africans.
November 20, 2025 at 3:12 PM
The encomienda bound people to the land, including their descendants. This was the closest things got to the chattel labor system being established by the Europeans in other parts of the colonial empire, mostly with Africans.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
And of course by this time, the white Anglos who had brought their Black slaves into Texas had no interest in complying and this led to the first time that place committed treason in defense of slavery, just a few years later.
November 20, 2025 at 3:12 PM
And of course by this time, the white Anglos who had brought their Black slaves into Texas had no interest in complying and this led to the first time that place committed treason in defense of slavery, just a few years later.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
It was easier for the Mexican elites to get rid of Spain than to get rid of their beloved system of forced labor
November 20, 2025 at 3:12 PM
It was easier for the Mexican elites to get rid of Spain than to get rid of their beloved system of forced labor
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
These people were paid a little bit of money, but the government set the wage and the workers had no say in it. This did not end in Mexico until 1829, which is after the nation threw off its colonial chains.
November 20, 2025 at 3:12 PM
These people were paid a little bit of money, but the government set the wage and the workers had no say in it. This did not end in Mexico until 1829, which is after the nation threw off its colonial chains.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
This system of forced labor turned into the repartimiento and encomienda. The former was the tribute system–government controlled labor drafts that provided the desired labor for the mines or for the estates for the rich.
November 20, 2025 at 3:12 PM
This system of forced labor turned into the repartimiento and encomienda. The former was the tribute system–government controlled labor drafts that provided the desired labor for the mines or for the estates for the rich.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
By 1630, the indigenous population of Mexico had shrunk from a pre-conquest total of between 10 and 12 million to about 800,000. That’s over 90% of the population.
November 20, 2025 at 3:12 PM
By 1630, the indigenous population of Mexico had shrunk from a pre-conquest total of between 10 and 12 million to about 800,000. That’s over 90% of the population.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
Yes, the epidemics made a huge impact on populations, but as historians have argued, the Native populations would have recovered from these epidemics something like Europeans did after the Bubonic Plague hit, but forced labor made that impossible.
November 20, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Yes, the epidemics made a huge impact on populations, but as historians have argued, the Native populations would have recovered from these epidemics something like Europeans did after the Bubonic Plague hit, but forced labor made that impossible.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
But it was the ones and two, the people killed or who killed themselves out of desperation, the people worked to death, the people half-starved who just gave up.
November 20, 2025 at 3:11 PM
But it was the ones and two, the people killed or who killed themselves out of desperation, the people worked to death, the people half-starved who just gave up.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
You simply defined this through tribute. So if you were building a road, you would force the indigenous peoples who pay that tribute through labor. This happened over and over again.
November 20, 2025 at 3:11 PM
You simply defined this through tribute. So if you were building a road, you would force the indigenous peoples who pay that tribute through labor. This happened over and over again.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
What did Madrid really know about conditions on the ground anyway? So it wasn’t “slavery” anymore. Nope, it was “forced labor.” Ah, OK.
November 20, 2025 at 3:11 PM
What did Madrid really know about conditions on the ground anyway? So it wasn’t “slavery” anymore. Nope, it was “forced labor.” Ah, OK.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
Then when Charles took over, he issued a broader declaration freeing all slaves in the colonies. But this was observed only technically, at best. In the end, the problem for Spanish leaders in Mexico is that they wanted cheap labor and this was the way to get it.
November 20, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Then when Charles took over, he issued a broader declaration freeing all slaves in the colonies. But this was observed only technically, at best. In the end, the problem for Spanish leaders in Mexico is that they wanted cheap labor and this was the way to get it.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
There was another attempt in the late seventeenth century to crack down on this and it this period of direct slavery sort of ended by the 1680s. Mariana of Austria, Queen Regent when her son Charles II was a child, issued an edict freeing all indigenous slaves in Mexico in 1672.
