Spanish Colonization: Uncivilization Of The New World

The dominant theme that best describes the history of colonial America is the search for economic opportunity. In the 17th century, sixteen to twenty- year- old men were motivated to travel to America to escape the hardships in Europe. Although, some would stance that the colonization of the Americas was purely exploration or religious freedom, we see the first interactions in New America was with economic motives.

The English were more concerned with finding gold rather than building functioning societies; which were primarily built around biblical teachings, while the Spanish intended for European national power to extend to western civilization beginning with Catholicism and influence of the pope. English settlers were driven from England due to religious practices and perceived themselves as saving the Indians from the Spanish and their tyrannical ways. For the English, owning land would give men control over their own labor and the right to vote in most colonies, and this land possession would show wealth. This new obtained wealth would not only have demonstrated power, but it could also be used to influence a society a certain way to convince others to follow suit. The English believed that their motives for colonization were pure, and that the growth of empire and freedom would always go together, unlike the Spanish.

Europe, such as Spain, France, and England, have had different language, culture, political system, religion and more, which they developed by themselves in their civilization. In the late 1400s to 1500s, Europeans started the colonization and economic competitions each other between countries to get more assets since their resources and lands were limited and not enough. At that time, Spaniards and French had the same purpose for exploring the New World such as pursuing wealth, winning the economic competition, but they approached to Native Americans in different ways. The difference between these two countries when they encounter with Indians was the relationship with Native Americans.

Both France and Spain explored and colonized North America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to increase their wealth and convert native Indians to Catholicism, but comparing the reasons for expanding into certain areas, the relationships with native Indians, and the methods to increase population will highlight the similarities and differences of the methods used by each to achieve colonization in North America. To begin with, Spain gains a new level of wealth and power through the acquisition of large amounts of silver in Zacatecas and Potosi, but this new wealth creates the desire for more and the need to protect the silver. The Spanish expand northward into North America in search of more gold and silver, and follow

The Aztecs were constantly launching raids to capture prisoners for the enormous number of human sacrifices they conducted. There is important archeological evidence showing that several Indian civilizations suffered violent ends at the hands of other Indian cultures long before the arrival of the Europeans in America. • In effect, the Spanish employed a colonization strategy of "gold and souls. " Converting the native population to Catholicism not only spread the doctrines of the Catholic Church, then under threat in Europe, but could, it was believed, further the control of Indian behavior in the mines and on the plantations.

During the time, protestantism was on the rise all over the world, leading the Catholic invaders to push extra hard for converts, in an effort to recover from the reformation, and continue expanding Catholicism. Because the natives had not been exposed to any other form of Christianity, the invaders saw them as a great opportunity to gain coverts. The negative effects of this push for catholicism can be seen in Documents 5 and 9. Doc 5, a formal demand from the Spanish invaders, states that if the natives choose to convert to Catholicism, and recognize the Pope as their ruler, they will be left at peace by the invaders. However, if they do not convert, they will be killed and have all of their possessions destroyed.

The natives did not receive correct treatment from those who conquered their land. For example, Hernan Cortes demanded that the natives must change their beliefs. The Aztecs would sacrifice 50 souls every year to their gods. Cortes opposed of this and therefor forced them to adopt a new religion. The Aztecs didn’t easily accept the new religion since they have been following their religion for a very long time (document 3).

In the fifteenth century, Spain had the indication of traveling to the New World, which consisted of present-day South America along into parts of North America. The noted explorers, Columbus, Cortés, and Las Casas each had the confidence of fulfilling this expedition to the New World. Along the way each explorer encountered different experiences with the indigenous people including their values and beliefs. The explorers’ eyes were open to a new world and experienced many hardships. However, the explorers came across great colonization’s of the New World, including trading routes and goods, along with the discovering of new plants and animals.

Religion and Colonization In the New World was oportunity for all Europe, Spaniards, English, Portuguese, and even French. This new continent was able do give them gold, silver, wood, even a commercial trade route to China, or just an equality on their societies. But there was too many ways to atach the success way, those ways were in fact leaded by the religion.

In 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas was established in order to evenly divide unclaimed lands between Portugal and Spain. This led to the Line of Demarcation, in which the non-European world was divided into two zones. Portugal had rights to the eastern hemisphere, and Spain had rights to the western hemisphere. This allowed Spain to colonize areas in the New World. Even though they had this opportunity, they were not able to colonize specific areas in North America due to competition with other European countries. Spain fought with countries such as France, England, and the Dutch for control over lands in the New World, because they were all seeking wealth and power. They had even faced the threat of foreign attacks from England. Because of

When Columbus came to the Americas in search of land for his king, he also came to claim land for God” (Spreading Religion in the Age of Exploration). The Europeans spread Christianity, and it became very popular among the colonies of the New World. “Roman Catholicism was the official religion of Spain, so the Spanish conquistadors sought to spread Catholicism throughout their colonies, in addition to accumulating wealth and power” (Spreading Religion in the Age of Exploration). The Spanish missionaries worked very hard throughout the Americas and attempted to evangelize Native American groups.

The Europeans often tried to enforce violence in order to force the acceptance of baptism. However, this violence merely provoked resistance and rejection from the Native Americans. Ironically, though they wanted to escape religious persecution, they persecuted the natives for religious reasons. Also, since they were met with so much resistance, their ideal settlement with everyone being Christian contrasted with the reality of the New

Spanish claims to Latin America were based on the Christianizing mission.  When Christopher Columbus arrived at the ‘New World’ in 1492 he quickly and forcibly took advantage of the wealth of the Indian tribes; those who refused to hand over their gold and jewels faced brutal punishment of all sorts. In return, Columbus and other Spaniards bestowed the Indians with Catholicism by baptizing them and teaching them the rituals of the religion. Hence, the colonization of Latin America was justified under the guise of spreading Christianity.

The Spanish colonizer imposed their language, customs and of course the Catholic religion spreading

the Spanish saw the natives abundance of gold and that they were not Christian, and they felt justified in mistreating them because they thought they were helping them religiously