<P> A casta ( Spanish : ( ˈkasta ) ) was a term to describe mixed - race individuals in Spanish America , resulting from unions of European whites ( españoles ) , Amerindians ( indios ) , and Africans ( negros ) . Racial categories had legal and social consequences , since racial status was an organizing principle of Spanish colonial rule . During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries , European elites created a complex hierarchical system of race classification . The sistema de castas or the sociedad de castas was used in the 17th and 18th century in Spanish America and Spanish Philippines to describe as a whole and formally socially rank the mixed - race people who were born during the post-Conquest period . The process of mixing ancestries in the union of people of different races was known as mestizaje ( Portuguese : mestiçagem ( meʃtʃiˈsaʒẽj ) , ( mɨʃtiˈsaʒɐ̃j ) ) . In Spanish colonial law , mixed - race castas were classified as part of the república de españoles and not the república de indios , which set Amerindians outside the Hispanic sphere . Other terminology for classification is categorization based on the degree of acculturation to Hispanic culture , which distinguished between gente de razón ( Hispanics , literally , `` people of reason '' ) and gente sin razón ( non-acculturated natives ) , concurrently existed and supported the idea of the racial classification system . Castas is a Spanish word that is used in New Mexico history to describe pueblo people and New Mexicans . </P>
<P> A casta ( Spanish : ( ˈkasta ) ) was a term to describe mixed - race individuals in Spanish America , resulting from unions of European whites ( españoles ) , Amerindians ( indios ) , and Africans ( negros ) . Racial categories had legal and social consequences , since racial status was an organizing principle of Spanish colonial rule . During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries , European elites created a complex hierarchical system of race classification . The sistema de castas or the sociedad de castas was used in the 17th and 18th century in Spanish America and Spanish Philippines to describe as a whole and formally socially rank the mixed - race people who were born during the post-Conquest period . The process of mixing ancestries in the union of people of different races was known as mestizaje ( Portuguese : mestiçagem ( meʃtʃiˈsaʒẽj ) , ( mɨʃtiˈsaʒɐ̃j ) ) . In Spanish colonial law , mixed - race castas were classified as part of the república de españoles and not the república de indios , which set Amerindians outside the Hispanic sphere . Other terminology for classification is categorization based on the degree of acculturation to Hispanic culture , which distinguished between gente de razón ( Hispanics , literally , `` people of reason '' ) and gente sin razón ( non-acculturated natives ) , concurrently existed and supported the idea of the racial classification system . Castas is a Spanish word that is used in New Mexico history to describe pueblo people and New Mexicans . </P>
when was the social class system latin american colonies created
when was the social class system latin american colonies created
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries