After Coronado’s fruitless search of the seven cities of gold, Juan de Oñate in 1598 was awarded a contract for the colonization of New Mexico. The arrival of Juan de Onate and the Spanish entourage brought confusion and chaos into Pueblo society. The competing interest of the Spanish civil authorities and the Franciscans resulted in the continued mistreatment of the Pueblos, which eventually culminated in the Pueblo revolt of 1680. This revolt brought rapid social change for the Pueblos Indians.
The political policies and beliefs that shaped the historical background helps one to understand the causes of the Pueblo Revolt. Colonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was first initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and further implemented by the monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. This expansion is one of the contributing causes for the Pueblo revolt. Spain conceived of a single kingdom for all Pueblo Indians under one governor… but with so much hardship, compounded by recent outrages, it galvanized anti-Spanish fervor to the point of revolution (Kessler 118). The reasons for colonial expansion were two fold. First, the Spanish were interested in obtaining natural resources to increase their wealth through trade and, secondly, to spread the Christian faith through indigenous conversion.
During the years between 1598 and 1680, the Pueblo peoples faced an intensive campaign of conversion and colonization. Converting the Indians through missionary efforts became an integral goal and desire of Spanish colonization effort. The Pueblos grasp of Spanish Catholic doctrine and external worship dovetailed nicely with their native mythology. The Franciscan order aimed to stomp out and replace the traditional ...
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...g the same land in an effort to coexist. Distrust and hostilities grew between the indigenous population of the region and the Spanish land and its perceived value and ownership only added to the conflict. The Spanish brought with them the European practice of expansion and of recognizing only limited land rights of indigenous people. The land and the tribute that was required of the Pueblos increased hostilities as forced labor was introduced. Two vastly differing beliefs regarding religion added to the mix. Spanish soldiers and priests were intent on converting the Pueblo Indians to Christianity and prevented the Pueblo Indians from communing with their gods. It is no surprise that all of these factors led to uprising and revolt.
References
John L. Kessel, Pueblos Spaniards and the Kingdom of New Mexico. (University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, Oklahoma, 2008)
The English took their land and disrupted their traditional systems of trade and agriculture. As a result, the power of native religious leaders was corrupted. The Indians we...
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...
This revolt actually caught the governor, Captain-General Don Antonio de Otermin off guard. In a letter written by Otermin to Fray Francisco de Ayeta he described how the events unfolded. Otermin described how he had caught word of a plot designed by the Pueblo to overthrow the Spanish. Otermin did not disclose how he discovered it; however it is possible that some of the loyal Pueblos heard of it and informed him that the uprising was going to happen. While a large portion of the Pueblo population had begun following El Pope long before the uprising there were still many who were loyal to the Spanish settlers and leaders. Once Otermin heard ...
The early years of colonial Mexico were a time of great change, as the native Indian populations were decimated by disease and increasingly dominated by the Spanish social and economic structure. Under the encomienda system, the initial flood of Spanish immigrants were provided with a support structure in New Spain, as the Indians’ land and labor were put at their disposal in exchange for moral guidance.[3] As Spain sought to reap the benefits of its new colony, the need for dependable labor in Mexico’s agr...
Eventually the Spanish Priests came to the Pueblo and started to set up churches and try to convert the Zuni’s to Catholicism. The Zuni’s practiced the catholic faith in a small way to appease their Spanish superiors, but this did not stop them from carrying on as usual in their own faiths practices and rituals within their own circles in their pueblos. The Zuni did not like Spanish pushing their practices and religion on them and would over time build up such resentment that other actions would have to happen.
The Sioux Uprising started because of broken promises and brutal racism. The Sioux sold their sacred hunting land for gold but the gold was late. The settlers were already sowing their seeds of hate and the Indians were becoming subhuman. So while the arrogance and stupidity of racism caused a war in the South, the white people were too naïve to realize they were about to witness a war in the North. The Sioux Uprising cost innocent people their lives but also brought a family together. Overall, the gold was thought to be the main cause, but it was not the only one. While paying the gold to the Sioux would have delayed the uprising, the Dakota Nations rebellion was inevitable.
