1. Miscegenation in Latin America under Spanish Rule

Spanish colonization in Latin America (16th–18th centuries) produced widespread miscegenation primarily due to:

Demographic imbalance: Early Spanish expeditions consisted overwhelmingly of men, leading to unions with Indigenous women.

Legal–religious framework: The Spanish Crown and the Catholic Church generally recognized mixed unions, especially through baptism and marriage.

Imperial integration strategy: Spain pursued an empire of incorporation rather than exclusion, absorbing Indigenous elites and populations into colonial society.

Casta system: Although hierarchical and discriminatory, it institutionalized racial mixing rather than forbidding it, normalizing mestizos, mulattos, and other mixed categories.

The result was the emergence of mestizo-majority societies, where racial mixing became a structural feature of colonial life rather than a deviation from it.

2. Why England Did Not Produce Comparable Miscegenation in Canada and the United States

British colonization followed a markedly different trajectory:

Settler colonialism: English colonies emphasized permanent settlement by families, reducing dependence on Indigenous partnerships.

Rigid racial boundaries: English legal traditions increasingly enforced racial segregation, culminating in anti-miscegenation laws.

Protestant religious culture: Unlike Catholic universalism, Protestantism did not prioritize conversion through social integration.

Indigenous displacement: British expansion favored removal, containment, or elimination of Indigenous populations rather than incorporation.

Racial ideology: English colonial thought developed early notions of biological racial separation, particularly hardened in North America.

As a result, racial mixing occurred but was socially stigmatized, legally restricted, and statistically limited, producing predominantly white settler societies.

3. Isabella I of Castile vs. British Royal Policy

Isabella I of Castile played a foundational role in shaping Spain’s colonial model:

She declared Indigenous peoples subjects of the Crown, not property.

She prohibited their enslavement (in law, if not always in practice).

She promoted Christianization through integration, implicitly enabling intermarriage.

By contrast, British monarchy and Parliament:

Delegated colonial governance to private companies and settler assemblies.

Showed little interest in Indigenous incorporation or legal equality.

Never articulated a doctrine recognizing Indigenous peoples as co-subjects of the Crown in the same universal sense.

Thus, Spanish miscegenation was not accidental but structurally enabled by royal policy, whereas British colonialism evolved toward racial separation and exclusion.

Bottom Line

Spain: Empire of integration → high miscegenation → mestizo societies

England: Empire of settlement and segregation → low miscegenation → settler-dominant societies

Isabella I: Centralized, universalist vision → racial mixing tolerated and normalized

British royalty: Decentralized, exclusionary governance → racial boundaries enforced