Spanish Empire Research Paper

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.

Before the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Moors were in control of much of the Iberian Peninsula. They desperately wanted to unite Spain and turn it into a

Throughout history, as we study Spain we can clearly recognize high and low points in their success. In the fifteen hundreds Spain had no influence on European affairs, Spain essentially vanished out of Europe. However, within one complete century Spain had become not only a leading power but they also had a great sense of effectiveness in Europe. Spain experienced a Golden age with many social, economic, political aspects. On the other hand, within

Before the English ventured to Roanoke Europeans explored and settled the New World. The Spanish were the most successful in settling the New World. They conquered most of Central and South America. Their main objective was to convert all of the Indians to Christianity. “Spain’s claim to posses the Americas was based on discovery, conquest, and settlement, but even more important, it was founded on the sacred enterprise of extending the Catholic faith to (in Spanish eyes) “barbarous” native peoples” (Horn 12).

After observing local natives, the first Spanish conquistadors came to the conclusion that the Native Americans were barbaric and in dire need of Christian teachings. Thus, Spanish colonists made it their mission to convert the local natives to Christianity, using violence when there was resistance. In 1597, there were a series of uprisings by the Guale Indians in present-day Florida. They destroyed many missions, explaining that the Spanish missionaries had attempted to eliminate their religious practices such as feasts and celebrations. The Spanish also oppressed the Native Americans, and used them as a labor force under the encomienda system. The French, on the other hand, are known for their peaceful alliances with the Native Americans. Colonists established trade agreements with the local natives, obtaining raw goods such as fur and timber. Their peaceful relationship may in fact be attributed to the Spanish; the “Black Legend” of Spanish cruelty towards Native Americans made other European countries eager to prove themselves different. The French took pride in the fact that they treated the Native Americans more humanely than their Spanish counterparts. In addition, the French were not interested in expanding their territory, unlike the Spanish. They were simply looking for trade opportunities, and a mutual relationship with the Native Americans was advantageous. The primary goal of Spain

Spain’s goal of spreading Catholicism was undoubtable strengthened when the Pope sanctioned all Spanish efforts. Thus, slavery of Native Americans was justified, and would liberate them in the eyes of God. In effort to prevent British protestant influence, Spain declared that Non-Spanish citizens and Non-Spanish Christians were not permitted to settle in their borders.

The Spaniards had a unique way of depicting history through Hernan Cortes’ letters to the Spanish King and Francisco Lopez de Gomara’s narrative created from Cortes’ testimonies. Each explanation from these men detail a different aspect of time in the around 1519 of the Spanish conquest. Firstly, Cortes’ letters are written in favor of the Spanish King, Charles the V. Cortes specifically explains objects and references the resources, land, and treasures to create growth to the mother country. For example,

During the sixteenth century Spain had control over land in the Caribbeans and America that was ten times the size of Spain. One of the most famous conquerors was a man by the name of Cortes. His first target was the Aztec Empire one of the richest empires in America. After a very bloody battle Cortes successfully conquered the empire “converting” its people to Christianity and taking their gold. From this Cortes became on of the richest men in the world. This event inspired many others to do the same with many choosing the life of a conquistador to find their riches in the new world. The amount of conquistadors started to make Spain worry if they were to try and rule New Spain and that they were killing more Indians instead of converting

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

Religious beliefs are one of the key factors that have shaped our world society today. The Spanish religious conquest was one of the first early history examples that played a big role in America. As soon as the Spanish landed in New Spain it changed the Native Mexican culture. The consequence of the spiritual conquest was the loss of the native people beliefs, buildings, and customs. However, the Native Mexicans did not respond well to the conquest, it caused them to rebelling against the Spanish, but with time they started to accept the Spanish ways.

Still deeply concerned about the Indians' plight, Las Casas went back to Spain in 1540 where he spearheaded a drive to reform laws that regulated relations between the races.

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

Ferdinand and Isabella used the Inquisition to eliminate opposition in Spain. Their thoughts were that by eliminating the Jews, Muslims, and New Christians in Spain they would gain unity, wealth, and power. They wanted to make a Christian and only a Christian Spain.

Spanish and Portuguese rule lasted for centuries. A factor that played a role during this ruling was a social hierarchy that was constructed and based on race. The people who fell on the bottom of this racial and social hierarchy were unluckily suppressed by this hierarchy called the caste system. The way that these Iberian colonizers and their American born descendants maintained control was through a power called hegemony. Hegemony is opposite from control using violent force.

The purpose of Muslim subjugation of Spain may still be unknown, but it is irrefutable that it is a part of Spain’s history, and has affected the country and its history, maybe for the better, maybe for the worse. " For a long period of history--three centuries in much of the country and eight centuries in the last Andalusian strongholds--Spain was almost completely dominated by the Moslems." Currently, the majority of Spanish Muslims are former citizens of Islamic countries that have immigrated to Spain, or Spanish citizens who have converted to Islam. This is because Islam was almost eradicated due to the expulsion of the Moors in 1609 and the prohibition of the practice of Islam. But the effacing of the religion doesn’t imply that Spain hasn’t