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.
Hackett, Charles W. Declarations of Josephe and Pedro Naranjo. Revolt of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Otermin's Attempted Reconquest 1680-82. University of New Mexico Press, 1942.
Although it may not have seemed fairly difficult in theory, The Pope along with the Crown of Spain set out with the goal to convert the Native Americans. One decisive factor that challenged that decree of conversion was the economic benefits that Spain would receive. This would eventually change the agendas of Spain, and ultimately it would indirectly make those living in the New World choose: Spain or Religion? This was not said in these exact words, but people, especially religious orders would have to choose to fight for what they believed in, or to follow the orders straight from the Spanish Crown.
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...
To the defense of the Spaniards, there was little knowledge that the diseases of the Columbian exchange had caused the widespread, mass deaths of the natives. Las Casas was pivotal in bringing to light the brutal treatment of the natives. The crown took this information seriously. If it hadn’t been for Las Casas stance on anti-brutality against the natives, change would not have come for a long
The Great Pueblo revolt of 1680 all started with the droughts of 1660 when the Southwest had severe drought that brought famine and disease. During this, hungry Apaches who couldn’t find food on plains attacked the pueblos. This angered the people on the pueblos, but there new leader Pope’, a mysterious medicine doctor, tried to keep the Indian beliefs around and resisted the Christian religion. The Spaniards hated this, so they captured his older brother. This enraged Pope’ against the Spaniards so he held meetings to tell everybody that the Spaniards must leave. The Spaniards found out about this and arrested Pope, publicly flogged him and released him back to the pueblos. When he was captured, the pueblo people set fires in the Indian villages in New Mexico. To take care of the fires, the Spaniards sent troops to halt the ritual of setting the fires by pueblo people, and they arrested all of the medicine doctors, killing several of them. The people believed that the doctors protected them from evil, so all of the pueblo towns wanted to unite against the Spaniards. The group from the pueblos went to the governor of Santa Fe and told him that if the doctors that were imprisoned weren’t released by sundown, all of the Spaniards in New Mexico would be killed. They released the prisoners because the Indians outnumber the Spaniards by a huge amount.
Kathryn book Life in the Pueblo is based on excavations that she did at Lizard Man Village (Kamp, 1997). This was a small pueblo located in Arizona which is believed to be inhabited between 11th and 13th century. These ancient excavations were first carried out by United States Forest Service and were parts of Grinnell College field school (Kamp, 1997). The aim of the book was to describe Lizard Man Village and present excavation processes and analysis. Kamp 1997 offers archaeological interpretation of the site in relation to the past understandings. She bring out successfully three narratives. These narratives include ethnographic data in relationship to traditional accounts from Hopi (a place which is believed to be the first resident of Lizard Man) (Kamp, 1997). He also bring out clearly the issue of archaeology as well as fictional account basing it on both ethnography and archaeology.
One of the principle themes in the Aztec downfall was the immense greed of the Europeans. The principle goal of every major faction in Europe was to gain power and wealth it didn’t matter from what source. Everyone from popes and kings to the lowly soldier envisioned rivers of gold and fame. Ever since they had boats Europeans have been looking for lucrative trade routes and other ways to turn a profit. The ruling monarchs of these countries contributed a great deal to this. They saw vast profits from these ventures through taxes and the customary “ Royal Fifth” which was a fifth of all profits would go straight to the King and/or Queen. Also royalty or other nobility within the country personally funded a large majority of explorations. Trading and exploration companies just helped push the trend further and made the exploitation of newly discovered lands big business. While greed was defiantly a starting point for Cortez’s expedition, it was his greed while in Central Mexico that changed the tide of history. Cortez’s first encounters with the natives in Central...
The first Catholic priests came to South America with the conquistadors and through social and political force superimposed 16th century Catholicism upon conquered peoples and in subsequent generations upon slaves arriving in the New World. Catholicism has, likewise, frequently absorbed, rather than confronted, popular folk religious beliefs. The resulting religion is often overtly Catholic but covertly pagan. Behind the Catholic facade, the foundations and building structure reflect varying folk religious traditions. (2)