The Spanish colonization of the new world from 1492 to 1700 led to many events such as the development of the “la casta” system (which categorized Europeans, Africans, and natives off of skin color), the encomienda system (which let the natives stay on their own land but made the natives into impractical slaves), and all of the torture that the natives endured from the Europeans. While many of these explorers came to conquer by orders the Spanish colonization from 1492 to 1700 was motivated by a strong desire for wealth and converting the natives to Catholicism that made a significant impact on the lives of Native Americans and Africans.
The Spanish arrived in the new world blind, these conquerors did not know what to expect. The Spaniards
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began to notice the crops of the new world and what resources the natives beheld. Two main resources that the Europeans inhabited from the new world was tobacco and sugar. The Europeans began to sell these items to Europe, Africa, and Asia which led to a higher demand for the items. At first this led to the encomienda system where the Native Americans stayed on their land while being forced to work and giving the goods to a conquistador (a Spanish conqueror). Even after this system the demand rose exponentially and therefore more labor was needed to harvest the resources. Since the Portuguese (the first explorers) conquered Africa (just the coast of the western parts of Africa) the Europeans found the extra labor needed and therefore African slaves was inhabited. The Europeans traded the slaves for weapons to African enslavers. Since Africa was typically scary at that time and the common white man would not make it out alive, African men from other nations would capture Africans (not from their own nation) and trade the Africans for weapons with the Europeans. At this point in time the Europeans were profiting from all of this labor occurring. With all of these goods arriving in Europe the prices for land from landlords arose. Since the prices rose this sent more explorers to sail the seas, these explorers needed funders for their exploration. Therefore these joint-stock companies (companies that funded explorations as long as the company received a certain percentage of the goods founded by those explorers) began to fund their explorations. In short, the Spanish sought all of these goods that needed to be distributed in mass quantities. The Spanish needed workers and established the encomienda system which eventually started to purchase slaves. After all the Europeans took all of this labor to inhabit this wealth to ensure their economic stability. As well as traveling for wealth the Spanish also needed to convert the natives to the religion of Roman Catholicism.
The Spanish arrived with missionaries (people whose main goal is to convert people to Roman Catholic) so the Spaniards can convert the natives. With the abusing of the natives the Black Legend was born (the Black Legend was a legend that describes how the natives were brutally beaten and even killed). Some of the natives tried to rebel and one of the most notable rebellions was Pueblo’s Revolt (an uprising of the indigenous Pueblo people against the Spanish colonizers) The Spanish was given this task to convert the natives by the Pope and in return he let the Spanish have full rights over the new world. The Pope had this power because he was the highest figure at that time and he spoke what God told him to speak. With these Europeans here with no women from Europe the Europeans had to breed with the African and native women. Sometimes this breeding was by force and sometimes it was by choice. This led to interbred children between Europeans, Indians, and Africans. With this new occurrence the “la casta” system was born, this was a hierarchical system of racial classification created by Spanish elite. When this cross breeding occurred this would hopefully mean converting to Roman Catholicism. In short, the Pope gave permission to the Spanish to convert the natives of the new world and while this occurred the Spanish were allowed to control trade over this new …show more content…
land and its entirety was theirs. The Spanish became brutal because the natives were hard to convert and so the killing and torture of natives began. The natives tried to rebel, but eventually failed. Cross breeding occurred so the men could be delighted with companionship, and the natives along with the Africans was not free until later in history. The Spanish colonization from 1492 to 1700 was motivated by a strong desire for wealth and converting the natives to Catholicism that made a significant impact on the lives of Native Americans and Africans.
The Spanish ruined the African culture, ruined the lives of the Native Americans, and stripped the new world of resources. By inhabiting the wealth the Spanish used forced labor using African slaves and the encomienda system. To convert the natives the Europeans bred with the Native and African women and killed many women, children, and men. The Spanish colonization was very harsh on the lives of the African and Native cultures and it stripped these people of their human
rights. Later down the time period another nation to colonize the new world was France. The French colonists were the more peaceful people to colonize. The French made trade with the natives. Since the French invaders had a smaller army, the natives had an advantage over the French leaving the French to just coincide with the natives. This connects to the Spanish invasion because many individuals think that the natives developed all of these conflicts and skills due to the Spanish invasion, but the French helped assist the natives with this as well by trading and improving both of their economies at the time. The French also benefitted from the native population by trading common goods with these natives. The French and natives just lived together since the French was outnumbered and feared to conquer the natives.
