A broad survey of the social, economic, political and cultural development of Latin America from the fifteenth century to 1810. Includes analysis of such topics as pre-Columbian societies on the eve of conquest, the Iberian kingdoms in the Age of Expansion, the conquest and colonization of the indigenous cultures of the New World, the establishment of Spanish and Portuguese institutions, the relations between the Church and the State, the encomienda and the hacienda, slavery and the impact of the Bourbon Reforms on America.