Cloisters In New Spain

the New World was to convert the locals to Christianity. For example, some important religious figures were Friar Bernardino de

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

In the 18th century, what is now California was populated mostly by Native Americans. Late in the century, Franciscan missions sponsored by Spain and the Roman Catholic church played an important role in establishing European settlement in the region. The Spaniards, who had already colonized parts of Mexico to the south, wanted to protect those colonies and extend their influence northward. The Roman Catholic church wanted to convert Native Americans to Christianity. The mission system supported both goals. The first Franciscan mission in California (Mission San Diego de Alcalá) was established by Father Junípero Serra in what in now San Diego. Fifty-four years later in 1823, the Franciscans founded their last of 21 missions at San Francisco Solano. Each mission had an armed presidio to protect it. Each sought to teach the Native Americans both Christianity and European farming methods. Many of the mission churches remain today as living examples of

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

The Spanish and English colonies varied in terms of religion such as immigration and opinions on salvation. Starting in the late 1500s and early 1600s, conquistadors such as Vasco Nunuez de Balboa and Herman Cortes of the Spanish empire first started to make their way into the New World. Known for their mantra, “Gold, Glory, God”, the main reason for their expansion was for power and wealth. In the Spanish church, the Pope decided who went to Heaven. This

Both of the colonies wanted religious conversions from the Native Americans. The Spanish colonist were very forceful with converting Native Americans to Christianity. Spanish conquerors, called conquistadors, travelled with the armed Spanish Military as well as Roman Catholic Dominican or Franciscan Friars to force religious conversion to any Native American village in the newly claimed Spanish colony. In the New England colonies, leaders of Wampanoag tribes were forced to sign their land over to the English at gunpoint. In addition, select Native American villages were turned into “Praying Towns”, in which the English would convert all of the Native Americans into the Puritan religion and force the Native Americans to give up all of the native traditions. These differences occurred because of the strong beliefs of the colonist. In both the Spanish and English colonies, the colonist believed that their religion was the correct religion, whether that be Catholic in the Spanish colonies or Puritan in the New England Colonies. However, one way that the Spanish and New England colonies varied in their treatment of the Native Americans was the use, or lack of use, of forced labor in the colonies. The Spanish colonies thrived off of the use of Native American labor through the Encomienda system. The Encomienda system granted the forced labor of Native Americans to the owner of the land in the colony. Through this system, the Spanish colonies were able to thrive, however it was deadly to the Native American population. For Native Americans who resisted the Encomienda system, they were killed and in some cases, to the near extinction of a tribe. Noteable, the Indigenous Taino People rebelled against the Spanish and succeeded a peace treaty, however lost ninety percent of their tribe. Meanwhile, the New England colonies hardly used forced labor from the Native

Thus, New Spain and New France’s main problems dealt with their men having sexual relations with the Native American women. The main problem for New Spain was the continuous sexual assaults against the Native American women. The men of New Spain were soldiers helping Franciscans convert Native Americans, residing in now a days California, to Christianity (“Father Luis Jayme” 36). The reasons for the sexual assaults are due to the differences in sexual culture. Europeans follow a patriarchal system and therefore the female is inferior and often viewed as property to the male in the European culture (Castaneda 54-55). The soldiers viewed the women as someone beneath them. Another big difference is that the soldiers used “rape...as an act of domination, an act of power” while Native American warriors by no means had an sexual relations of the enemy women (Castaneda 53). Rape was viewed as an act of power because the men defiled the women, which in turn demonstrated to the Native American men that their women or “property” could easily be taken from them or at least this was the view of the soldiers. As stated by Theda Perdue, “Spaniards seized women as they seized other spoils of war” (40). Thus by sexually assaulting the women the soldiers were fulfilling their duty to control the land and the Native Americans, while the Franciscans attempted to convert the Native

Religion has formed a place in the New World putting everything in more of a perspective was coming together. Even through Europe forced religion on the Native American living in the colonies Christianity as their first religion. The release of the theory of the Word of God through the eyes of the Protestant and Catholics. Franciscan “apostles “encouraged the people of Mexico to relinquish their faith and follow Christianity under the New Jerusalem. Apostles Franciscan realized the coming of Christ and he was known also as the Holy Trinity of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. PFernan Cortez brought a distinctive of hope and life back to the church during the twelfth-century.

