History Unit 2 - The Spanish Conquest of New World

The blending was quite real at the personal level.

About 250,000 Spanish men, mostly from the impoverished southern region of Andalusia migrated to the New World during the 16th century; another 200,000 came in the years 1600 to 1650. Since few Spanish women migrated to the New World, the newly arrived settlers married Indians and Africans. These unions produced mestizos and mulattos respectively.

The Glorious Revolution and the Rights of Englishmen

After England emerged from Civil War in the 1660s, Parliament recalled the Stuarts to the throne. At this time, the Anglican Church, partially reformed, reclaimed its position as the established Church.

The introduction of alcohol to native communities accelerated deterioration of community life.

Alcohol was not a part of Indian culture before Europeans arrived. One could say that the Indian response was tobacco, to which Europeans became addicted in great numbers. The Indians enjoyed none of the benefits of this addiction.

Beyond organization there was theology.

All of the Calvinist reformers rejected the Divine presence in the Eucharist and accepted as central to their faith, Calvin's doctrine of and predestination. Predestination holds that God alone has already; determined who is saved and who is damned. No human action could change that. Those who were among the elect would receive the grace to enable them to have a conversion experience. The priesthood was needed to mediate that experience and only God could know the validity of that experience.

The Spanish Conquest of New World

As soon as Europeans arrived in America, it became apparent to the Native Americans that the newcomers would effect profound and mostly destructive changes on North American Society. In the West Indies where the Spanish established their first permanent settlements, Indian populations were practically wiped out in a generation. Most of this was due to the spread of smallpox, which Europeans carried without effect on most. However Native Americans, never exposed to smallpox, did not have immunity to the disease. On Hispañola (the island that today includes Haiti and the Dominican Republic) there were 1 million people in 1492. In 1542 500 of these were still alive. In 1518 Cortés' expedition carried the smallpox epidemic to the mainland. The effect on the Aztecs was devastating.

The Conquistadores in México

As the explorers began to realize that they had stumbled on a new continent, large numbers of young Spaniards came to the Indies to seek their fortunes. These conquistadores were mostly from minor Spanish noble or hidalgo families whose prospects at home were quite limited. They were interested in adventure and in gold that would transform their lives, allow them to retire to Spain and live as "big men."

To China via Québec

Before the French founded New Orleans, they had already established themselves in Canada. In 1534 the French King Francis I, still searching for that elusive route to China, sent Jacques Cartier on a quest to find a northwest passage around or through North America. After seeing the barren Newfoundland and Labrador coasts, Cartier's spirits were raised by the wide St. Lawrence. He got as far as Montréal and discouraged by Canada's harsh winters, he headed home in 1542.

While some English colonial ventures sought to limit incursions onto Indian lands, the original intents of the leaders were overturned by the large numbers of settlers. When he established Pennsylvania in the 1680s as a colony for Quakers, William Penn made treaties with Indians and respected them.

But many non-Quaker Europeans especially Scotch-Irish, Palatine Germans and Swiss Protestants who settled in Pennsylvania had less regard for Penn's agreements and Indians were pushed westward (Norton, 48). Lacking resources and a presence in remote areas, there was little that the colonial governments could do to control the settlers.

The Origins of Hispano-American Cultures

By the middle of the 16th century The Spanish, without a great deal of trouble, had subdued the advanced civilizations of what is today Latin America. While much remained unexplored, the Spanish crown began to establish systems that would ensure a permanent presence in America. The

Disease

Disease limited their options. It is difficult to ascertain exactly how many Native Americans lost their lives to diseases that the Europeans brought. Anecdotal evidence is available. Some estimates are available for the Basin of Mexico, the area round present-day Mexico City. The population in 1530-1535 was approximately 750,000 to 1,000,000. In 1568 the highest estimate for the same area is 400,000 (Hause and Maltby, 397).

Charles' actions continued to fuel opposition. He attempted to rule in a high-handed manner and in 1638 Charles faced armed rebellion in Scotland. Parliament refused his demands for money.

Finally he fled London and was pursued by an army under Parliament's control. Within Parliament Independents and Presbyterians struggled. This fueled the migration of many thousands to English colonies in the West Indies and about 10,000 in the years up to 1640 to Massachusetts Bay. Those in Massachusetts were dedicated and industrious.

