Spanish Colonization Of The Americas Research Paper

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Spanish colonization of the Americas is commonly recognized as a process between Spaniards and the indigenous people. Irrefutably, the arrival of Spanish conquistadors had an eminently profound impact on the indigenous people of the New World. In order to understand the societal changes in Latin America, it is crucial to have an awareness of the motivation to conquest. Was there anything in particular that initiated the need to conquest? Differing perspectives offer distinctive explanations as to why there was an interest to conquer. In analyzing the colonial experience, it is of utmost importance to note the interconnectedness of the role of resources as well as the role of the Catholic Church. How were a handful of Spaniards able to subdue …show more content…

As identified by Bernal Díaz del Castillo, faithful comrade of Hernán Cortés in the conquest of Mexico, “the Spaniards arrived in America to serve God and His majesty and also to get riches.” Collectively, the Spanish showed an undeniably profound interest in the resources they encountered in Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. Without a doubt, the resources were appealing to the conquistadors as in 1503, Columbus wrote to his monarchs from Jamaica explaining that when he discovered the Indies, he saw the greatest rich domain in the world and he spoke of the gold, pearls, precious stones, and spices. A sense of greed in regards to resources was attributed to the Spaniards by a Nahuatl text in the Florentine Codex: “they crave gold like hungry …show more content…

Williamson argues that the epidemics facilitated the Spanish as they “disrupted native power structures and demoralized the Indians, who were at a loss to explain what was happening to them” The decreasing number of indigenous people implied that the conquistadors were faced with less native resistance than expected. The aftermath of outbreaks were extensive as the Mexica capital is said to have fallen not by force of Spanish arms, but to disease and plague. All in all, the newly introduced diseases played a fundamental role in the Spanish conquest as there was a substantially negative impact on the indigenous population of various

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