180 Inquisitions, Spanish and Roman to Seville annually from 1606 to 1620, though these figures exclude illicit commerce, which was doubtless substantial Meanwhile, indigo production in Asia continued to grow Throughout the 1600s, indigo was one of the chief products of the Dutch and British East India Companies Evidence suggests that the inability of Asian indigo production to meet rising European demand was one of the principal engines of indigo production in the Americas Other regions in the Caribbean basin also emerged as important sources of indigo, including SaintDomingue (France to 1803), Jamaica (Great Britain after 1655), Suriname (Holland), and Brazil (Portugal) Soon sugar displaced indigo, tobacco, and other products as the Caribbean’s principal export crop, though indigo production continued throughout large parts of the Americas through the colonial period and after By the 1740s, an indigo boom had emerged in South Carolina, complementing rice production in the same region It was not until the late 19th century, that a viable synthetic dye finally displaced indigo as the most important source of dark blue coloration in fabrics See also sugarcane plantations in the Americas Further reading Alden, Dauril “The Growth and Decline of Indigo Production in Colonial Brazil: A Study in Comparative Economic History.” Journal of Economic History (v 25, 1965); MacLeod, Murdo J Spanish Central America: A Socioeconomic History, 1520–1720 Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973 Michael J Schroeder Inquisitions, Spanish and Roman The Inquisition in the early modern period was a permanent papal judicial institution of the Roman Catholic Church that was to eradicate heresies, originally dealing with alchemy, sorcery, and witchcraft, as well as dealing with heretical groups like the Cathars and subsequently with relapsed converts or “heretics” who refused to recant The most well-known of the inquisitions was the Spanish Inquisition, which was established in 1478 by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Castile, with the support of, and carrying the authority of, Pope Sixtus IV Although the inquisitor-general was appointed by the pope, the Spanish Inquisition was run by the Spanish monarchy The first inquisitors of the Spanish Inquisition worked from Seville and were so vindictive that even Pope Sixtus IV tried to moderate them However he was not successful as the Spanish government established grand inquisitors in Castile and placed Aragon, Valencia, and Catalonia under the power of the Spanish Inquisition The first grand inquisitor was the Dominican friar Tomás de Torquemada, who terrorized his victims using torture and the threat of execution to extract confessions, which resulted in as many as 5,000 people being burned to death at the stake before the practice was ended in 1834 Torquemada’s reputation for brutality quickly became well known, and other inquisitors were appointed, with the Spanish Inquisition established in Sicily in 1517, although attempts to set it up in Naples and Milan failed The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V introduced it into the Austrian Netherlands in 1522 to use it against Protestants there, and its use continued until 1834, operating in South America As well as the Protestants, Muslim and Jewish communities in Spain were singled out by the Inquisition In the case of these communities, the Spanish Inquisition only had the role of dealing with those who claimed to have converted to Christianity but who went back to their original religious beliefs While many Jews and Muslims left Spain for North Africa, many Jewish converts, known as the conversos, and the Muslim converts known as Moriscos, remained in Spain, where some continued to be strong business leaders It was not long after conversion that some reverted to following their original beliefs and they were deemed, by the Spanish Inquisition, as being relapsed converts A study of the 49,092 trials held by the Spanish Inquisition between 1560 and 1700 showed that 11,311 were of Moriscos, 5,007 of conversos, 3,499 of Lutherans, 14,319 for heresy, and 3,750 for superstitions, including witchcraft, and 3,954 were for offenses against the Inquisition itself Even when the Inquisition tried heretics—often using dubious evidence gained from the torture of the accused—the results were usually that the defendants were found guilty and sentenced to be burned at the stake The burning was done not only to purge the sin, but also to serve as a warning of the flames of hell Occasionally if people recanted and accepted the church teachings, they would be freed More often they were strangled and spared the punishment of being burned alive These trials and executions were know as autos-de-fe As well as persecuting heretics and suspected heretics, the Spanish Inquisition drew up lists of banned books, which were also burned Its role served to create a united