Disagreement between the Europeans and the Natives and the enslavement of Native people helped to wipe out the population. Document 5 illustrates the fighting that occurred between the Natives and European. Most times the cause of this fighting was that Europeans were taking over land that was not rightfully theirs. The Natives often lost these battles because their weapons and tactics were not as advanced as the Europeans. Therefore, the large amount of deaths in battles made a change in the Native’s population. To add, when the Europeans first arrived to the Americas they established a new economic system called the encomienda system. The encomienda system was a system of forced labor which Native Americans worked on Spanish-owned estates. Document 4 explains how the system was to work, “the Indians should work on the Christians’ building, mind the gold, till the fields, and produce food for the Christian’s.” This system benefited the Europeans immensely. On the other hand, many Native’s working were treated very poorly and faced brutal punishment and labor. The enslavement of Native people was another cause of the great decrease in population. The disappearance of Native people lead to the disappearance of their customs, beliefs, and way of
Marcus Gravey stated that, “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” With that being stated, are the people of the United States, Canada, and Mexico trees without roots? At a young age students learn that Christopher Columbus “sailed the ocean blue in 1492”, a simple song used to assist children remember that America was discovered in 1492. In addition, Thackeray and Findling describe how Columbus’s discovery presented an unimaginable amount of opportunity for Europeans, and therefore, Spanish, French, and later British explores and settlers began to flock to this new world.
The fear the Spanish unleashed to the Natives was immense. The armor the Spaniard’s whore terrified everyone who saw them. The loud clamor they made as they marched also installed fear into the Natives heads.
Beginning in the fifteenth century with the arrival of Columbus, natives of the Americas were infected with European diseases that proved to be deadly to the Indians. The population in northern Mexico suffered an immense decimation of 2,500,000 peoples to less than 320,000 by the end of the sixteenth century (Vargas, 30). The Spaniards’ cruel treatment of the natives aided this vast reduction in the Aztec and Mexican population, enabling the Spaniards to conquer the lands of the Aztecs and other native tribes. By the end of the sixteenth century, the Spaniards had expanded their conquests into the southwest region of what is now known as the United States of America.
Looking back into the history of certain events affords the modern researcher the ability to examine a variety of documents and artifacts. It is important, however, to take into account biases, inaccuracies, errors in translation, and overall misinformation when examining primary sources, particularly historical documents. Examining the history of the conquest of the Aztec empire is no different, and in a scenario as tense as it was it is extremely important to consider the authorship of the text. Bernal Diaz’ The Conquest of New Spain and Miguel Leon-Portilla’s The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico offer two distinct looks into the same event in history. Both documents offer differing takes of the same events, so when
The discovery and conquest of American Indians inspired efforts to develop an ideology that could justify why they needed to enslave the Indians. The Spanish monarch wanted an ideal empire. "A universal empire, of which all their subjects were but servants. Charles V remained for them the dominus mundi, the legitimate and God-ordained lord of the world." (Weckmann, The Transit of Civilization, 23) Gold and religious conversion was the two most important inspirations for conquistadors in conquering America. Father Bartolome De Las Casas was a Dominican priest who came to the New World to convert the Indians to become Christians. He spent forty years on Hispanolia and nearby islands, and saw how the Spaniards brutally treated the Indians and sympathized with them. The Devastation of the Indies was an actual eyewitness account of the genocide by Las Casas, and his group of Dominican friars in which he demonizes the Spanish colonists and praises the Indians. Father Las Casas returned to Seville, where he published his book that caused an on going debate on whether the suppression of the Indians corrupted the Spaniards' values. What Las Casas was trying to achieve was the notion of human rights, that human beings are free and cogent by nature without the interference of others.
Colonization in Latin America had a major effect on the Americas because the Aztecs died of the disease that the Europeans brought over though the Columbian Exchange. Since the Aztecs could not do much about the diseases that were spreading a lot of them began to die. The evidence from the pictures show that the Columbian Exchange took place during the 16th century. (doc 1). A lot of the Aztecs got sick and died. People could not do much about the diseases because they did not know what kind of disease it was. The Aztecs were also not immune to any of the disease that were spreading. Those are some reasons why the colonization in Latin America had a major effect on the Natives.
When they found the “new world” is too weak to resist the invasion of European, they started to establish the colony in America. Bartolomé de Las Casas used to be a priest who explored America on Hispaniola and Cuba. But after he witnessed the colonists enslave and mistreat Indians, he changed his mind and start to protect the Indians. He free his Indian slaves in 1514, and start to against Spanish mistreat them (Foner, p.7). After that, he made the effort to liberate the Indian slaves, and he had backed to Spain several times want to make the King reduce the heavy labor of Indians. Finally, Spain published New Laws in 1542, which indicate that Indians no longer be enslaved (Foner, p.7).
