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Compare and contrast european and native american religion
Whats different between the native americans and the spanish
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Negative Impact of Differing Beliefs and Misjudgments on Native American and Spanish Relations
The different beliefs that Native Americans and the Spanish had and the misjudgments they had about each other, were key sources for the violent conflict that arose between the two. These differences, and misjudgments by the Spanish can be seen through the stories of the Iroquois Native Americans and the writings of Bartolome de Las Casas. One source of discord between the two groups was there different ways of looking at land itself and how it was to be treated. Furthermore, the Native American and Spanish’s differing religious views and religiously based misjudgments about one another were a major part in how the Spanish were able to cement their
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One misjudgment about the health constitution of the Native Americans was that they were weak people since they kept succumbing to disease. In letters back to Spain Bartolome de Las Casas wrote that the Native Americans were “no tougher than princes or than other Europeans with a silver spoon in their mouths” (Mulford 550), but the difference in constitution was mainly due to the different pathogens the two groups had encountered. As Native American tribes, such as the Iroquois, had only had exposure to diseases they and other tribes had previously encountered, their immune systems were not equipped to defend against diseases such The weakened states of the people helped many conquistadors feel confident as natives were decimated in droves, but as years passed and natives gained more exposure to the pathogens the Spanish had to fight against those that survived and knew how unfriendly foreigners could be. Additionally, the Spanish misjudged the intelligence and assertiveness of the Native Americans as they thought that because the weapons they used seemed primitive and the Native Americans seemed like submissive people to them. This was a severe misjudgment because the Spanish failed to consider that the Native Americans were not exposed to the transfer of ideas occurring throughout Eurasia …show more content…
Differing ideas regarding what it meant to live on the land and what was the proper way to treat gave way to forceful takeovers by the Spanish with millions of Native Americans dead. Religious differences between the two helped the Spanish to justify why they were subjugating Native Americans and religious misjudgments made by the Native Americans made it easier for the Spanish to domineer over them. Misjudgments regarding the mental and physical fortitude of the Native Americans also made the Spanish more eager to engage the Native Americans, but as time went on they would see that the battle would not be so easily won. These early differences and misjudgments would have a lasting negative impact on the relations that not only the Spanish had with Native Americans, but also the rest of Europe set on traveling across the sea to the new foreign
...ything and everyone that were there. At times they would work with the Natives at other times they would be at war with the natives. The Spanish had been engaged with the natives longer and over time felt the best way to control them would be to convert them or put them into same locations where they could “keep an eye on them”. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 was proof that no matter what they tried, when one man, country, or society tries to oppress another, war is almost always inevitable.
Some consequences of the exchange are the spread of disease to the Native people and settlers, the destruction of the Native population, and the disappearance of the Natives custom’s, beliefs, and way of life. Columbus’s arrival to the Americas, land that had already been established by the Natives, resulted in a spread of fatal diseases. Disagreement between the Europeans and the Natives and the enslavement of Native people helped to wipe out the population. Document 5 illustrates the fighting that occurred between the Natives and Europeans.
Each European country treated the Native Americans distinctively and likewise the diverse Native Americans tribes reacted differently. The vast majority of the tribes didn’t wish to overtake the Europeans, but to rather just maintain their status quo. Moreover, Axtell mentions that during the inaugural stages of the encounter, the relationship between the two parties was rather peaceful since the Europeans were outnumbered by the natives. Axtell depicts that unlike the Europeans, the Native Americans treated the strangers equally or superior to themselves. The Indians would welcome the Europeans into their towns and shower them with gifts and blessings. The relationship between the two factions was going serene until the cultural differences became a burden on both
The Spanish and English were also very different because of the timing of the interaction with the indigenous people. The Spanish had come to the Americas in 1492. This was one of the first main interactions between non native people for the Indians. The Spanish believed that if the Natives were not Catholic then the Natives were to be tortured or killed. In result of this treatment of the Indians the population had dropped from about three million to roughly sixty thousand. This had then lead to a difference in the interaction of the Indians with the English. The English had come to the Americas in 1607 about one hundred years after the Spanish. This changed the interaction because since it was years later there was not as many Indians to interact with the English. The English had not felt threatened by the Indians and thus treated them poorly. The English had also brought in diseases such as bubonic plague, chicken pox, pneumonic plague, cholera, diphtheria, influenza, measles, scarlet fever, smallpox, typhus, tuberculosis, and whooping
The European influences to the Native Americans were Europeans carried the new diseases to the Indians. “Europeans were used to these diseases, but Indian people had no resistance to them. Sometimes the illnesses spread through direct contact with colonists. Other times, they were transmitted as Indians traded with one another. The result of this contact with European germs was horrible. Sometimes whole villages perished in a short time” (Kincheloe). Slave trade was another influence to American Indians. Europeans soon realized that they could provide commercial goods such as tools and weapons to some American Indian tribes that would bring them other Indians captured in tribal wars, and these captured Indians were bought and sold as slaves. Therefore, “slavery led to warfare among tribes and too much hardship. Many tribes had to move to escape the slave trade, which destroyed some tribes completely. In time, the practice of enslaving Native peoples ended. However, it had greatly affected American Indians of the South and the Southwest” (Kinchloe). Lastly, Europeans change Native America and African’ roots. Native Americans
Mexican American struggles in the United States date back to the Spanish discovery of the New World in 1492. For over five hundred years, Mexicans have endured social injustices and inequalities at the hands of their superiors. The mistreatment of the native people of this land is constantly overlooked for "…the main goals shaping Spanish colonial policy were to maintain and expand political control and to convert Indians to Christianity." (Vargas p.30) With this mindset, the basic nature of relations between the dominant Anglos and the inferior Mexicans was that of suppression, rejection, ignorance and separation as opposed to establishment of ideals that would foster cultural relations and produce the true definition of a "melting pot" society.
