Assimilation Of Native Americans During Spanish Colonization

When the Europeans first arrived in Latin America, they didn’t realize the immensity of their actions. As history has proven, the Europeans have imposed many things on the Latin American territory have had a long, devastating effect on the indigenous people. In the centuries after 1492, Europeans would control much of South America and impose a foreign culture upon the already established civilizations that existed before their arrival. These imposed ideas left the continent weak and resulted in the loss of culture, the dependence on European countries, and a long standing ethnic tension between natives and settlers which is evident even to this day. The indigenous people of South America, which

Back in chapter one it states that Spain was one of the first European countries to ever encounter Native Americans. Spain was also well equipped to take on whatever the new world had to throw at them. So in 1519 Herna Cortes and 600 soldiers landed on the coast of Mexico and encountered the Aztec Indians. The Aztecs large in number, but not in technology, could not stop the Spanish Flint lock and Horses with the technology Cortes had killed over 200,000 Aztecs compared to a 2,400 mortality rate on his end After the battle of Tenochtitlan the current leader Cuauhtémoc of the Aztecs decided to surrender so from this they lost everything to Spain by 1521. Spain was really cruel to the Indians when they wanted to be nice by given them gifts of gold, fur, and feathers, but instead of being nice in return they took them for everything they had. But not all Europeans come off like this the French were quite the

Despite their goodness, they were tortured and slaughtered by the Spaniards for no justifiable reason. For example in Document F, William H. Powell documented in 1853 how the Spaniards stormed into a native village with a full size artillery. The Spaniards brought crucifixes and cannons to intimidate the natives enough to force them to convert to Catholicism. As stated in Document A, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, and when he sailed that ocean and landed in the New World he found the native people.

Acceptance and understanding are major factors that must be met in order for people to come together. In many circumstances, it is up to the minority whom are joining the majority to adopt and change its customs and practices in order to assimilate into the majority. However, there are some circumstances in which the minority somehow becomes able to overpower majority and take control. This is the situation which occurred between the Natives and the Europeans during the 1513 conquest. The Spanish Conquest of Central and South America and the voyage to the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492 brought the Spanish crown a great amount of wealth. The native inhabitants which resided in the Americas prior to the discovery, saw what was

During Pope’s rebellion, the Pueblo rebels killed hundreds of Spanish settlers. You can’t fight violence with violence, more and more people are killed ad it doesn’t end well for anybody. The Franciscan Friars built their missions along the Californian coast to convert natives. Halfway through their conquering, the Spanish realized it would be more beneficial to be friends with the Indians rather than enemies. Through marriage the Spanish and the Indians, especially the Pueblos, incorporated their separate cultures into one new culture and human species: mestizos.

During the 1680s the search for gold had ended and the hopes of the Spaniards striking rich had also ended. The goals of obtaining riches was something not easily forgotten by the Spaniards, so the Pueblo Indians were the answer to the Spaniards’ get rich quick scheme. The Indians were forced to work by the Spaniards so they could avoid doing work of their own, stripping away the Indians freedom that they had before. Religion came to be an issue during this process because the Indians were not given the freedom to practice their own religion and the Spaniard’s religion caused ill treatment to the Indians. The Indians lack of religious and individual freedom led to the violence and discontent to the Spaniards authorities, missionaries, and villages causing the Pueblo Revolt.

Europeans attempted to forcefully assimilate the native Americans to Christianity. Spanish missionaries preached the words of God to the Native Peoples who listened out of fear.(Doc.2A) The Europeans viewed them as a barbarous people without the knowledge of God refusing to acknowledge their religions.(Doc.4B)Partly due to the fact the Natives were not Christian the Europeans felt justified in enslaving them.

During the period between 1850 and 1900, there were conflicting ideas toward Native Americans. There were two contradictory impulses that were designed to fight “the Indian problem”; one desire was to commit violence upon Native Americans, including massacre, rape, and forced removal, and another was a paternalistic approach of forced assimilation. Many, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, adopted an assimilation policy, especially through the creation of Native American boarding schools. Their policy was to “kill the Indian, save the man,” to eradicate all Indian cultures and force them into white American life. However, happening during the same time as this policy, many people had the goal of murdering Indians, examples including the

During the 19th century, native americans were treated very poorly. Americans wanted more land, and there just happened to be someone living there. The natives were forced out of their homes into completely new places, marched places without food or care, and much more. The Americans believed what they were doing was right, but many of these events were covered up. Did the motives of nationalism and ethnic cleansing influence native resettlement and result in native assimilation around the turn of the 20th century?

As has been discussed concerning conquest, the Spanish had moved into many lands such as Guatemala, Chile, Peru, etc. left settlements there, and enslaved the native peoples to do their bidding. Additionally, when the Spanish explored all across America, they brought with them diseases, such as smallpox, which Native Americans weren’t accustomed to. This caused an enormous amount of deaths among the Native American population. This allowed the Spanish to continue to kill and conquer the Native Americans in various amounts of ways for a long time.

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.

Native Americans have had a long history of resistance to the social and cultural assimilation into white culture. By employing various creative strategies, Native Americans have attempted to cope with the changes stemming from the European colonial movement into the Americas. There are fundamental differences in world views and cultural and social orders between Indians and Europeans, which contributed to conservatism in Native American cultures. In this paper, two aspects of such cultural and institutional differences of Native American societies will be examined: holistic Native American beliefs versus dualistic world views and harmony versus domination. These two aspects are important in terms of explaining changes (or lack thereof) in

For more than 300 years, since the days of Christopher Columbus and the Spanish Government, an attempt of genocide of the Native American Indian has existed. From mass brutal murders and destruction by Spanish and American armies, to self-annihilation through suicide, homicide, and alcohol induced deaths brought about because of failed internal colonialism and white racial framing. Early Explores used Indigenous inhabitants upon first arriving to the America’s to survive the New World and once they adapted, internal colonialism began with attempts to convert the Indians to Christianity, repressing their values and way of life, forcing them into slavery, and nearly exterminating an entire culture from existence.

During their time rehabilitating there were some things to iron out, such as the struggles of fitting in, within both the short story and the forced assimilation of American Indians. While American Indians were in school teachers had wanted knowledge to be an Indian’s best weapon. Teachers thought that having the power of knowledge would help them get better jobs furthermore helping them adapt. Meanwhile at St. Lucy’s the girls were treated with rules gradually developing as the girls moved from stage to stage. Within each stage of the girl’s training there was a visible reaction for most girls, this gradual development would better prepare the girls for the outside world. Back with the American Indians, which had to get their haircut and

Assimilation of the native Indians occurred in different phases. The United States in the early years adopted an Indian policy that they used to build good relations with the bordering tribes which helped politically and in trading with the natives. However, they reserved to stop the good relationships in order for them to acquire more land as the moved west to expand their territory. (Keller,1983)