During the fifteenth century, the Americas were being explored and conquered by many Old World countries. The Spanish were the first to move into the New World and had the largest empire, spreading all across North and South America. Christopher Columbus set sail in 1492 looking for a route to Asia. On October 12, 1492, Columbus landed in the Caribbean. He thought he had landed in India. As the Europeans came to the New World, there were many struggles with the native peoples of the Americas. The settlers wanted this land to be their own; even though, there were already people there. With the exploration of the New World, came many settlers with strong religious beliefs. These strong beliefs, along with the way the Native Americans worshiped …show more content…
The Europeans thought that the only “true religion” was Catholicism. This led to the Indians being viewed as heathens who needed to be saved from themselves or they world burn in hell. Spain and Portugal were required to spread Catholicism. Spain was the most forceful about getting the Indians to convert to “true faith”. Spain said that their primary goal for colonization was to save the Indians from spending eternity in hell. Although the Spaniards claimed the their number one goal was to save the Indians from their heathen ways, they also saw the Indians as free labor. While the Spanish claimed to be giving the Indians “freedom”, they also enslaved them. They used the idea of giving them this “freedom”, to justify enslaving the Native …show more content…
Franciscan friars were also trying to spread Catholicism. Some Indians accepted them and were baptized. Even though the Indians continued to practice their own religion, they added Jesus, Mary, and the Catholic saints to the practices. The friars began burning sacred objects, masks, and Indian idols in effort to banish traditional religious ceremonies. In 1680, the Pueblo Indians, under Pope’s leadership, created an uprising. They drove the Spanish out of New Mexico after surrounding Santa Fe and killing four hundred colonists and twenty-one Franciscan missionaries. The Pueblo Revolt was the biggest victory for the Indians over the Europeans. The Pueblo Indians burned down the Catholic churches and rebuilt the own worship
After the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492, the powerful Old World scrambled to colonize it. The three major nations involved in this were Spain, France, and England. Spain took more to the south in the Central American and Mexico areas while France went north in the Canada region. The English came to America and settled in both the New England and Chesapeake area. Although the people in these regions originated from the same area, the regions as a whole evolved into different societies because of the settlers’ purpose for coming to America and the obstacles faced in both nature and with the natives.
The religious views of the Indians and the Europeans were different. The Natives were very willing to take up Catholicism as an addition to their religious practice. Although, the Spanish misinterpreted the situation and thought that the Indians were accepting Catholicism as their only religion. If all Natives would have truly converted to Catholicism, then it would have resulted with their own religious practices dying out and Catholicism becoming the only religion. The Native’s refusal to give up their own religious practice, I would say, played a key role in setting a precedent for other believers to continue having the same perspective or form a new one. Similarly, Anne Hutchinson and George Whitfield changed their perspective on how much
Christopher Columbus discovered the America’s for Spain in 1492. The explorers and settlers that settled in Central and South America were mostly Spanish and Portuguese. The English took notice of the Spanish success in the America’s, so they decided to explore the upper part of the America’s, North America, in the late 1500’s.
Approximately three hundred and thirty-four years ago, there took place an uncommon and captivating story of American Indian History. This historical story was called the Pueblo Revolt, and it included the defeat of the dominant European Spaniards. The Spaniards were defeated by an assortment of Native American tribes that were not able to communicate in the same language. The Pueblo Native Americans resided in the area that is now considered northern New Mexico. This area remained combined with the territory of Spain for about eighty-five years. There were Spanish conquistadors guarded the superior area of Rio Grande. They forced Spanish regulations and brutality upon the Pueblo Indians.
