After 1519: The Colonies Of New Spain

The Spanish, French, and English all established major settlements in North America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In each colony, settlement revolved around different types of trade: plantations and mining in New Spain, the fur trade in New France, and tobacco and the family farm in British North America. There were many similarities among these countries’ approaches to settling, but also enormous differences.

For decades, the history of Latin America has been shrouded in a cover of Spanish glory and myth that misleads and complicates the views of historians everywhere. Myths such as the relationship between natives and conquistadors, and the individuality of the conquistadors themselves stand as only a few examples of how this history may have become broken and distorted. However, in Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest Matthew Restall goes to great lengths to dispel these myths and provide a more accurate history of Latin American, in a readable and enjoyable book.

The final Spanish conquistadors’ motive that greatly affected the people living in the new world was glory. This motive is plain to see in documents 3 and 5. In document three Cortez talks about how the war that he and his men are fighting in will bring them fame. In document five it’s the same thing it is Cortez who is plowing through the Indians land conquering everybody for respect in Spain. Now when you look at how did this affect the Native Americans you see that the Spanish conquistadors’ obsession with glory ended up harming Indians because the Spanish wanted conquer Indian lands so that they could win respect back in Spain.

Throughout the 17th century, many European countries sent explorers and settlers to America. The two most eminent countries that colonized area of America were Spain and Great Britain. Britain began to establish colonies in the northeast; in the area they called New England. The Spanish interest lied in the southwest. Living in two unassociated areas caused the Spanish settlements and the New England colonies to be quite unlike each other. When faced with the task of finding similarities between the two, not much can be found. It is the differences that stand out when studying the English and Spanish, from religion to politics to ideals.

In a time when numerous countries were beginning to explore the new and exciting land of North America during the Age of Exploration, and groups of people from England and Spain were fleeing their home countries either for religious freedom or wealth, vast and civilized colonies began to form all throughout the New World. It is in this context that the colonies founded by the English and the Spanish began to develop and grow. There was a significant difference between the Spanish and New England colonies between 1492 and 1700 in terms of the treatment of indigenous people, and there were some immense similarities between the two colonies in terms of the role of religion in their society and the

The native’s encountered by Columbus and those encountered by Cortes were similar in how they treated the newly arrived Spaniards. They were greatly different, though, in their religious beliefs. The Aztecs seemed to be a very religious group of people. In Cortes’ letter he says, “This great city contains a large number of temples, or houses, for their idols.” Cortes says that those in priesthood wear black and do not curl or comb their hair their entire time in priesthood. Cortes says, “I said everything to them I could to divert them from their idolatries and draw then to a knowledge of our God.” The Aztecs would not convert though, showing the strength of their beliefs. In contrast, those Native Americans encountered by Christopher Columbus did not exemplify any religious beliefs or practices.

Convinced of the superiority of Catholicism to all other religions, Spain insisted that the primary goal of colonization was to save the Indians from heathenism and prevent them from falling under the sway of Protestantism. The aim was neither to exterminate nor to remove the Indians, but to transform them into obedient Christian subjects of the crown. To the Spanish colonizers, the large native populations of the Americas were not only souls to be saved but also a labor force to be organized to extract gold and silver that would enrich their mother country. Las Casas’ writings and the abuses they exposed contributed to the spread of the Black Legend-the image of Spain as a uniquely brutal and exploitative colonizer. This would provide of a potent justification for other European powers to challenge Spain’s predominance in the New World.

This section highlights that history has created a false narrative depicting the natives as a victimized people, which they were to some extent but only in the fashion that they did not possess the same technology for warfare, immunity of communal diseases transmitted, and they were not anticipating combat. All other factors considered, the natives stood to be a potential threat. In regards to knowledge obtained by Spaniards prior to arrival and knowledge gained from observation, it would be remiss had they not prepared for battle. This argument is not to be misconstrued in approving their actions; I do recognize colonization as an evil for both the reasons employed and its damaging effects, but rather to change the narrative surrounding that of the native people. While they did experience a tragedy, I feel that it is erroneous to write them into history as being incompetent resulting from their

Cortés came not to the New World to conquer by force, but by manipulation. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, in the "Conquest of New Spain," describes how Cortés and his soldiers manipulated the Aztec people and their king Montezuma from the time they traveled from Iztapalaopa to the time when Montezuma took Cortés to the top of the great Cue and showed him the whole of Mexico and its countryside, and the three causeways which led into Mexico. Castillo's purpose for recording the mission was to keep an account of the wealth of Montezuma and Mexico, the traditions, and the economic potential that could benefit Cortés' upcoming conquest. However, through these recordings, we are able to see and understand Cortés'

The main ideas of chapter one was the conquest and exploration of the early America’s by the spaniards. Throughout the chapter, it explains the difficulties that the spanish explorers faced when attempting to conquer new lands. The primary problem the explorers faced was with the current inhabitants of the lands they wanted to conquer, especially with the cultural differences between populations. On article that exemplifies the cultural differences between the Native Americans and the Spanish Explorers is the third-person biographical narrative called “The Collision of Cultures.” The narrative gives the reader insight on what the indians and the explorers pre-judgement of one another, based off of what the parties believed with their religion and moral. This article’s reader would be

For example, in the 1690’s Jesuit priests introduced the Virgin Mary to a group of Indians where they emphasized the already existing notion of chastity, therefore assimilating Christianity with an already present concept. Other non-forcible means of spreading Christianity also existed. Puritan minister, John Eliot, translated the Bible into the local Indian language to gain converts. In these regards, the spread of Christianity fundamentally dismantled the inherent culture of Native Americans.

Yeah, this is reasonable to say, by introducing Christianity Spanish were saving Indians from slavery itself. According to the native american, Indian people have no freedom at all they are slave of themselves. Christianity was modern and superior in the society deals with freedom, they actually able to implies the modern society or new world to Indians through converting into Christianity.

Natives were humiliated and dehumanized. Spaniards did not see the huge genocide that was going on , they just saw the land they was stealing from the natives and the money they were getting out of it. Time past and more and more settled in what now is called the United States. The Englishmen have settled near the east coast when coming to the Americas. English settlements kept growing so they needed to wipe out the natives out to have the land. “Not able to enslave the Indians, and not able to live with them, the English decided to exterminate them” (page, 19). The Indians learned that Europeans were and will always be stronger than them. They learned that European weapons will always be more powerful then whatever they made. Europeans had guns, Indians had spares. Europeans were devious and trick Indians to turn to each other. Tribes were tricked by these masterminds and started conflicted with each other and battles. The Europeans had mass murdered the native Americans with no sympathy. The native Americans could not do anything about it so they had to listen to the European due to the fact they were more powerful. As for the Englishmen they used any type of excuse to get into war. Europeans called native Americans Indians because when Columbus arrived in America he believed that he was in India so he thought they were Indians, its in politically incorrect but calling them Indians is okay because they truly traveled from Asia to America

In 1490 there was no such country as spain, yet within a century it had become the most powerful nation in europe and within another century had sunk to the status of a third rate power. Describe and analyze the major social economic and political reasons for spains rise and fall.

The fascinating and beautiful country of Spain is one of the largest countries in Europe. The history that Spain has had has left great stories to tell and remarkable landmarks to visit. Spain is located in the south west corner of Europe, with its neighboring countries, Portugal and France. It has a population of forty million plus people, but almost one-third of the nation’s population is foreigners that reside in its territory. One of the most important facts about Spain is that its economy is one of the largest in the world. Spain is currently in a recession, with low employment rates and poverty.