Compare and contrast the differences in the treatment of indigenous people in the British and Spanish colonies.

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CINDY CHENG

In my presentation I’m going to compare and contrast the differences in the treatment of indigenous people in the British and Spanish colonies.   (click)

        First are goals and motives on why they wanted to find and conquer new lands.  For Spanish, it was late 1400’s and they had just unified Spain and won the war against the Muslims.  During peace time, the Spanish did not have much to do so they want expand Spain’s power and control, spread Christianity and find gold, trade routes, and new land.  The Spaniards wanted to find as much gold and profitable resources as they can so they will be rich and the mother country would award them high social status and titles.  The Spaniard’s biggest goal besides the getting all the gold and glory was the conversion of the natives from their Indian religion to Christianity. (click)

While on one hand, the Spanish was trying very hard to convert the natives and explore new land, the British had some close, but different goals.  They did not care weather or not the natives convert to Christianity, they went to explore new land for their own selfish goals.  They wanted to settle in the new world, create their communities, find gold, and gain power.  (click)

Now I’m going to talk about the treatment of the indigenous people.  In the beginning, the Spanish killed many natives in Spanish America, like what they did to the Aztecs and Incas.  They just went into the Spanish empires and read their El Requiremento that basically said the Conquistadors were there to killed them and take their land. The Spaniards killed many natives, but they also tried to convert the natives to Christians because Queen Isabella established the policy that Indians who accepted Christianity were free crown subjects.  Those who did not could be sold into slavery.”  They also had the Encomienda system that was establish to help the conquistadors and the natives.  It was a labor system where the Conquistadors take good care of the natives and teach the native Christian ways while the natives worked for the Conquistador.  However, many Conquistadors ignored the “take good care of the native’s part and instead, the natives were treated like slaves.

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And that’s why there were rumors like the Black Legend and mistreatment of natives. The “Black Legend” described the cruelty of the Spaniards towards the natives.  Gregory Cerio mentioned in his article, “Were the Spaniards that cruel?” About how badly the natives were treated.  He quoted a soldier in the army of Cortes who later wrote a history of the conquest of Mexico, the soldier said, “We came here to serve God, and also to get rich.”  There were also details about the how Spaniards hanged natives in groups of 13 and then lit fires beneath them.  It was pretty ...

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