The Conquest of New Spain Cortés came not to the New World to conquer by force, but by manipulation. Bernal Daz del Castillo, in the "Conquest of New Spain," describes how Cortés and his soldiers manipulated the Aztec people and their king Montezuma from the time they traveled from Iztapalaopa to the time when Montezuma took Cortés to the top of the great Cue and showed him the whole of Mexico and its countryside, and the three causeways which led into Mexico. Castillo's purpose for recording the mission was to keep an account of the wealth of Montezuma and Mexico, the traditions, and the economic potential that could benefit Cortés' upcoming conquest. However, through these recordings, we are able to see and understand Cortés' strategy in making Mexico "New Spain." He came as a wolf in sheep's clothing and manipulated Montezuma through his apparent innocence.
The Black Legend and White Legend: Relationship Between the Spanish and Indians in the New World
Before Columbus landed in the West Indies in 1492, The Spanish Inquisition made it known to anyone within Spain’s domain of influence that if a person was not of the Catholic religion, they were to be punished severely and sometimes even fatally. This influence would undoubtedly be brought over to the Americas a century later, as the colonization of the New World would begin by then. While it was very essential for the Spanish (as well as the Portuguese) to improve their economy by using the resources they found in Latin America, it seemed to a number of them as if that was the only reason for being there, or the main reason at the very least. During the Spanish Inquisition and from that point after, it was the Pope’s main goal, to convert everyone to Roman Catholicism; an opportune moment arrived as the Americas were found, along with the Natives who resided there who were waiting to be converted.
Following Spain and Portugal's first efforts to claim the "New World" for their own, England, France and the Netherlands establish colonies throughout North America, predominantly seeking economic wealth and opportunities with occasional religious intentions. While the Spanish savagely plunder the riches of the natives to satisfy their own greed in this newly untapped world, the English, French and Dutch pursue a seemingly less violent approach through lucrative trade and establishing colonies, to meet their own intentions. In the northern regions of North America (what is today Canada) and the southeast (what is now Florida) occurred the beginning of French and Native American interactions for trade. On the Atlantic coast of what is today much of the Northeastern United States lies the English colonies that dominate their focus on producing tobacco and trading goods for luxurious furs. While there is the presence of a Puritan society that hoped for religious tolerance within the Massachusetts Bay colony, this was one of the few exceptions among the English settlements. In New Amsterdam, a Dutch colony in present day New York, lies a trading and farming community that is solely there to claim a stake in the "New World". Representing Spain, Columbus establishes a gold seeking society motivated in finding riches. As European countries settled vast expanses of territory through North America, each nation shows their desires for economic gains and a presence in the Americas.
They gave the least power and human rights to the Native Americans to show dominance over them, and prove who of them had the power. The purpose of the church building was to convert Native Americans to Christianity, many converted to avoid bloodshed and damage to their people. The Spanish forced the Native Americans to work; Encomienda, which means to have Native American labor. The Native Americans labored on haciendas/plantations, which means farms. They forced Native Americans to work
The Spaniards arrived at the Americas prior to the English. The Spanish mainly wanted to explore in the first place because after the Black Death, the population increased, and thus, so did the frequency of commerce. There was a sudden new interest in new products and the new strong monarchs who sponsored the journeys wanted to be more affluent. Therefore, explorers such as Christopher Columbus attempted to go west to target Asia. However, he ended up on Cuba and called the natives Indians. The Spanish soon started to consider the Americas less of a blockage and could now see it as a source of resources. In 1518, Cortes arrived into Mexico with his group of conquistadors, or conquerors, which is a proper name because the men after gold exterminated native areas using their military skills, brutality and greed to turn the Southern America into a vast Spanish empire. The smallpox the Spanish unknowingly carried also helped wipe many people out. When they saw the religious ceremonies of the Aztecs that produced many skulls, they thought of these people as savages and not entirely human. This of coarse was quite hypocritical because the Spanish have killed before during the Inquisition for their faith. It was this contempt that made them think it was all right to slaughter the natives. Spanish colonies were established when conquistadors had gotten a license to finance the expedition from the crown to fixture encomiendas. These encomiendas were basically Indian villages that became a source of labor. The Spanish dreamed of becoming wealthier from South America, but they also wanted a profitable agricultural economy and to spread their Catholic religion (the Pueblo Indians converted to Christianity), which became very important in the 1540s.
During the European expedition in America, they founded colonies in North America that attracted thousands of settlers. The Europeans tried to get rid of the Native Americans in order to get what they wanted, which was economic wealth, landowning, slave trade, property ownership, and tobacco. M. Zylstra writes about “Colonization of History”, hybridization of history, and what the colonization of the natives by the Europeans lead to. Zylstra states.