Compare And Contrast Cherokee And Mayans

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The Europeans colonized the Mayans and the Cherokees for similar reasons but both tribes had differences and similarities The Mayans lived in Guatemala, Belize, a portion of El Salvador and Honduras, Yucatán, Campeche and Chiapas. They developed one of the most advanced aboriginal civilizations. The Mayan civilization was divided into three periods: the preclassic (2000 BC–AD 250), the classic (250–900), and the postclassic (900–1500). The Spanish colonization of the Maya began in 152; it took them 170 to fully colonize them. The Cherokee were form the North American, they constituted of the largest politically integrated tribes at the time of the European colonization. The Cherokee nation was composed of two towns, the red and the white. The …show more content…

They both were colonized by the Spanish, which means that they used the same systems that they created. One of the systems that the Spanish created was the “Encomienda”. The system was used by the Spanish crown that attempted to define the status of the Indian and the Mayan population. This system was based on the practice of exacting tribute form Jews and Muslims throughout the “Reconquista” of Muslim Spain. The initial intent of the “Encomienda” was to reduce the exploitations of forced labor that was used shortly after the discovery of the New World; this then became a form of enslavement. “An encomienda consisted of a grant by the crown to a conquistador, soldier, official, or others of a specified number of Indians living in a particular area.” (Encyclopedia Britannica). The person that received the grant, could exact tribute from the Indians in golf, in kind or in labor. It was required to protect them and instruct them in the Christian belief. The encomienda did not incorporate a grant of land but it did gained control of the Indian’s lands and did not fulfill the obligations to the Indian and Mayan population. The crown attempted to end the server abuses of the system with the laws of Burgos and the New Law of the Indies. The encomienda was manly created to meet the requirements of the colonies’ in the early mining economy. The tremendous decline in the Indian and Mayan population and the replacement of mining by agriculture, the system lost its effectiveness and was changed by the hacienda system of landed estates. The encomienda was abolished in the late 18th