Florida and the Southeast

Florida and the Gulf Coast of today's Southern United States was a natural destination for conquistadores once the islands of the West Indies were conquered. In 1513 Juan Ponce de Léon reached Florida. Hernán DeSoto explored the southern Mississippi River and present day Alabama and Mississippi from 1539 to 1542. In 1565 the Spanish founded St. Augustine in Florida, the oldest permanent European settlement in present-day United States. In general, Native Americans in this inhospitable region were hostile to missionaries and conquerors.

Metacom, a Wampanoag chief, known to the English settlers as King Philip, was troubled by the encroachment on ancestral lands.

He led several tribes to attack in 1676, Connecticut River valley settlements as well as Plymouth and Providence. The Indians were badly beaten in what came to be known as "King Phillips's War." Most of the remaining Indians were sold into slavery and this ended the power of New England coastal tribes. Those who survived abandoned the hunting and trading economy to became part of New England village life

This frequent intermarriage indicated a greater tolerance of racial differences than would be seen in British North America.

However social differences arose over ancestry. Persons born in the New World even those of Spanish parentage (criollos) were regarded as socially inferior to natives of the mother country (peninsulares) (Divine 19-20). Everywhere in the Spanish New World European, Native American, and African cultures blended differently. The evidence is the rich diversity of Hispano-American cultures today

The English Protestants had compromised.

However, by moving to New England Separatists and Puritans, had accepted the idea that compromise was not necessary. As New England prospered, there was no reason to think that God was not with them, that these commonwealths in the wilderness were indeed commonwealths of the elect.

Both fur traders and missionaries were dependent on the good will of the Indians. To a great extent these expectations were met.

However, it was difficult to attract French peasants and urban artisans to this inhospitable climate. (Divine 23) The French crown was half-hearted in its support of this venture.

In Virginia settlers moved on to the rich lands north of York River that the colonial government had reserved for the Indians.

In 1676, led by Nathaniel Bacon, settlers intruded on to these territories. Gov. Berkeley declared Bacon to be in rebellion. Bacon marched on Jamestown and forced Governor Berkeley to flee. While Bacon died of dysentery, the rebellion collapsed, and English soldiers restored the colonial government. Gradually the western lands were opened up to settlement.

While political instability continued until 1688, the two Stuart monarchs who ruled during that time gave considerable attention to development of the navy

In 1688 Parliament deposed James II (r. 1685-1688), a convert to Roman Catholicism and installed a solidly Protestant couple, William of Orange and his wife Mary. Parliament finally and clearly declared that it was the senior partner in its relationship with the monarchy.

The End of the Hunting and Trading Economy in the East

In addition to dealing with disease, Native Americans had to deal with the endless intrusions into their lands. Unlike the French and Dutch, who saw the natives of the interior of North America as trading partners, the English saw them as a threat to permanent settlement of immigrants. For example, the Pequots in Connecticut River valley found that when English settlers came to establish commercial agriculture, their hunting patterns were disrupted. The Pequots had been supplying furs to the Dutch and French traders. The Pequot War in 1637 was fought to establish an old order in Connecticut, not when Native Americans were alone on the continent, but an order that was friendlier to their way of life.

When James died and his son Charles I (r. 1625) came to the throne, some Puritans came to realize that their mission of purifying the established Church was becoming nearly impossible.

In ritual and in organization, the arrogant Charles appeared to be "re-Catholicizing" the Anglican Church. In 1630 a group of about 1000 Puritans under John Winthrop obtained a charter to establish a colony on Massachusetts Bay. They too were looking to establish a new society which was pure and removed from the corruptions of the mother country.

Despite the accommodation that was reached in New France, many Indians resisted Europeanization.

In the mid 1670s the governor-general of France Louis de Baude de Frontenac decided to expand New France's reach to the south and west and hoped to establish a trade route to Mexico and increase the territory from which furs, the lifeblood of the colony could be drawn. He hoped to capitalize on LaSalle's explorations of the Mississippi River and those of Father Marquette and Joliet on the Great Lakes. This brought the French into conflict with the powerful Iroquois Confederacy of five, later six Indian nations.

