How Did Colonists Treat Native Americans

As stated in “History of Mexico: 2” documentary film by History Channel, the Spanish believed it was their responsibility to save the souls of the natives by converting them to Christianity. Even thought the natives were forced to convert, the natives eventually accepted Catholicism into their everyday life, creating a mixture of cultures and eventually a mixing of heritages known as “Mestizo”.

The Spanish and New England colonies from 1492 to 1700 were significantly similar in terms of treatment of indigenous people. Admittedly, there was a difference in the treatment of indigenous people. The Spanish conquistadors used forced labor through the encomienda system, while the New England colonists did not have forced labor systems. This difference between the treatment happend because the Spanish ran large plantations and needed manual labor, while the New England colonists survived on subsistence farming and had no need for extra labor from the Indians. On the other hand there was a similarity in the forced conversions of the Indians to a Christian faith. This similarity occurred because The Roman Catholic Church saw the Indians as people who were in need of saving and insisted that the Indians

When the colonists came to America, they classified the Native Americans as complete brutal savages. But was that a correct assumption? The Native Americans lived a life that was a complete opposite from the way that the Europeans were accustomed to. The Native Americans believed that the land was shared by everyone and not one person could own it. The Native Americans also had a polytheistic religion which completely went against the beliefs of the colonists. The colonists viewed the Native Americans as savages and barbarians because their ways of living were different.

Religion was a fervently discussed topic; people were looked down upon and often killed for the wrong religious affiliation. It makes sense that these first colonists and the many that came after would deem the Native American religions as an inferior, crude religion that was inherently “wrong” by their own religious standards.

Europeans tore through America in the 1700s and destroyed the lives of Native Americans, and yet their culture remained principled with a high level of respect and honor. This is shown in a meeting that was held by the six nations of the Iroquois, where Chief Red Jacket gave a speech on the Native Americans view on missionary stations that the Europeans wanted to set up. Red Jacket explained their past with the first settlers, “We gave them corn and meat; they gave us poison in return” (1). These first Europeans set the tone for how these new colonist treated the natives. They took what they wanted and left a trail of death and destruction in their path. However, the natives acted in return with upstanding respect and treated these missionaries

Native Americans were somehow powerful and had everything that English colonists wanted. They were seeking wealth and they had the answers in Jamestown. When tobacco start growing, the English colony became powerful and expanded their colony over Jamestown peninsula. Powhatan Indians were disappointed when English did not maintain a trading way with them. In 1622 Native Americans took a step forward by attacking the colony. They killed 347 colonists. As it is stated on the second chapter of the book, The American Yawp, “The colonist retaliated and revisited the massacres upon Indian settlements many times over. The Massacre freed the colonist to drive the Indians off their land.” Once the English colony gained power, they forgot about the people who kept them alive, they forgot about Native Americans. English colonists were so ungrateful and blind because they had one goal in mind, and that was to be wealthy. They didn't care how they would gain wealth. The only thing that mattered to them was gaining

Native Americans had many encounters with Europeans, one of which involving the French. They first came into contact with each other around the 1600s and were predominantly civil. In fact, compared to all the other Europeans who came to America, I believe that they had the most pleasant of interactions. The French primarily traded with local natives when they first

The French experienced the best relationship with the natives as they were very cooperative with the Natives, peacefully tried to convert them and married Native women and integrated with them. The Spanish came behind the French as they integrated with them as well however they were much more violent in exploiting them for resources through systems like the encomienda system. However, the English had the most tarnished relationship with the Natives as they looked to expand at the Natives expense and saw the Natives as inferiors.

The impact of the the colonies on other cultures in America was huge for the native Americans. They were forced out of their land and homes by the colonists. They were also forced into slavery. This happened to many, but some formed good ties with the colonists. According to White (2012), “They wanted tools, weapons, and other goods that Europeans could provide.” This means that they had made strong connections and were willing to fight for the colonists.

Some would argue that the Spanish had the right idea about the Native Americans, that they were savages. The Indians needed to remove themselves from the new World or to enter into the brutal conditions of slavery without choice. Some would say that the British were the most intelligent when it came to the Natives, choosing to stay away and have no relations with them. The French, who treated the Indians the best, believed that the Indians could be a powerful asset and they should become powerful allies. Each of these three nations treated the Indians in various ways. Overall, the French treated the Native Americans better than the British or Spanish during the early colonial period.

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 Spanish Empire had permission from the Pope to Christianize the natives in the New World. One way to convert the natives into Christianity is through the usage of the encomienda system. The overall goal for the Spanish empire was to send people to the New World and start settlements for others to continue the trip. The queen stated the need of encomienda, “associate with them, by which means they will help each other to cultivate and settle and increases the fruits of the island” (Queen Isabella, 23). The queen wanted the Spaniards and local natives to work together as a way to build a close relationship. The cooperation between the two parties would increase the chances of survivals especially for the Spaniards. Furthermore, the relationship with the natives included treating them as equal and not as inferior to the Spaniards. The only reason there was peace between the Spaniards and the natives is that the Spaniards were ordered to have a settlement and cooperating with the natives would increase their chances for survival in the unknown New World. That peace started to disappear when the Spanish Crown ordered for the settlers to start making a profit for the Empire. From that point on, settlers started to exploit the natives for economic profit. That is when the Spaniards wanted to make some money for themselves and for the Crown, which lead to the conquest of the Aztecs and Incas in the near future.

First, the Spanish and English reasoning behind exploration and settlement of the New World was extremely different. This also means that the type of people that came from both nations to settle the New World were also very different. The Spanish wanted to explore the New World for what people like to call “Glory, God, and Gold”. Glory means that they wanted the fame and credit for being the first nation to find the New World and settle it. God is a Synecdoche for religious duties. Gold is the easiest term to understand because it means that they wanted riches such as gold. Because of the fact that these were the main three things that Spain wanted to get out of the New World, they only sent over people that would help them achieve these three things. This means that they mostly sent over soldiers and missionaries. The soldiers would use brute force on the natives if they did not

Religion was what the Spanish used as an excuse for invading the Americas in the first place. They claimed they were coming in to save the natives with Catholicism, even though they fought and killed their way into the city in the first place. Cortes would write back to Spain saying that they brought Christianity to the natives and began placing Mary in the temples, while the reality was complete control over the natives, with neglect and punishment inflicted upon them. The Spanish were also appalled by human sacrifice, a claim that the Spanish would use for many years as a reason for their behavior. This image would be in the place of many Europeans heads for many years, adding to the continued mistreatment of the natives as simple and inadequate