The And The Colonists Of The Americas

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.

Although each country had their own motives for why they wanted to come explore the "New World", they shared some similar intentions. The Spanish wanted to bring Christianity to American for the non believers, and to attain the fortunes that American obtained. They sent their army of soldiers known as the conquistadores. The conquistadores focus was mainly to find gold and slaves; they did not pay much attention to creating permanent settlement. As they became more ambitious for gold, there was nothing but pure disaster by the conquistadores. They burned villages, apprehended women to be their servants. Since the Spanish was causing such chaos, it alerted the Spanish King back in Spain. He made Bartolome de Las Casas, who was a Dominican Priest; head of a newly office to protect the Indians in 1516. Though the idea was noble, it did not last long. Throughout 1500 and 1650 the Spanish acquired tons of gold and silver. They shipped about 181 tons of gold and 16,000 tons of silver to Spain from the New World; back then this made them the richest state in Europe.

Slavery, like Portugal, was crucial for Spain. Unlike Portugal Spain used Native Americans as their slaves. (Mainly because of geography) Spain also believed in Encomienda. Which is basically there way of “giving back” to Native Americans, they would teach Native Americans their religious views and in return Native Americans would be forced to work to death. So it would appear that converting people (slaves) to Catholicism was an important reason why they went to the “new world”. Needless to say relations between Spain and the Native Americans spoiled just like the relationship between Portugal and Africans did. A lot of Native Americans believed that Spain gave them nothing. Most if not all of Spain’s economy was based on mining silver and gold and sugar plantations. At the time of this colonization and for the next 200 years Spain is extremely rich.

This books tells us a lot about the relationship between Christianity and colonialism. Originally, the Spaniards went to the New World to convert the natives to Christianity but, they got lazy and greedy. De Las Casas stated that “The reason the Christians have murdered on such a vast scale and killed anyone and everyone in their way is purely and simply greed” (13). The Spaniards only cared about getting the gold and conquering the land. Of course, they had the intention of converting all of the natives to Christianity at first but it was easier to conquer and to just kill the natives in horrific ways to be able convert all the land to be Christian rather than keeping the people and just converting the people. The land was easier to convert than the people. The land was especially easy to conquer because the natives were such a docile group of people and had such giving nature and were always welcoming with open arms. The Spaniards took advantage of that characteristic of the natives. De Las Casas states how the natives were “submissive” by saying, “Their insatiable greed and overweening ambition know no bounds; the land is fertile and rich, the inhabitants simple, forbearing and submissive” (13). The

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 Spanish exploration of America brought many new foods, types of plants, and many forms of wealth to the European world. However, the wealth that was brought from the Americas came at a cost. The suffering and enslavement of the Native people and the transportation of Africans to America to be used as slaves alongside the Natives. Many motivations were used to support this extraction of wealth and treatment of the Natives and Africans, however two are easily verifiable. The Spanish colonization from 1492 to 1700 was motivated by religious conversion of all peoples in America and the desire for wealth and profit that had a significant impact on the lives of Native Americans and Africans.

In Age of Expansion, Spain sent conquistadors to take over new land to gain gold, spread the word of God, and bring glory to Spain. During this conquest, the Spaniards acted very rude to the natives of the New World and saw themselves as highly superior. These first travels were led by Cortez, who made it very clear that they were the ones in charge. In an excerpt from document 1, the Spanish tell the Indians that they must “agree to let the Christian priests preach to you” or else the Spanish would take them as slaves or kill them.

The very reason that Columbus himself sort forth on his voyage was to spread Catholicism. The French saw that they had the potential the trade with them, the English simply wanted the land they occupied, the Spanish saw the Indians as a form of labor, they also believed they could bring the Indians closer to the Spanish god. The Spaniards had a very difficult time converting the natives as their religion was very different from the one that the natives had been practicing. They believed that these “savages” were worshipping devils and they had to be saved. Cortes, forced Christianity upon the Indians and as he “cleansed” the temples of the idols, breaking them in public. Anyone who opposed the conversion was thought to be guided by Satan himself. The ecomienda system as well as the policy of repartimiento were instituted by the Spanish. The Spanish King Ferdinand also passed the Law of Burgos which were lays that said how the Indians were to be treated. He basically said that the Natives either had to choose to convert to Catholicism under their own free will or force will be used against

Once the Europeans arrived, they noticed that the Natives weren’t Christians, so they had to convert them. Missionaries would preach to the Natives about Jesus and Christianity (Doc 2a). They said that you would burn forever in hell if you were not Christian. This was one of the many ways the Spanish Missionaries converted people other than the missions, where many Natives were killed and beaten. Natives would be beaten if they did not obey (Doc 4a). Some people disagreed with the ways the Spanish were converting people, such as Dominican friar Anton Montecino. He said that the Natives did nothing wrong and you have no reason to treat them that way (Doc

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

The New World assisted this because it held many goods such as spices. Gold and silver also generated in the New World. It would be brought back to Spain and would increase the way money moved around. Spaniards took the jewelry of the Natives and brought it to Spain. It Is safe to say that the proclamation in document 1 stating the threat directed to the Indians if they decide to not convert to Christianity, would continue to apply if they refused to relinquish their jewelry containing gold and or silver. Gold and silver was the basic trading item, meaning it was highly needed to live well. Document 2 says how Cortez offers Indian slaves, gold, silver and generally “riches to be gained” to whoever decides to join him in the conquering of the New World. The comment on slaves displays to the reader the social construct of that time. Indians occupied the lowest place in the social pyramid. People at the bottom of the pyramid are almost never treated with any kind of respect or consideration. Document 3 includes another offer of gold (or silver) to the loyal men that do not let Indians revolt against them. War would result from this and the strong, loyal men who participated in the war will receive these riches. This shows Indian cruelty because a Spanish leader bribed his men into constructing conflict among the Indians simply to leave them

Because the idea of “trade” was no longer the goal, the Spanish decided that they would conquor the native populations if they could not trade. This became to be one of the main goals of the Spanish, the exploitation of thr Natives to eventually gain the gold and silver. The Native Americans had been forced into Christianity and therefore were exploited by the church. Also, when the europeans came over they had brought a lot of diseases, killing off a lot of the Native Americans. The Natives had not had their immune systems brought up so that in turn had been why so many had passed

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

Columbus discovery of the Americas was very profitable for the Spanish Empire, but devastating to the Native Americans already living there for thousands of years. This is conveyed in “a Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies” by Bartolomé de Las Casas. The main goal of Las Casas was to inform the Spanish King about the atrocities committed by the Conquistadors to the Indian people and their land. From the beginning the rules were that the Spanish were to convert the Indians to Christianity and help them achieve heaven. On the other hand, the Conquistadors did not follow the rules and instead murdered millions of Natives for their riches. Unfortunately to the Indians, the arrival of the Spaniards brought them total destruction. The

The spanish were the first to arrive to the Americas and one of the first things Columbus believed of the natives was “they would make good servants and could easily become christian, since they have no religion of their own” (cultures of the West, 456). In 1542 Bartolomé wrote what he called “A Short Account” about the spanish interactions with the natives in an attempt to make King Philip II of Spain see what he described as “the atrocities committed in the newly discovered Latin America”. He begins by telling us the way in which he saw the natives as simple people, long-suffering, submissive, without malice or guile and he states “the notions of