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Similarities Between Spain And New England Colonies

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In a time when European countries were prompted to explore the New World, two countries in particular had a desire to control not only Europe, but the world. The Age of Exploration occurred between the fifteenth and seventh century and led to the discovery of the Americas, which was called the New World at the time. During this time, countries such as Spain and England had citizens travel to the New World for multiple reasons yet had both similarities and differences in both of the country's new colonies. It was in this context that the Spanish and British colonies in the New World were both dramatically alike and different by the differences in the colonies’ religious practices, the similarity of the harsh treatment of Indigenous people through …show more content…

Both of the colonies wanted religious conversions from the Native Americans. The Spanish colonist were very forceful with converting Native Americans to Christianity. Spanish conquerors, called conquistadors, travelled with the armed Spanish Military as well as Roman Catholic Dominican or Franciscan Friars to force religious conversion to any Native American village in the newly claimed Spanish colony. In the New England colonies, leaders of Wampanoag tribes were forced to sign their land over to the English at gunpoint. In addition, select Native American villages were turned into “Praying Towns”, in which the English would convert all of the Native Americans into the Puritan religion and force the Native Americans to give up all of the native traditions. These differences occurred because of the strong beliefs of the colonist. In both the Spanish and English colonies, the colonist believed that their religion was the correct religion, whether that be Catholic in the Spanish colonies or Puritan in the New England Colonies. However, one way that the Spanish and New England colonies varied in their treatment of the Native Americans was the use, or lack of use, of forced labor in the colonies. The Spanish colonies thrived off of the use of Native American labor through the Encomienda system. The Encomienda system granted the forced labor of Native Americans to the owner of the land in the colony. Through this system, the Spanish colonies were able to thrive, however it was deadly to the Native American population. For Native Americans who resisted the Encomienda system, they were killed and in some cases, to the near extinction of a tribe. Noteable, the Indigenous Taino People rebelled against the Spanish and succeeded a peace treaty, however lost ninety percent of their tribe. Meanwhile, the New England colonies hardly used forced labor from the Native

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