Assimiilation And Assimilation

As any society does when two cultures are put together, there is assimilation and anguish. This is shown by the Native Americans and the Europeans, when the latter came to the Americas in hope of land and wealth, which did not belong to them. The Europeans encountered great diversity when stepping foot into the Americas. Cultures of the Indians had them shocked; while they regarded them as “noble savages,” the Indians had a society much more complex than any European society. They had language, government, social organization, and intellect skilled in mathematics, astrology, and astronomy. Civil interaction between the two only occurred when the Europeans needed something, such as gold, fur and land. Although they helped the Europeans as much as possible, with food and shelter, these Native cultures found themselves disrupted, if not destroyed, by the European’s arrival. In this essay, I hope to analyze the relationship between the Native Americans and the British, French, Spanish, and Dutch and how they affected one another.

The long history between Native American and Europeans are a strained and bloody one. For the time of Columbus’s subsequent visits to the new world, native culture has

Ramon Gutierrez’s When Jesus Came, The Corn Mothers Went Away is an exploration of the merging of Spanish, Franciscan and Pueblo Indian cultures throughout Spain's “frontier” in its colonial American empire before Anglo contact. Gutierrez builds a foundation for his analysis by discussing Pueblo Indian life prior to outside contact, Franciscan theology, and the class structure of Spanish communities in each of its respective book sections. He examines meanings of the cultural interactions of gift exchange, ownership, trade, sexual rights, labor, kinship, social status, religious beliefs, and honor among many others using marriage as a window. His interpretation of the complex cultural meanings of marriage illustrates the ways in which the

During the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Europeans started to come over to the new world, they discovered a society of Indians that was strikingly different to their own. To understand how different, one must first compare and contrast some of the very important differences between them, such as how the Europeans considered the Indians to be extremely primitive and basic, while, considering themselves civilized. The Europeans considered that they were model societies, and they thought that the Indians society and culture should be changed to be very similar to their own.

Throughout the Spanish conquest and exploration of Mesoamerica, religion became a focal point in Spanish observations of indigenous cultures. Influenced by European biases and colonial mindset, the Spanish criticized indigenous religion by condemning their

For almost as long as European settlers have interacted with the native peoples of the Americas, they have had a notion: what many call ‘assimilation’. To Europeans, assimilation of native peoples meant for their culture, which they believed to be superior, to be accepted over time by the natives. And as they grew more and more European in language, religion, customs, organization, morals, and behavior, they would slowly shed off all of their old culture which the European culture would be replacing. The Europeans believed this process was for the best for the natives and that they would be happier living ‘civilized’ lives as opposed to practicing their own traditions.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed west and found himself on the shores of a new world. His mission was to secure new land for Spain. Other European countries heard of his findings, they too crossed the ocean in hopes of securing new opportunities in this newly discovered land such as fur trading and gold mining. Little did they know that a community of indigenous people had already settled in this land thousands of years before. The Europeans decided to negotiate with the natives in order to set up their own communities in the land but the Native Americans held beliefs about society and religion that were far different from their European peers. Europeans thought the Indians to be “Noble Savages, gentle and friendly, but uncivilized, brutal, and barbaric” (citation). They could not see past their own

In order for Europe’s influence to be successful across the world, they had a guide written by Father Jean de Brébeuf, called “Instructions for The Fathers of Our Society Who Shall Be Sent to The Hurons.” In this small guide, Father Jean, writes instruction for other European members to follow in order to be successful in their influence in the new world. The thought of being the superior race, followed them to the new world, so embracing a culture that they thought was low-class, was a big change to the European men. “As to the other numerous things which may be unpleasant, they must be endured for the love of God, without saying anything or appearing to notice them.” They did not do anything that contradicts the Natives belief, as they were trying to convert them to the “idealized” culture. They were doing so in a way that the Natives did not realize they were being converted. So, the Europeans change their normal customs in order to gain their trust. In which they accommodate to non-European

When Jesus Came, The Corn Mothers Went Away gives an in-depth history of the Pueblo Indians before and after the Spanish conquest. It describes the forced changes the Spanish brought to the Indians, and also the changes brought to the Spaniards who came to “civilize” the Indians. The author's thesis is that the Pueblo Indians and other Indians were treated cruelly by the Spanish, who justified their crime by claiming they were civilizing an

