How Spanish colonists turned the Inca mita into forced mining labor

The Spanish turned an Inca labor system into forced mine work

1 member per family

After conquering the Inca Empire, Spanish rulers took the existing mita labor system and used it for gold and silver mining. A family could be forced to send one member to work, and if that worker died, often within a year or two, the family usually had to send someone else.

A short passage looks much longer

7 m → 30 m

At Rome’s Palazzo Spada, architect Francesco Borromini used columns that get smaller, a narrowing floor and a small statue to make a seven-meter passage appear thirty meters long.

The same physical feeling can become different emotions

In an experiment, people with the same physical arousal reported different emotions depending on how another person around them behaved. Some became angry while others were amused. The result suggests that bodily arousal alone does not decide which emotion we feel.

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How Spanish colonists turned the Inca mita into forced mining labor

The Spanish turned an Inca labor system into forced mine work

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