When Catholic Priest, Bartelomo de Las Casas, voyaged over to the Indies in 1542 with the Spaniards, he had no idea what he was about to experience. All he knew was that 49 years before his voyage, the Spaniards came and settled the land, which was abundant with Indians native to the land. In his article, Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies, he sees the reality of life in the Indies and how cruel the Spaniards were to the natives. Upon arriving in Hispaniola, he got to know the natives of the land and see how they lived compared to the people in Spain. He characterizes them as very genuine, innocent and loving people who lived a very happy life with very scarce resources and food. Their lives were very simple, having very few clothes and little amounts of food, but to them it was plenty. The simplicity of their lives made them very cooperative with foreigners and other people. Because of their willingness to accept other people and their cultures, the idea of Christianity, which the Spaniards brought over, was something they longed after. After hearing about all about Christianity they were very eager to take the sacraments and follow Christ. …show more content…
Extremely cruel and violent, the Spaniards destroyed entire populations of Indians and their lands. They went around killing, torturing and harassing the natives in the most unheard cruel ways possible, including burning, hanging and beheading. And it wasn’t just the men, it was the women, children, and infants. And the few they didn’t kill were taken in as their slaves. Their reasoning and motive behind the mass killings was the Gold. They came to the West in search of gold, wealth, and merit, and in the process killed millions of
Anais Nin once said that “we write to taste life twice: in the moment and in retrospection.” In his book, Seven Myths of Spanish Conquest, Matthew Restall tries to change our perception of the past in other to open our eyes to what life was really like during the colonial period. As Restall puts it, the main propose of the book is to “illustrate the degree to which the Conquest was a far more complex and protracted affair” (p.154) than what was supposed in the latters and chronicles left by the conquistadores. Each one of Restall’s chapters examines one of seven myths regarding the mystery behind the conquest. By doing so, Matthew Restall forces us to look back at the Spanish conquest and question
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
One of the most interesting aspects of Diaz’s narrative is towards the end when Cortés broaches the subject of Christianity with Montezuma. Conversion and missionary work was one of the most important and lasting goals of the conquistadors and other contemporary explorers, they were charged with this duty by the rulers who sent t...
Bartolome de las casas: “In Defense of the Indians”(c.1550). Bartolome de Las Casas describes the treatment of Native Americans during the early settlement of the first thirteen colonies. Bartolome de las casas was a spanish historian, who in the 16th century was given the title of Protector of the Indians and sat at the Council of the Indies.Bartolome de las casas had the “intent to reveal to Spain that...its colonial rule would lead to… punishment at God 's hand” (LUNENFELD 6)This text was created to bring to light the hardship Natives went through during the Age of Exploration. Natives were badly hurt by the inflow of Europeans, and due to this faced many hardships such as disease, war, and disrupt to their way of life.In other words their
The gold and silver mines offered quick wealth to the Spaniards, and the native population was given out freely because of the repartimiento system. The Indians were given as a reward to the Conquistadors for helping the Spanish king in conquering Latin American.
Bartolomé de Las Casas was born in 1484 AD in Seville and died in 1566 in Madrid. In the ending of the 15th century and the beginning of 16th, he came to America and become a “protector of Indian”. In 1542, most based on his effort, Spain has passed the New Law, which prohibit slaving Indians (Foner, p. 7). In 1552, he published the book A Short Account of the Destruction of The Indies.
Andrée M. Collard, "Bartolomé de las Casa," History of the Indies, ed. Joyce J. Contrucci (1999).
In the “American Holocaust” by David Stannard, Stannard points out how the Spaniards, British, and Americans were treating the indigenous people differently. In chapter 1 of the “American Holocaust,” Stannard talks about how the Europeans main goal was to find and acquire gold. When the Europeans began to arrive in America they began to discover a land that contained a variety of gold. Once they discovered that there was gold they began to establish and did not see the indigenous people as part of the land. Indigenous people were required to work in forced labor and take care of the land however they were not part of the land and did not have their own property, towns and villages. In the first chapter of the American Holocaust Stannard
Cabeza de Vaca, like many other Spaniards, wanted to seek fortune in the new world, but things did not go as planned, and he eventually lost everything. Although he came to conquer in the name of Spain, he ended up living amongst the Native Americans in need for survival and became very close to them. Although originally the Spaniards were very narrow minded and believed the Indians were uncivilized and barbaric, Cabeza de Vaca shortly found out that they were not uncivilized, but quite the opposite. He saw that they were just as human as the Spaniards were and were no less than they were. His perception of humanity altered as a result of living with “the others.”
In August of the year 1680, around present day New Mexico, the Pueblo Indians had begun an uprising against Spanish colonists which resulted in the death of over 400 Spanish. The remaining 2,000 settlers were driven out of the area. The reason for this war was due to the constant oppression and violent treatment of Pueblo by Spanish colonists. For nearly 100 years, starting in 1540, the Pueblo Indians were subjected to successive waves of soldiers, missionaries, and settlers. There was much conflict between the Pueblo and the Spanish due to differences in religion and culture. The most important cause of the Pueblo Revolt was because the Spanish attempted to destroy their religion, banning traditional dances and religious icons. Today we will cover the Pueblo Revolt and why it is an important chapter in American history. (Wikipedia.org)
Native Americans were abused by Spanish officials when the Spanish invaded their lands. In an attempt to control the attacks of the Native Americans, they enlisted fear into the minds of the Indians.
They believed that the Indians were unhuman, and that they were basically animals. Indians always had the short-end of the stick, and were treated like they were not important to the way of living. “Doubtless to train and encourage them in their cruel and bloody way of life” (Haynes, 57). The Spaniards were constantly trying to brain wash, and break down the Indians’ spirt. The Spaniards created this “Missions” to allow for the “savages” to be converted into Christianity. However, the Indian’s could never fully let go of their own upbringing, which only made more friction between the Spaniards, and the Indians. The day of the attack, the Indians were there to attack those who had lied to them, and for those who stabbed them in the
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...
Columbus was sailing to the Indies in order to convert the people to Catholicism. However, conversion was not his only goal. Columbus was searching for riches and glory. In the text the crew was expressing their displeasure and impatience about the length of the voyage. The Admiral, Columbus, encouraged them by “representing the profits they were about to acquire”. Columbus also stated that the people of the newly discovered land seemed to be “intelligent and would make good servants”. He planned to deliver six of the indians to his Highness so that they may learn the Spaniard’s language. Columbus
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.