In 1542, a Christian missionary named Bartolomé de Las Casas wrote about the little-known realities of the brutalities occurring in the New World between Spanish conquistadors and Native Americans. Even though the Spanish originally set out to bring Christianity to the New World and its inhabitants, those evangelizing efforts soon turned into torture, mass killings, rape, and brutal slavery of the innocent natives to fulfill their greed for gold and wealth, according to Las Casas. In his primary account A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, Bartolomé de Las Casas attempts to inform King Phillip II of the cruel acts and injustices committed by the Spanish conquistadors. Despite this condemnation, Las Casas does not reject imperialism, because he feels Spain has the obligation to spread the word of Christianity around the world. Instead, he finds fault with the Spanish conquistadors for implementing this evangelization the wrong way, by both physically harming the Native Americans and, fundamentally, in their underlying perception of them as inferior. Furthermore, the key to the coexistence of imperialism with Las Casas’ Catholic ideas and his defense of indigenous peoples lies in considering and treating these Native Americans as equals and as humanity rather than inferiors.

In this essay, I will compare and contrast how Spain, France, England, and America viewed and interacted with Native peoples differently as they colonized North America. It is reported that roughly three hundred and fifty thousand Native Americans called the area known today as Florida home, when Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon landed his fleet of ships on the coast in the early 1500’s. As we have discussed and learned when the Native people were colonized by outsiders it was not a great day. The Natives of Florida were not immune; war, slavery, disease, and extremely low child birth rates took a devastating toll on the Florida tribes. A charter penned by Ponce de Leon, known as the encomienda, granted Spain the ability to enslave the Natives of Florida. Forcing them to work in the crop fields and essentially making them the major labor force; constructing and designing the buildings occupied by the Spanish. The oppression did not end there. Around the middle of the 16th century the Native people were declared to be free, but only on paper. The Spanish royals felt that the Natives needed to educated in the ways of Catholicism, and those that did not want to conform could be punished up to and including death.

Columbus may have brought the Europeans that colonized the Americas over, but Columbus really brought over death to millions of men, women, and children. Bartolome de Las Casas, a settler of the New World, participated in killing natives. Only there is something different about him, his western views changed and he tried to advocate for the natives(FACT FILE: 8 Facts About Las Casas). Columbus and Las Casas’s views and descriptions of the natives have great distances, one believes that the natives are people to be used, while another believes the natives should be treated with their own rights as if they are Europeans.

They reject their indigenous religious ideas. Explorers are quick to convert these locals to Christianity, ignoring their beliefs. Christopher Columbus believes he voyaged across the Atlantic “to learn their disposition and the proper method of converting them to our holy faith” (Columbus 1). After discovering the Natives, Columbus stays true to his beliefs, “It appears to me...that they’d...become Christians”(Columbus 6). After the discovery of America, Bartolome de Las Casas comes to the defense of the Natives and their religion, “...no one is forced to accept the faith of Christ...nor is he punished if he omits it” (de Las Casas 1).

In her book, Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570, Australian historian and anthropologist Inga Clendinnen explores the conflict between the ambitious and persistent Spanish conquistadors and the resisting and defensive Mayan Indians in the midst of Franciscan friars’ mission to convert the Indians to Christianity in the 16th century colonial world. Clendinnen allows readers to see the drama unfold through two perspectives, that of the Spanish, who she classifies as explorers, conquerors, settlers, missionaries and that of the Indians. Clendinnen’s thorough research suggests that although the Franciscan persecution of idol worshippers undermined the Mayan community, the Maya’s understanding of the past gave them a cultural resilience that helped them cope with the drastic

The late 15th century marked the beginnings of a period of discovery and expansion for Europeans. During these years of discovery, great forces behind drive for expansion existed. The Spanish and Portuguese's main forces included: the lust for the wealth of gold and silver, the acquisition of new lands which brought nobility, and the spread of their Christian based religion. The Spanish and Portuguese conquest of Latin America provides us with insight of these drives in the ultimate search for power. Unfortunately, these motives caused a European-Indigenous syncretism that virtually changed the native peoples way of life. Ultimately, syncretism meant survival for Native Americans in a world where their way of life did not suit the life