In the decades after 1519, the Spaniards created the distinctive colonial society of New Spain. Through this paper I will discuss the features of this new society, how it benefitted the Spanish, and its toll on the native populations using evidence and facts found in out textbook, The American Promise: A Concise History and an article from the Economist Newspaper titled, Americas:1519: The Conquest. It started in the sixteenth century when the New World helped Spain become the most powerful monarchy in both Europe and the Americas.
Then there was the conquest of Mexico that ended greatly for the powerful Spain but not so much the native people of Mexico. This New Spain showed other Europeans how the New World could be made to serve the purposes of the Old. It began in 1519 with Hernan Cortes’s march into Mexico and by 1545 Spanish conquests extended from northern Mexico to southern Chili. Cortes way of living off the land after entering Montezuma was establishing peaceful relations with the native people when he could and killing them when he thought necessary.
Throughout this New World riches filled Spanish treasure chests while the native population was forced into labor and if Cortes did not kill them deadly epidemics did. New Spain had a system of governing used during the Reconquest1 called encomienda2. This system allowed the Spanish encomendero, or “owner” of a town, to collect tribute from the town in return for providing law and order and encouraging “his” Indians to convert to Christianity. This system began after the Spanish monarchy gave the conquistadors permission to explore and plunder what they found.
The Essay on Freedom Limitation World Conquest
History has taught us that from the advent of time, man has proven himself to be his own worst enemy. Throughout history, various controversies and disputes have progressed into major wars with devastating effects. Some people believe that these are the subsequent results of increasing power in man. To many it may seem that the acquisition of varying degrees of power and influence cause marked ...
After the crown took one-fifth of any loot confiscated they allowed the conquerors to divide the rest. Giving out this subdued land was also a way for Cortes to compensate his disappointed, battle-hardened soldiers. The Spanish got this idea of Encomienda thanks to the Mexican empire. The idea was suppose to guarantee order and justice and to be responsible for the Indians’ material welfare while encouraging them to become Christians. Many Catholic missionaries believed that God expected them to save the Indians’ souls by convincing them to abandon their old sinful beliefs and to embrace the one true Christian faith. After baptizing tens of thousands of Indians, the missionaries learned that many Indians continued to worship their own gods. Over time, encomenderos were far more interested in what the Indians could do for them than what they or missionaries could do for the Indians. Gold was not the most important treasure the Spanish got out of the New World, uncompensated Indian labor was. The Spanish took over the land and people of the New World as their own not thinking about how it would affect the Indians, who were already there.
It was almost as if they treated them as if they were animals and not people. There are a few quotes even in our textbook, The American Promise, expressing the Spanish’s feelings toward the Indians. One Spaniard states, “Everything they (the Indians) do is slowly done by compulsion. They are malicious, lying, (and) thievish. ” A missionary put it; the Indians “are more stupid than Asses and refuse to improve anything. These beliefs and feelings toward the Indians cause the Spaniards to not only use the Indians for labor but often used violence to punish and intimidate uncooperative Indians.
The Essay on The Contrast of French and Spanish Missionaries
“Ethical religion can be real only to those who are engaged in ceaseless efforts at moral improvement. By moving upward we acquire faith in an upward movement, without limit.” (Felix Adler (1851-1933), American educator) Since the beginning of colonial expansion, the missionaries believed in the divine right to evangelize the natives in the new world. By converting the natives the ...
It took a few missionaries who were horrified at the brutal mistreatment of the Indians to speak up about the wrong of encomienda. Friar Bartolome de Las Casa asked the Spaniards, “What will (the Indians) think about God of Christians when they see their friends with their heads split, their hands amputated, their intestines torn open? Would they want to come to Christ’s sheepfold after their homes had been destroyed, their children imprisoned, their wives raped, their cities devastated, their maidens deflowered, and their provinces laid waste?
” These powerful words won some sympathy for the Indians from the Spanish monarchy and royal bureaucracy and the Spanish monarchy moved to abolish Encomienda in an effort to replace daring old conquistadors with royal bureaucrats as the rulers of New Spain. Encomienda was replaced by a reform called the repartimiento3 in 1549. This system limited the labor an encomendero could command from his Indians to forty-five days per year from each adult male. However, this system did not challenge the principal forced labor or stop encomenderos from continuing to cheat, mistreat, and overwork their Indians.
Many Indians were put into grueling work forces in the dangerous silver mines. The silver mines were very profitable for the Spaniards who supervised them because, during the entire sixteenth century, precious metal exports from New Spain to Spain were worth twenty-five times more than the next most important export, leather hides. The majority of the population in New Spain remained mostly Indians and Europeans never made up more than 1 or 2 percent of the total population. There was a definite shortage of women in New Spain led Spanish men to marry Indian women or used them as concubines.
Intermarriages created a steep social hierarchy defined by perceptions of national origin and race. The natives of Spain were referred to as peninsulares4, and they were the highest social status in New Spain. Making up the 1 to 2 percent of the population with the peninsulares were the still elite creoles5, followed by the large group of mestizos6 who made up 4 to 5 percent. As discussed in this paper, life in New Spain for the Spaniards was relatively easy after the conquests.
The Term Paper on Relationship With The Indians Spanish French British
In this book, Taylor, and exceptional history writer, is trying to convey numerous facts that the community is suppose to comprehend. By utilizing these facts, one can broaden its knowledge on past historical events. A historical event that relates to the topic would include the Norse, because they were technologically more advance than most countries at that time and proceeded to set the trend ...
One Colonists even wrote to his brother from Spain, “Don’t hesitate (to come)…the land (New Spain) is as good as ours (in Spain), for God has given us more than there, and we shall be better off. ” Life was not so great for that of the native Indians in New Spain. Not only was their land torn from them but their dignity. Indians were forced into labor and both men and women were brutalized. New Spain was a win-lose situation where Spain won and Indians greatly loss during the sixteenth century.