November 20, 2025 at 3:11 PM
There was another attempt in the late seventeenth century to crack down on this and it this period of direct slavery sort of ended by the 1680s. Mariana of Austria, Queen Regent when her son Charles II was a child, issued an edict freeing all indigenous slaves in Mexico in 1672.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
Now, technically, none of the indigenous people of Mexico were supposed to be slaves. In 1500, Queen Isabella ordered all Indians freed from slavery. And when she died in 1504, her will doubled down on these policies. But you know, why bother right?
November 20, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Now, technically, none of the indigenous people of Mexico were supposed to be slaves. In 1500, Queen Isabella ordered all Indians freed from slavery. And when she died in 1504, her will doubled down on these policies. But you know, why bother right?
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
The Franciscans would get grants of ten years labor when building missions and then just continue to enslave the workers after those ten years were up.
November 20, 2025 at 3:10 PM
The Franciscans would get grants of ten years labor when building missions and then just continue to enslave the workers after those ten years were up.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
There were all sorts of schemes to get around the technical illegality of slavery in Mexico. They would classify the wars against the tribes they themselves started as rebellions to force labor out of workers.
November 20, 2025 at 3:10 PM
There were all sorts of schemes to get around the technical illegality of slavery in Mexico. They would classify the wars against the tribes they themselves started as rebellions to force labor out of workers.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
The Spanish government technically opposed such slavery at the time, but neither would nor really could do much about it. So after Cortés took over Mexico, he spent the rest of his life trying to get rich off it and the way to get rich was to buy mines and buy humans.
November 20, 2025 at 3:10 PM
The Spanish government technically opposed such slavery at the time, but neither would nor really could do much about it. So after Cortés took over Mexico, he spent the rest of his life trying to get rich off it and the way to get rich was to buy mines and buy humans.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
By the time Cortés arrived in Mexico, these principles were already established. Christopher Columbus had enslaved Native peoples. In 1499, the Spanish discovered gold in Hispanola and forced the Taino to mine it for them, significantly adding to the rapid disappearance of those peoples
November 20, 2025 at 3:10 PM
By the time Cortés arrived in Mexico, these principles were already established. Christopher Columbus had enslaved Native peoples. In 1499, the Spanish discovered gold in Hispanola and forced the Taino to mine it for them, significantly adding to the rapid disappearance of those peoples
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
Nope, you had the indigenous peoples and now they must acquiesce to complete Spanish control over their lives, both in terms of labor and religion.
November 20, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Nope, you had the indigenous peoples and now they must acquiesce to complete Spanish control over their lives, both in terms of labor and religion.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
But the vast majority of this would be Native and then African labor. In Mexico, there was no pretense of bringing Spanish laborers across the Atlantic in any kind of meaningful numbers.
November 20, 2025 at 3:09 PM
But the vast majority of this would be Native and then African labor. In Mexico, there was no pretense of bringing Spanish laborers across the Atlantic in any kind of meaningful numbers.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
From New York down to Argentina, the singular point of colonization was to force labor to work in order to make Europeans rich. At times, that might even be English labor, such as in the early years of the Virginia colony.
November 20, 2025 at 3:09 PM
From New York down to Argentina, the singular point of colonization was to force labor to work in order to make Europeans rich. At times, that might even be English labor, such as in the early years of the Virginia colony.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
This wasn’t going to be Massachusetts, the gigantic exception when it comes to the history of American colonization and one that is given vastly too much attention due to the power of New Englanders in the 19th century to create myths about the United States and its origins.
November 20, 2025 at 3:09 PM
This wasn’t going to be Massachusetts, the gigantic exception when it comes to the history of American colonization and one that is given vastly too much attention due to the power of New Englanders in the 19th century to create myths about the United States and its origins.
Reposted by Raimo Kangasniemi
The Spanish didn’t send many settlers to Mexico or Peru.
November 20, 2025 at 3:09 PM
The Spanish didn’t send many settlers to Mexico or Peru.