Due to its ability to provide a spiritual and emotional connection between the Spanish and the natives, Roman Catholic Church functioned as most important key in establishing the culture in New Spain colony. Even in modern day Mexico we can see how big the influence of the Catholic church played in the early development of Mexican culture. Affecting everything from art to everyday routine, the church gave key elements by influencing all aspects in the New Spain colony. Its biggest function was to develop a connection between natives of the time with Spanish culture through the work of Franciscan monk missionary spread of the Catholic doctrine. We can see the heavy influence of the church in the arts of the time, from architecture to poetry, the Catholic church was being represented. The biggest effect seen from the natives is the worship of the lady of Guadalupe, as it

Convinced of the superiority of Catholicism to all other religions, Spain insisted that the primary goal of colonization was to save the Indians from heathenism and prevent them from falling under the sway of Protestantism. The aim was neither to exterminate nor to remove the Indians, but to transform them into obedient Christian subjects of the crown. To the Spanish colonizers, the large native populations of the Americas were not only souls to be saved but also a labor force to be organized to extract gold and silver that would enrich their mother country. Las Casas’ writings and the abuses they exposed contributed to the spread of the Black Legend-the image of Spain as a uniquely brutal and exploitative colonizer. This would provide of a potent justification for other European powers to challenge Spain’s predominance in the New World.

An example of this is when conquistadors such as Hernando Cortez conquered the Aztecs, and forced them to adopt Spanish traditions and customs, starting with their language. Also, the Spanish converted a large amount of Natives to Christianity, which spread a European religion to the New Land. Conversion also occurred in the Ottoman and Safavid Empires when they established the devshirme system. These two empires forcefully converted conquered peoples of Christian territories, especially Christian kids, to Islam and the Shah’s personal army. These janissaries resulted in a more diverse army and after their service, they could enter high ranking positions of the Islamic government which integrated Christian ideas in Islamic policies. Over time, this resulted in Christian families willingly giving up their kids for the janissary army because it would result in more opportunities and they could live more prosperous lives. Another change of religion between societies happened during the Reformation, when people separated from the Catholic Church and converted others into their own denominations. This led to the creation of new denominations which brought their own new ideas, such as the Presbyterian and Anglican denominations. This would also result in the Counter-Reformation and the forming of the Society of Jesus and the Jesuits, who were religious missionaries. Under the lead of Ignatius of Loyola, the Jesuits converted numerous Protestants back to Catholicism. They also sent missionaries to places such as the New Land and Asia, spreading Christianity to other societies. However, these missions were usually dangerous, and many missionaries died as other societies rarely accepted their ideas. But more often than not, interactions with other societies are successful in exchanging goods and

One of the significant differences between the Spain and England was their role in religion. The Spanish wanted to spread the Roman Catholic Church throughout the world and unify the world in the belief of one God. After arriving to the New World in 1492, the Spanish forced indigenous people to convert to Catholicism. Dominican and Franciscan Friars were sent over to the New World to set up missions and to convert the natives. If the native people chose to disobey the Spanish orders and not convert to Catholicism, then natives would be killed by the Friars and

The motivations found for the missions were founded upon colonizing the newfound territory. Instead of sending settlers, the Spanish catholic missions were used to convert the Native people to the Catholic faith. There were many expectations the Franciscan padres had on the natives. Through the conversion, the Spaniards were to “civilize” the natives in order to make them work in building and maintaining the missions. In order for the natives’ souls to be saved the Franciscan padres believed that the native people needed to be baptized and educated. Upon doing so, there was a cross-cultural clash in which the padres disrupted native traditions, which included religious beliefs. The catholic leaders saw the religions the natives practiced as pagan, and tainted with evil, and were therefor to be rid of (California

In the 18th century, the Spanish considered bringing as many native people as possible to the virtues of Catholicism; therefore, in 1769, the first mission was founded at San Diego, and many followed toward the north to attempt to change all the aspects of the native people’s lives. To accomplish this, native people were taken away from their ‘undisciplined’ lives and concentrate at the missions, making it easier to control them for labor. Once baptized, the Indians moved to missions. Because baptism was voluntary and the labor demands were modest, this was considered free labor of Native Americans.

The Spanish and English colonies were extremely similar, nearly identical even, in that each gave little respect to the religious origins and customary living of the Native Americans. The Spanish colonists were the first to arrive in the New World in the late 1400s, and, upon arrival, launched cultural attacks on the Native Americans. Spanish friars began stripping indigenous people of their native religion and forcing European practices onto the masses. The Reconquista of Spain from the Moors fabricated a very close relationship between the Roman Catholic church and Spanish authorities. Because the church now held so much power in Spain, Catholic leaders were able to send friars along on the government funded expeditions to the New World. The church