Refer to the passage. "America, on becoming separated from the Spanish monarchy, found itself like the Roman Empire, when that enormous mass fell to pieces in the midst of the ancient world. Each dismembered portion formed then an independent nation in accordance with its situation or its interests, the difference being that those members established anew their former associations. We do not even preserve the vestiges of what once we were; we are not Europeans, we are not Indians, but an intermediate species between the aborigines and the Spaniards—Americans by birth and Europeans in right, we are placed in the dilemma of disputing with the natives our titles of possession and maintaining ourselves in the country where we were born, against the opposition of the invaders. Thus, ours is a most extraordinary and complicated case. Moreover, our part has always been a purely passive one; our political existence has always been null, and we find ourselves in greater difficulties in attaining our liberty than we ever had when we lived on a plane lower than servitude, because we had been robbed not only of liberty but also of active and domestic tyranny.”

Simón Bolívar, revolutionary leader, speaking in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela) on February 19, 1819

The political situation described in the passage is a consequence of which of the following policies of New Spain?

A)The suppression of indigenous peoples
B)The use of Latin Americans as a servant class
C)The restriction of government positions to the Spanish born
D)The preference for hereditary privilege over meritocracy