Two conflicts during this time are seen as significant towards this battle between the interests of the Natives in the Americas. One of which was between two men: Bartolomé Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. Las Casas defends t...
Overall, There were so many differences between Native Americans cultures And the Europeans. Some of the examples are, the ideas of the lands owner, religion, and the gender. Their differences are more than the similarities. The impact of their cultures it still remains in today’s society. The cultural differences and the religions differences led to a bloody was that remains for 500 hundreds
While the far-away North American tribes were having their land taken away, and being harassed by white American expansionists, they also faced another threat: Spanish occupation. During the early-1500’s, many Spanish explorers and conquistadors, such as Cabeza de Vaca, wished to find gold and riches and, in the process, they harassed, oppressed, tortured, and spread deadly diseases to the Native tribes. They often used the excuse of racial class-separation, known as “castas,” to justify their rotten, atrocious crimes. Throughout the 1600’s and 1700’s, the focus of the Spanish explorers experienced a shift from conquistadors wishing to acquire gold and wealth to Catholic missionaries wishing to religiously convert the Native tribes and, as a result, they built up many churches on the land. As one might guess, the
Native Americans never came in contact with diseases that developed in the Old World because they were separated from Asia, Africa, and Europe when ocean levels rose following the end of the last Ice Age. Diseases like smallpox, measles, pneumonia, influenza, and malaria were unknown to the Native Americans until the Europeans brought these diseases over time to them. This triggered the largest population decline in all recorded history. Fifty percent of the Native American population had died of disease within twenty years. Soon after, Native Americans began to question their religion and doubted the ability of shamen to heal. This was the first step towards the destruction of Native cultures. The Native Americans had never experienced anything like these deadly diseases before and they came to believe that Europeans had the power to kill or give life.
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 Europeans invaded America with every intention of occupying the land, the bountiful natural resources as well as the complete domination of the native people. The Europeans desire for the land created an explosive situation for the native peoples as they witnessed their land and right to freedom being stripped from them. They often found themselves having to choose sides of which to pledge their allegiance to. The Europeans depended upon Indian allies to secure the land and their dominance as well as trade relations with the Indians. The Indians were in competition with one another for European trade causing conflict among the different tribes altering the relationships where friends became enemies and vice versa (Calloway, 2012, p. 163). These relationships often became embittered and broke into bloody brawls where it involved, "Indian warriors fighting on both sides, alongside the European forces as well as against European forces invad...
When the Europeans Colonization America it changed not only the lives of the Native American people but their cultures as well. Looking at the history of the population of American Indigenous peoples, we can see a catastrophic drop off when the Europeans arrive. When the Europeans came, they forced the natives to pack up their camps and move into other tribes' territories or into infertile grounds, and introduced major disease like smallpox, influenza, measles, and even some minor disease like the common cold and chicken pox’s, which killed more than half of the native population. The natives had no immunity’s to the new European diseases, so the outbreak was almost 100% effective. This is not to say that all of the Europeans influence was negative the Europeans did introduce modern medicines, new animals, exotic plants and new technology to the Native Americans.
In schools, students are being taught wrong information. “Our gods were vanquished after the fall of Tenochtitlan as were our traditions. Our warriors and nobles were eradicated, our children starved and our women ravished by the white conquerors and their allies.” (157). In books across America, the Spaniards were said to be good people, but the way that Huitzitzilin described what happened, shows the complete opposite of how the Spaniards actually were.
The Native Americans or American Indians, once occupied all of the entire region of the United States. They were composed of many different groups, who speaked hundreds of languages and dialects. The Indians from the Southwest used to live in large built terraced communities and their way of sustain was from the agriculture where they planted squash, pumpkins, beans and corn crops. Trades between neighboring tribes were common, this brought in additional goods and also some raw materials such as gems, cooper. seashells and soapstone.To this day, movies and television continue the stereotype of Indians wearing feathered headdresses killing innocent white settlers. As they encountered the Europeans, automatically their material world was changed. The American Indians were amazed by the physical looks of the white settlers, their way of dressing and also by their language. The first Indian-White encounter was very peaceful and trade was their principal interaction. Tension and disputes were sometimes resolved by force but more often by negotiation or treaties. On the other hand, the Natives were described as strong and very innocent creatures awaiting for the first opportunity to be christianized. The Indians were called the “Noble Savages” by the settlers because they were cooperative people but sometimes, after having a few conflicts with them, they seem to behaved like animals. We should apprehend that the encounter with the settlers really amazed the natives, they were only used to interact with people from their own race and surroundings and all of this was like a new discovery for them as well as for the white immigrants. The relations between the English and the Virginian Indians was somewhat strong in a few ways. They were having marriages among them. For example, when Pocahontas married John Rolfe, many said it has a political implication to unite more settlers with the Indians to have a better relation between both groups. As for the Indians, their attitude was always friendly and full of curiosity when they saw the strange and light-skinned creatures from beyond the ocean. The colonists only survived with the help of the Indians when they first settler in Jamestown and Plymouth. In this areas, the Indians showed the colonists how to cultivate crops and gather seafood.The Indians changed their attitude from welcome to hostility when the strangers increased and encroached more and more on hunting and planting in the Natives’ grounds.