In the colonial era, the Spanish American society had a pyramidal cast system with a few Spaniards at the top, mixed-race in the middle, and a large population of indigenous people, and a small number of slaves usually of African origin at the bottom. Although the size of the groups varied there was a hierarchy of power and social status observed during the colonial period. The Spaniards occupied the upper echelons of colonial society by holding all the positions of economic privilege and political power. However, there was a sharp split between the people born in Europe, peninsula, and those born in the Americas, creoles. Many castes in the Americas in the 19th Century were resentful of the racial, economic and land inequality present because of colonial rule and the rigid caste system imposed by the Spanish.
