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Compare and contrast spanish and native american culture
Native Americans during the colonization of America
Native Americans during the colonization of America
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Bartolome´ De Las Casas was a Dominican friar, a bishop in the New World, and the Spanish government's unofficial “protector of the Indians.” In return for his kindness toward the Indians he was presented and Indian for his own use as a personal servant. After being amongst the indians for quite sometime he saw two things their simplicity and gentle nature, and how harshly the spaniards treated them. He devoted his life to their salvation and ended up writing the book “Apologetic History of the Indies.” Casas wrote this book for many reasons but I chose to write this on the basis of him trying to prove the fact that these people aren't animals but well developed societies that can thrive in modern times. This took a long time for Casas to do but he eventually did and he published this book and changed the minds of many people on how they view the indian people Many people saw these new people as They seemed to have a great judgment and morals when they decided what they would consider a God. They chose their God or Gods based on mainly on ideology, that a God is the best of all things that can be imagined. So unlike the Greeks and Romans the Natives elected pure mortal men as God or Gods. This proved even further to Casas what great society's these were and how developed they actually were. In conclusion the Natives held great stature in the mind of Casas and many others by their very wise people who had ways of lively and marked understanding, precise governing and providing for their people and making them prosper in justice. Casas had many goals and he completed most of them. Like to baptise Natives and to change the minds of many people about their civilization. Though these were important his main goal was to write this book and get it out there for people to see his point of view and how amazing these people really
Through the entire article, de las Casas discusses how great the Indians of the New World are. In paragraph 2 he states: "And all the infinite universe of humanity, these people are the most guileless, the most devoid of wickedness and duplicity, the most obedient and faithful to their native masters and to the Spanish Christians whom they serve. They are by nature the most humble, patient, and peaceable, holding no grudges, free from embroilments, neither excitable nor quarrelsome. These people are the most devoid of rancors, hatreds, or desire for vengeance of any people in the world. And because they are so weak and complaisant, they are less able to endure heavy labor and soon die of no matter what malady. The sons of nobles among us, brought up in the enjoyments of life 's refinements, are no more delicate than are these Indians, even those among them who are of the lowest rank of laborers.” They are also poor people, for they not only possess little but have no desire to possess worldly goods. For this reason they are not arrogant, embittered, or
Bartolome de las casas had hoped to prevent further harm to Indians, and clarify that they were not barbarians. Of the text named Bartolome de las casas: In Defense of the Indians(c.1550) it covers what is to be the Spanish Conquistadores, and talks of the natives to which at the time seen by many are barbaric, ignorant, incapable of learning, just another group of people to be conquered. But to the Catholic missionaries, they see the Natives as new people to influence and enlighten. But if at any time the person drops the belief in Christianity, they would use deadly force against the person or family. Adding to that, Hernán comments that their cities are “ worth of admiration because of their buildings, which are like those of Venice”(Poole 4).
As the values of the Indians, the natives that Cabeza De Vaca encountered on his eight year journey, that were roaming the south are compared to the moral values of the Spanish and then to the
An injured Native American was brought to him and Cabeza de Vaca started healing him by cutting open his chest and with great difficulty. After that with a deer bone he gave the person two stitches. Two days later, the Native American was healed and he gained a good reputation throughout the land. Being a expertise healer, he was able to help the Native Americans. Helping the Native Americans gave him a good reputation so the natives gave him things needed for life. For example, food and supplies.
Finally, when it came down to the types of ceremonies and views both civilizations had, they were on two different pages. The Natives believed happiness was the key to good fortune. So, in order to get that fortune, they’d do sacrifices, and rituals to please the “mighty ones”. Then, as stated in the book “A History of Latin America”, it says, “Jews publicly converted to Christianity to avoid the torture…”, In which, this showed how religion and the spiritual views were forced upon people in the Spanish civilization.
The essay starts with the “Columbian Encounter between the cultures of two old worlds “ (98). These two old worlds were America and Europe. This discovery states that Native Americans contributed to the development and evolution of America’s history and culture. It gives the fact that indians only acted against europeans to defend their food, territory, and themselves.
In A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, Bartolomé de Las Casas vividly describes the brutality wrought on the natives in the Americas by the Europeans primarily for the purpose of proclaiming and spreading the Christian faith. Las Casas originally intended this account to reach the royal administration of Spain; however, it soon found its way into the hands of many international readers, especially after translation. Bartolomé de Las Casas illustrates an extremely graphic and grim reality to his readers using literary methods such as characterization, imagery, amplification, authorial intrusion and the invocation of providence while trying to appeal to the sympathies of his audience about such atrocities.
The Black Legend and White Legend: Relationship Between the Spanish and Indians in the New World
In Defense of the Indians Bartolome de las Casas offers an argument against Sepulveda’s view of the Indians. What premises does Las Casas offer to support the conclusion that the Indians are human beings?
In the first section, Monroy describes the Indian and the Iberian cultures and illustrates the role each played during missionization, as the Indians adapted ?to the demands of Iberian imperialism.?(5) He stresses the differen...
When the Iindies were first discovered in the year one thousand four hundred and ninety two Spain took a great deal of interest towards it. When the Sspaniards first settled on the land there were native people known as “indians” that lived on the surrounding islands. The Sspaniards watched the indians and what they were like. The spaniards used the indians as slaves or slaughtered them like cattle. The author quotes that “these people are the most guileless, the most devoid of wickedness and duplicity, the most obedient and faithful to their native masters and to the Spanish Christians whom they serve”(De Las Casas).
This is an important matter as Las Casas was one of the first people to turn against the methods of spreading the Christian religion throughout the 16th century. Although Bartolome de las Casas did not stop the treatment that occurred to the New World people, he did debate and raise the issue of forced labour, religious ideologies and ‘just war’ that led to this treatment of the natives, as a result of Spanish exploration in the 16th
This variance shows that instead of being vastly different as de Vaca often describes, the two groups were in reality equals. The best insight is de Vaca’s own words on the matter. At various times he describes the Indians as “savages”. However, at the end of his journey, he states that “Clearly, to bring all these people to Christianity and subjection to Your Imperial Majesty, they must be won by kindness, the only certain way” (123). Cabeza de Vaca’s transformation from a condescending invader to a man declaring the need for kindness towards natives proves that his ideas towards Indians had transformed from superiority towards equality.
In this way the religion practiced by the Native Americans was taken as contradictions to Christianity. The natives were informed that Christianity was designed to be an eternal rule of significance and a means from which they could use to return to God from their religions that had deviated (Eliot par. 3). Through sermons given by Whitfield, the minds of the natives were engaged in religion and making religion the subject of most of their discussions. They embraced all the opportunities to hear what was been taught on Christianity. The Christian revivals were attended by the young and old alike (Edwards par.
From Spain's early arrival in the Caribbean through their establishment of the Spanish empire indigenous people were exploited through cheap, slave like labor. One of the most incredible subjects raised by the documents presented in Colonial Spanish America is the topic of Labor Systems that were imposed on the indigenous people. Spain tried to excuse this exploitation by claiming to save these indigenous people by teaching them the ways of Christ but many of the Articles in Colonial Spanish America, Struggle & Survival, and The Limits of Racial Domination prove otherwise. Through letters, personal stories, and other documents these books present accounts that tell about the labor system used in this area. They tell of the Spanish labor systems such as the encomiendos and later rapartamientos and how these operations were run.