A Kingdom Strange By John Horn

The New England colonists did not come to the New World in search for a quick fortune. They came for the sole purpose of creating a model society for other settlers who sought a new life. They believed in creating a prosperous society rather than a few wealthy individuals (DOC A).

Spanish Colonization- Beginning with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 Spanish Colonization continued for centuries. The Spanish Empire eventually would include half of South America, most of Central America, and a lot of North America. The Spanish used the Encomienda System to control and use Native Americans. Spaniards received grants of Native Americans from the Spanish government who they could take tribute from in the form of goods or labor as long as they tried to convert the Native Americans to Catholicism. This system worked out horribly for the Native Americans with many treated harshly and forced to do hard physical labor. The Natives were not willing slaves though and rebelled numerous times which contributed to African slave labor replacing the Encomienda System. The Spanish intermarried with the Native Americans leading

During the 15th through 17th centuries, advancements in technology and the desire for new resources spurred the exploration of the New World for both Spain and England. Spain's interest in exploration soon surpassed the rest of the countries in the Old World and the nation began to claim the majority of territory in Central and South America. Spain sent conquistadores to assert their dominance in the New World through violent conquest which resulted in difficult relations with native populations. Although the English did not settle in North America until the early 17th century, well past the period of the Spanish conquest, their methods of colonization were more successful in the long term. The English were able to find economic success

Slavery, like Portugal, was crucial for Spain. Unlike Portugal Spain used Native Americans as their slaves. (Mainly because of geography) Spain also believed in Encomienda. Which is basically there way of “giving back” to Native Americans, they would teach Native Americans their religious views and in return Native Americans would be forced to work to death. So it would appear that converting people (slaves) to Catholicism was an important reason why they went to the “new world”. Needless to say relations between Spain and the Native Americans spoiled just like the relationship between Portugal and Africans did. A lot of Native Americans believed that Spain gave them nothing. Most if not all of Spain’s economy was based on mining silver and gold and sugar plantations. At the time of this colonization and for the next 200 years Spain is extremely rich.

Religion played a huge part of the initial Spanish conquest of the Americas. Most of Europe practiced Christianity while the Indians of the Americas worshiped many gods. "Although Columbus concluded that the Tainos "had no religion," in reality they worshipped gods they called zemis, ancestral spirits who inhabited natural objects such as trees and stones", (Roark, 35). When the Spanish came to New Asia, the missionaries made it their goals to convince the Indians to change their religions and accept what they believed as the one true religion. "Catholic missionaries worked to convert the Indians. They fervently believed that God expected them to save the Indians' souls by convincing them to abandon their old sinful beliefs and to embrace the one true Christian faith" (Roark, 44). Many people would travel to the New World just so they could try and convert the Indians that live there. “In the Spanish colonies the Catholic Church was instrumental in the conquest and worked hand in hand with the secular government” (lecture 1: the Spanish conquest –page 1).

On his way to the New World, aboard the Arabella in 1630, John Winthrop, Puritan leader of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, spoke of the plan that he had in store for the colony. He preached that there would be

Within fives years after the issuing of the papal bull it had already began to be undermined. Spain and Portugal were granted the land, but their focus was elsewhere. Portugal had Magellan, who was leading expeditions to circumnavigate the globe. Spain's attention was in South America working northward. They tried to form colonize by sending in Roman Catholic missionaries to convert the Indians to Christians. (1.6) This caused North America to be perceived as “up for grabs” by the rest of the European countries. England began to explore the new land due to its peace and possibility. After 200 years

Then Christianity expanded and hundreds of thousands of people were converted and baptized during the period of a few years of the conquest. 12) I think that the Spanish and Portugal needed to justify their conquests because it was important that they convert America's native peoples, which would expand Christianity on a similar scale to when it expanded in Europe. 13) In the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in America, the Catholic Church played a role of redirecting most of its resources from native regions located in the countryside, so that it could grow colonial cities and towns with a large population of Europeans.