Mary's sister Elizabeth assumed the throne in 1558 and initiated reconciliation. This Elizabethan settlement provided for a moderate state supported Anglo-Catholic Church independent of Rome.

It allowed all Protestants to practice without interference. A religious peace prevailed which allowed England Protestantism of all flavors to flourish. Even Roman Catholics were left alone if they remained discreet.

Efforts were dominated by Jesuits, called Black Robes by the Indians. Initially the fathers tried to convince the Indians to live near French settlements and adopt agriculture.

Later the Black Robes who learned the Indian languages and lived among the Indians in French missionaries, found that it was more effective to live among the Indians. The Jesuits used considerable ingenuity to further their cause. With their eloquence, immunity form smallpox and ability to transmit messages by writing, they were able to undermine the authority of the shamans, the traditional religious leaders and convert the Indians.

On Cape Cod chickenpox ravaged from 1616 to 1618, killing perhaps 90% of the Indians there.

Native Americans, appear to have given Europeans syphilis and by 1505, this disease was transmitted to China (Norton, 20). The discovery of the Americas by Europeans brought the American Indian into a global economy and into contact with global diseases.

French-Indian Reciprocity

Many Indians took well to Christianity and eventually moved into reserves set up for Christian Indians. Life changed in these places. The traditional equality that men and women enjoyed in Indian culture gave way to European customs of male dominance. Premarital sexual relations and easy divorce were also prohibited. (Norton, 23-24) Catholic nuns established schools for women and only here, could Indian women enjoy some semblance of equality.

Groups of families applied for grants to establish towns which the colonies granted. Each family would receive a parcel of land. Each town also had church land, common pasture and woodlots.

New Haven, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island adopted the same system. In Maine, where the idea of "commonwealth" and "covenant" fell on more cynical ears, land was granted to large companies which sold it off to settlers. As Massachusetts Bay Colony began to organize itself the joint stock company evolved into a semblance of modern government with representation for each town in the General Court (legislature). There was a judiciary and an Executive Council to advise the royal governor. Church and state were never far apart.

The Diversity of North American Indian Culture

North Americans considered themselves all as separate people. There were 5 million in North America upon arrival of Europeans speaking over 1000 languages. Thus a unified response to European incursions was not possible.

Priests and soldiers, isolated here from the Spanish centers of power lacked the resources to impose the colonial order.

Often priests and governors, the latter more closely associated with economic interests, disagreed on how the Indians should be treated. Santa Fé remained an isolated outpost of Spanish civilization. In this environment an interesting blend of Native American and European culture developed, which can still be experienced there today

Puritans and Separatists

On this issue James clashed with several groups of reformers. Most of the English purifiers or Puritans wanted to dismantle the episcopal structure of the established Anglican Church in favor of congregational or local control over churches, an important feature of the Calvinist reformation. These were called the Independents (Hause and Maltby, 412). Others, called Presbyterians, favored organization above the local level, but congregational control at the local level. The Presbyterians were especially strong in Scotland, the home of King James.

The Virginia effort very much resembled Spanish and French ventures; the objective was to exploit natural resources by extracting minerals or timber, growing plantation crops or trading with the Indians for commodities in demand in Europe.

Plymouth Colony, established in 1621 and Massachusetts Bay in 1630 were something quite different.

Most French settlements were military garrisons which served as bases for missionaries.

Since few French women migrated to New France, there were many unions between French men and Indian women, thus creating mixed-race people know as métis.

Once they had subdued the Indies and destroyed the Carib and Taino populations there, they turned their attention, under the leadership of Hernán Cortés to Mexico where rumors abounded of an empire of gold.

The Aztec emperor Montezuma at Quetzalcoatl (Mexico City) first regarded Cortés as a god. Native Americans had never seen horses, armored men and gunfire. Malinche (Malinalli) was presented as a gift to Cortés. She acted as his translator and mistress. She not only translated but she imparted cultural context to the words. The controversial question to this day is whether she betrayed her people or helped to make life better for them by helping them to accommodate to the inevitable European domination. Like many Native Americans of that time she quickly became disconnected from her own culture. However, she was not wholeheartedly welcomed into European culture either. Cortés never married her and her position was always ambiguous. She was caught between two worlds

The English Conquest of North America

The English were comparative latecomers to the exploitation of North America. Their efforts in the 16th century were minimal. In 1607 a settlement was established at Jamestown, Virginia.

