Iberian Society and Tradition
nIberian society was heavily urban; many peasants lived in small centers.
nCommoners coming to America sought to become nobles holding Indian worked estates.
•These estates were known as encomiendas.
nThe Iberian tradition of slavery came to the New World and so did new political patterns.
•Political centralization in Portugal and Castile depended upon a professional bureaucracy of trained lawyers and judges.
•Religion and the Catholic church were closely linked to the state.