Beginning in 1492, Spain had been the first European nation to sail westward across the Atlantic Ocean and colonize the Amerindian nations of the Western Hemisphere. The empire that came from this exploration extended from Virginia on the
The Spanish began their movement to Southwest America in the late sixteenth century. From that point on, their influence both on the Native Americans and the environment was extraordinaire. The goal of the Spaniards with regards to the Native Americans was to transform them “into tax-paying Christians.” This is in contrast to the idea that their goal was to eradicate the Indians form the Americas. Consequently, the Spaniards took many Indians so that they may plant their religion in the Natives and to use them as cheap labor. This led many Indians to learn the customs and language of the Spaniards so they could to be able to thrive in the Spanish culture. Thus, some Natives acquired Spanish, which was the main source of their Hispanicization; this was the notion of Indians becoming encompassed by the Spanish society. Furthermore, Indians gradually learned skills, obtained land, and sometimes found Hispanic spouses, thus furthering their Hispanicization. They now began to live in a Spanish manner and blend into the bottom of the Spanish societal ladder. This “acculturation” of the Native Americans was in contrast to the models of early English colonization. Spanish goals and plans sought to involve the Indians so that they may live in their society even if at the lower end of it’s ladder. English colonies viewed the Natives as savages and looked to them for slave labor or to rape their women. They did not plan to take the Indians into their society as the Spaniards did so throughout this era.
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.
Franciscan Friars who were trying to convert the natives became increasingly militant about stomping out all traditional religion. Local Pueblo people were beaten in public to show other pueblo the consequence of resisting the church. Some people even went as far as killing Pueblos. The worse punishment, through the eyes of the Pueblo, was not death but having long hair cut in public to be ridiculed and embarrassed. Residents were ordered to attend mass every Sunday, native and non-native. Although many Pueblo had converted to Catholicism, there were still many more that held strong to ceremonial ways. The oppression of religion lead to secret ceremonies in disclosed locations. The Pueblo people continued to hold their rituals and dances and prayer services in private hidden mesas in the desert. As more Christian churches were built, the Pueblo began tearing down these churches and started replacing them with Kivas, a Pueblo place of
Columbus discovered the New World (America) in 1492, soon after, many other European colonies followed and expanded. One Spanish conquistador stated, "that he and his kind went to the new World to serve God and his Majesty, to give light to those who were in the darkness, and to grow rich, as all men desire to do" (Parry, p.33). The majority of Europeans that would follow, desired the same. In order to achieve this goal the Europeans murdered, starved, enslaved, stole land, and brutalized people for centuries to follow. During Columbus second voyage to the New World, he had captured 1600 Native Americans, and enslaved 550. At this point, the Native Americans lives were changed forever. The Spaniards continue to explore the new world, leaving a wake of death and destruction in their path. Along with the Europeans came diseases that th...
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
...n their attempt to re conquer New Mexico later down the road. The Spanish tried to re conquer the land twelve years later using peace and scare tactics with a man by the name of Don Diego de Vargas. Not only were the events leading to Popes rebellion such as the encomienda system, forced labor, and the forcing of changing their religion and way of life in a short amount of time a great reason for the revolt. The revolt was also a starting ground for further rebellions and a blueprint of how to execute a rebellion successfully. When the revolt was over the Pueblos got what they wanted which was to be free of the Spanish and continue back to their own way of life. The following years were very difficult for the Indians starting with the rebuilding of their community. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 was the greatest and most successful revolt in history of North America.
The outnumbered Spanish conquistadors were able to so easily defeat the natives of South and Central America for many reasons. These reasons include the spread of disease, the fear the Spanish spread, civil war, and the thought that Cortez was a God. The Natives were not immune to the European disease such as smallpox, influenza measles, typhus, plague, malaria, and yellow fever. This wiped out 85-90% of the Native population in 50 years. This was the largest demographic catastrophe in human history. (Document 4: The American Holocaust)
The Native Americans also believed they were one with nature, and that the gods of land and water controlled what they got if they didn’t sacrifice and worship them. The Europeans however, viewed the natives to be a region inhabited by salvages, who did not how to live. They believed the natives had no laws, no religion, no property (for they all shared it), no kingdom or king because they have no system of government. All these two explorers saw was new land, with plants, and animals to be discovered. As well as, new people with fascinating lifeways that Europeans have never seen before, that would soon be conquered and governor to help personal ambitions, like the Spanish monarchs who also wanted to strengthen their legal claim on the New World, in case the Portugal’s decided to send ships across the Atlantic and eventually become a
They were brutally persecuted and were not allowed to practise their religion, because they said that the beliefs taught by the Anglican church were against the Bible. When they arrived in the New World, they were confronted with numerous threats from the outside. Their trying to take land away from the Indians caused many fights and attacks. Moreover, they had to deal with the total wilderness surrounding them. Under these frontier conditions, they needed harmony and peace inside the community in order to survive.