Native American societies were changed when the Europeans introduced diseases and it decreased much of the native population. The goals of the Spanish were to promote God, seek glory, and gold. The Spanish set up colonies and tried to convert natives to Catholicism, most of the time through violent actions. Some native american societies resisted change by refusing to convert

The greed for gold and the race for El Dorado were the main inducements of the Spaniards who, at the peril of their lives, crossed the ocean in unfit vessels in a mad pursuit after the gold and all other precious property of the Indians” (Peace 479). The royal rulers of Spain made it a rule that nothing would jeopardize their ability to rob the land from the native people of Latin America. The missionary process, “had to be encouraged, but the missionaries could not be permitted to dominate the colony at the cost of royal rule” (Gibson 76). The European governments established missionaries to cleanse their minds of any guilt aroused by the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children. When European “ships arrived in the 16th century to colonize the land and exploit its natural resources, they killed indigenous people and brought black slaves from Africa. Millions of indigenous people were slain and their cultures completely destroyed by the process of colonization” (Ribero). The overall devastations caused by the Christianization of the native inhabitants created a blend of cultures within the indigenous civilizations which gradually isolated old native ways into a small population of oppressed people. The Christianized people became a symbol of loyalty to the European powers and were left alone simply on their religious status. This long term mission of total religious replacement caused very strong and advanced

The original motivations for the Spaniards going to the New World were to spread Christianity and grow wealthy; however, when they arrived, the actions of the Spaniards against the natives of the Americas did not reflect these original goals and led to unanticipated consequences. One such unexpected consequence was a reliance on slave labor. In order to accomplish the work necessary to make the profits that the Spaniards had expected, they turned to the natives as a work force. This need for laborers led the Spanish to enslave the natives, which led to conflict and cruelty, which went against the initial goal of spreading Christianity; if the prospective converts are being mistreated by those hoping to do the converting, the conversion itself becomes much more difficult due to the negative relationship. The Spaniards strongly believed that it was their sacred duty to “save” the faithless natives of the Americas by introducing them to God, and so they did all they could to see this happen, despite the negative impacts on the relationship between the natives and the Spaniards. This also made it more difficult to easily exploit the resources of the region against the wishes of the natives, because the growing bitterness between the Spanish and the natives made it impossible to successfully work together in an economic setting in the same way as the Dutch and the French. Thus, the actions of the Spaniards upon reaching the New World worked mostly against their original goals of

The English were interested in conquering the New World because of money, power, wealth, and freedom of religion. They were capable of settling the New World in the early sixteenth and seventeenth centuries because the English were able to conquer the land that the Native American’s inhabited and take their land. This was due to the fact that they had more advanced weaponry and the Native Americans were not resistant to the diseases that the English brought over from Europe.

From the earliest days of the Spanish conquistadores and throughout their conquest of North, South and Central America, the exploitation of the natives remained a common theme. In addition, to the explorers pursuing wealth and discovery, the church

Spain was the country to create the world’s powerful empire back in the sixteenth century. With the empires height, it took up some of Europe, parts of the Africa area, the Americans, and the outposts of Asia. The gold and the silver got stole from the American’s to fuel the engines of Spain’s “Golden Empire.” The way the Spanish resources to take over the world is by planting Christianity in the Western Hemisphere. The Spanish came into the America’s after the Caribbean served as a funnel. When the wave of settlement came along, the Europeans had died because of disease or malnutrition. The Indians suffered, they did not have enough equipment to protect themselves from the European invaders.

In the eight hundreds, the Anglo Saxons biggest priority was not fighting. They were more content with their ordinary lifestyle and were not looking for trouble. As portrayed by Bernard Cornwell in the Last Kingdom, the Anglo Saxons had multiple cultural practices and customs. Of the characters, Alfred is the strongest embodiment of the Anglo Saxon’s motivations behind their societal actions and behaviors. Alfred's intelligence, religious practices, and power, are results of the cultural values of the Anglo Saxons, while his manipulative task emphasizes the importance of maintaining a legacy.