The Iroquois sought to dominate the fur trade and gain unimpeded access to European traders. To do this they fought and dominated other Indian tribes. The French wished to trade directly with the Indians of the west, not through the Iroquois.

The French never wanted to subjugate the Indians or administer these western territories or even to establish permanent settlements there. They simply wanted to trade with and convert Indians to Catholicism. Because they brought European goods, the Indians in the Mississippi Valley, by and large, tolerated the French missionaries.

The breadth of conversion efforts was vast. It is difficult to say how deep the conversions were. In 1531 a newly converted Christian Juan Diego reported a vision of the Virgin, who in this apparition appeared as a dark-skinned Indian woman.

The Virgin of Guadelupe became a symbol of the blending of Native American and European cultures

Were the provisions of the settlement of 1688 applicable to the British colonies in America?

The colonists did not really participate in the discussion of this question. They developed their own institutions which gave the individual far more control over his own governmental and ecclesiastical order. As each colony grew, each developed its own interpretation of how these questions were to be handled. By 1688 a new generation of Massachusetts Puritans had grown up and taken charge. Many of them, born in America, had little knowledge and concern about events in England. While every colony had distinct origins which shaped its society, economy and culture, a growing distance from the mother country was something they all held in common. When the mother country became unified and determined to exercise its power, how would these colonials react?

New Mexico

The conflict over economic and religious priorities was an ongoing feature of Spanish America. Following on Francisco de Coronado's explorations 1540 to 1542, rumors of the seven golden cities of Cíbola probably drew Juan Oñate in 1598 to further explore and establish settlements in what is today the southwestern United States. At first, Pueblo Indians greeted the Spanish cordially. Exploitation, that is the establishment of the encomienda system, based not on gold, but on livestock raising aroused indignation among the local peoples.

The Crown granted the conquistadores vast tracts of land under the encomienda system.

The grantee was allowed to exploit these lands and the Indians who lived there in any way he wished. He was expected to give the Royal Treasury a share of the wealth and allow Spanish missionaries to Christianize the Native American population.

In 1630 Fray Alonso de Benavides brought news to Madrid that 80,000 Indians had converted to Catholicism.

These included nomadic Apaches, Navajos and the Pueblos around Santa Fé. Fray Alonso's report contained much wishful thinking. The reality was that the area around Santa Fé included about 1000 Catholics, including mestizos and 250 Spaniards. In 1626-29 at Picuris Pueblo near Santa Fé, Indians tried to murder priests.

On the Continent, Martin Luther (1483-1546) and John Calvin (1509-64) were carrying out much more drastic reforms of Christianity and many in England were interested in these.

These reforms even had official encouragement during the brief reign of his successor Edward VI (r 1547-1553). When Edward's sister Mary (r. 1553-1558) assumed the throne she, with the assent of Parliament, restored Catholicism to its official position and initiated persecution of the reformers. While the persecutions were limited, they earned her much enmity and the name "Bloody Mary."

Fishermen continued to exploit the rich Grand Banks and to trade with the Indians for beaver pelts.

These transactions did nothing to enrich the King's treasury. Only in 1608 did Samuel de Champlain set up a trading post on the St. Lawrence at what is today Québec City. The cliffs here allowed the French to easily defend the river from any incursions. In 1642 another settlement was established at Montréal the upper end, at that time, of the navigable part of the river.

The system presented many opportunities for abuse.

These were pointed out by a Dominican missionary, Fra Bartolomé de las Casas in his letter to King Carlos. The Crown initiated reforms to bring grater "love and moderation" to Spanish-Native American relations. The reach of the King was limited. It took 6 months to a year for correspondence to reach far-flung settlements.

Despite the legal break and the refusal to recognize papal authority, the English or Anglican Church retained many of the trappings of Roman Catholicism.

They continued to have an episcopal structure (bishops) and the liturgy remained virtually unchanged.

