 Many African people died in large numbers in order to meet the demand for Spanish and Portuguese labor requirements.Both Spain and Portugal share a similar history in regards to the treatment of slaves in their colonies.As time progressed and new generations of slaves lived under imperial rule, Spanish and Portuguese internal reforms dealt with African slaves in areas such as, "the purchasing and selling of slaves, legal ownership, succession upon death of owner, the rights of slaves to buy their liberty, and penalties to those who ran away".