Compare And Contrast The America After The Discovery Of The New World In 1492

After the discovery of the New World in 1492 by Christopher Columbus, many countries began to travel there with the hope of finding great riches. These countries were Spain, France, The Netherlands, and England. Although they were all going to the same place, they each had differences in objectives. These differences include the nation’s overall goal, the settlers they sent, and their relationships with the Native Americans. The goals of each country differ as they set out to explore the Americas. For example, Spain’s goals were mainly based on God, gold, and glory. The Spanish went to the Americas to become rich, to bring glory to themselves, and to bring Catholicism to Native Americans. Spain specifically wanted to mine gold and set up

Spain sent many conquistadors, or explorers, to the Americas to look for a passage to Asia through the Americas, and to gain riches for Spain. Since the conquistadors went on dangerous expeditions, few Spanish women were sent to the New World. This caused the Spanish men to develop relationships with Native and African women. This mixing of people caused the Spanish to develop the Racial Caste System, which ranked individuals based on how much pure Spanish blood one had. England set up many Charter Colonies through Joint Stock Companies, such as the East India Company or the Virginia Company. The main settlers of these colonies were called adventurers, people who sought wealth and tried to make a profit for their investors. Some English settlers, known as Pilgrims, went to the Americas in 1620 to escape the religious persecution of Puritans by the Church of England. The French and the Dutch mainly sent small groups of men to set up trading posts focused around the Saint Lawrence River and the Hudson River. Since there were so few of these settlers, they had to cooperate with the Native Americans and aided their trading relationships by giving gifts or through marriage. The relationship each nation had with the Native Americans varied quite a

Spain had a very rocky relationship with the Natives. Spain placed control over its territories through the encomienda system. This was a labor system where the Spanish Crown would grant landowners, called encomenderos, the right to Native American labor and anything they produced. The Spanish believed that the Native Americans would get Christianization in return for their labor, and if they did not accept Christianity, they would be punished severely. This resulted in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, and it took the Spanish 50 years to gain back the Pueblo territory. The English took a somewhat similar approach. At first, the English attempted to establish a relationship with the Native Americans based on trade, which later led to violence due to disease and the English attempting to convert Natives to Christianity. However, the French and the Dutch took a different approach with the Native Americans. Due to the small number of French and Dutch settlers, they often had to comply with the Native Americans. Unlike the English and the Spanish, the French and Dutch observed the Native’s trading rituals and followed them, and French traders went as far as learning Algonquian, the local Native American language. They even allied with Native American tribes against their enemies in