With civil war in England continuing from the 1640s until 1660, there was no imperial government to set rules for them. The English colonies in North America developed, on their own, a distinct Protestant Christian society dedicated to the idea of self-governance.

They embraced the idea of Covenant, the idea that God made an agreement with them to undertake a special mission to America and they covenanted with each other to work toward fulfilling that mission.

Indian wars were not easy.

They were formidable guerilla warriors and they knew the territory better than the Europeans. Guns, supplied by European traders, made them especially capable. Efforts to limit the sale of firearms to Indians were ineffective. If the Indians could not acquire guns from the English, the French or Dutch traders were more than willing to satisfy the demand.

There were occasional massacres of French missionaries. These incidents were tied in with the Iroquois-French power struggle in the Great Lakes. In present-day New York State, Dutch, English and French incited Indians to fight against each other. The Iroquois emerged as the power brokers.

They were supplied with guns by the Dutch and English which threatened Québec and missionaries. (Norton, 29) In 1670 France attempted to destroy the Iroquois confederacy. The best that could be done was in 1701, the Iroquois accepted neutrality treaties with France and England which lasted until 1750.

As part of the settlement of this "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 Parliament made it clear that Englishmen had certain natural rights, among them the right of representation in Parliament and the right to due process.

This English "Bill of Rights" contained no mention of freedom of religion but a separate Toleration Act allowed freedom of religion to any Protestant. While Calvinists and other religious dissenters were barred by custom from some of the very highest offices, their legal standing was equal to members of the Church of England. Except for Catholics, whose position was often (though not always) tenuous, freedom of religion was ensured in England

Another group, the Separatists, believed that it was not possible to purify the Anglican Church. It was necessary; for the elect to separate themselves from the corrupt established church.

This view was bolstered by James' marriage to a Catholic and his toleration of the old religion. About 125 Separatists left England in 1608 for Holland. They eventually settled in the city of Leyden and remained there for about 10 years. Dissatisfied with life in Leyden, they eventually made their way to Plymouth, Massachusetts. Here, with a grant from the Virginia Company, they consciously established themselves as a new and virtuous society to be permanently located in the wilderness.

Religious Background

To understand English settlement, we must understand the religious struggles that the English experienced at home in the 15th and 16th centuries. In his attempt to produce an heir, Henry VIII (r. 1509-1547), the staunch defender of the Catholic faith, tried to get the Pope to approve an annulment of his marriage to Catherine. While the pope refused to accommodate Henry, Parliament was more than willing. By 1534 all legal connections between Rome and the English Church were severed. Monastic and other Church property became state property.

The Establishment of New France

Twice in the 1560s French Protestants or Huguenots sought to escape from persecution in France by establishing colonies on the South Atlantic Coast. The first in present-day South Carolina collapsed and the starving inhabitants were rescued by a passing ship. Another was established near Jacksonville and was destroyed in 1565 by a Spanish expedition under Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and led to establishment of St. Augustine. (Norton, 22) The French were able to eventually acquire the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique and Haiti. In 1682 Sieur de La Salle explored the Mississippi River southward from New France to its mouth. The incursion of the French forced the Spanish to establish fortifications in Texas. (Ayers 83) For nearly two centuries, there was a power struggle for control of the Mississippi River. The French anchored their success here with the establishment of New Orleans in 1718.

When James I (r. 1603-1625) of the Scottish Stuart family, ascended to the throne, religious peace was compromised. James was a staunch Calvinist who commissioned the King James Version of the Bible in 1611 and transferred displaced Protestant Scottish farm people to Northern Ireland, challenging Catholic domination of Ireland. Many of the Scotch-Irish would find their way to the American colonies.

While James I was certainly in favor of "reforming" the Anglican (Anglo-Catholic) Church, that is, of cleansing it of its Roman Catholic trappings, he wanted to retain the hierarchical structure so that the King could retain control over the direction of the reformation.

In order to ensure continued French domination of North America in the face of increased English settlement along the Atlantic coast

it was necessary to attract settlers who were committed to staying. The coureurs de bois (forest runners) who roamed the northern rivers in search of furs, were not the type to establish themselves in permanent settlements.