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Spanish Colonization Essay

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Early colonization of North America can be categorized by three distinct groups: English French and Spanish. Between the years 1598 and 1763, all three of these groups settled into new territory in the hopes of gaining wealth and power. Each group had an approach to the problems faced in the New World. Factors such as native relations or religion played their role in shaping each colony. However, when the French decided to compromise with the Natives over land, their colonies failed; as opposed to the British and Spanish who exploited their Native populations and achieved successful settlements. From the moment English settlers arrived in America, there were conflicts between them and the natives. One of the earliest examples was the mystery …show more content…

When Hernan Cortes set out to conquer the Aztecs in 1521, he had help from surrounding kingdoms. Both the English and the Spanish also had a secret upper hand during their conquests. “The smallpox epidemic, which killed more then 40% of [the Aztecs] population” was a crucial instrument in ensuring European conquest of the Americas (Herman, lecture). The Spanish then bound the native peoples to the encomienda system. The encomiendas “oblig[ate] the natives to the encomiendero, they are essential his servants” (Herman, lecture). In exchange for a land grant, the natives had to work on the fields, pay a tax and serve as soldiers for the landowner. Theoretically, the owner was supposed to establish schools and have a priest minister and convert the natives. However, “there are all sorts of abuse. It 's a very horrific system of labor exploitation” (Herman, lecture). Conclusively the encomienda system was the Spanish method of exploiting native labor and land for their personal wealth. This was not their only means of prosperity, “Spanish colonization was a success by one measure: wealth--in the form of precious metals. By 1650, over 181 tons of gold and 16,000 tons of silver had been shipped from the Americas to Spain.” (Chapter 2, Section 1.4). Through conquest and looting, American metals soon made up a quarter of Spain 's

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The Spanish adopted coerced labor systems including the mi’ta, a system that was already established in indigenous societies. As described in Document 3, the indigenous people had to climb ladders with bags of ore and described other harsh conditions. This document was written by a Spanish priest who came to the Americas to convert the Natives, so he most likely had a more sympathetic view of the indigenous working conditions than other Spanish explorers. Such working conditions were also drawn out in Document 6, where a camp can be seen near the mines and indigenous people helping to take care of the camels. Both documents show a shift in traditional indigenous society as the Spanish make them work in the mines.

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Due to the different natural resources (ranging from beaver fur to medicinal herbs) available in the colonies, the patterns of interaction greatly varied between the European settlers and the Native Americans depending on the location. Before 1775, in New York, the interactions centered primarily around trading fur or war weapons. However, although the settlers and natives in the New Spain region traded herbs for manufactured herbal medicine, the settlers mainly focused their time on spreading their religion and starting mission trails throughout California. In the eighteenth century, the interactions between the Europeans settlers and the Native Americans in New York and New Spain developed in the same manner overtime since every group wanted to strengthen their regions politically and economically by creating alliances and promoting trade to increase their mother country’s global footprint; however, they did differ due to how the Europeans in the west mainly came to North America in pursuit of independence while the settlers of New Spain wanted to spread their religion and the Spanish Empire to the new lands.

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