1.6

• Spanish colonial dominance in the Americas fundamentally shaped the culture there
• How Spanish colonial dominance shaped culture in the Americas

  1. Expansion of Spanish empire northward after 1573

  2. Sending missionaries to convert natives to Christianity instead of soldiers to conquer with guns

  3. Establishing the mission system
• Differences between Spanish and Native American worldviews

  • Religion: Natives were pantheists and animists, Spanish had hierarchical Catholic Christianity
  • Land use: Natives saw land as spiritual, Spanish saw it as a commodity for private ownership
  • Family: Natives had extended kinship networks, Spanish had nuclear families
• Both groups adopted parts of the other's culture that they found useful
• Differences between the two groups held pride of place, leading to misunderstandings
• Conversion of Pueblo people to Christianity

  • Pueblo incorporated Christ into their pantheon of gods, retained native religious practices
  • Some native groups resisted conversion, kept practices secret
  • Pueblo revolt in 1610 against Spanish rule and Christianity
• King Charles convened a group to discuss the moral and legal fallout of Spanish conquest in the Americas
• Perspectives on Spanish conquest of the Americas

  • Arguments for the inferiority and backward nature of the Indians, and that conquest was good for them
  • Voices defending the dignity of the Indians, led by Bartolome de las Casas
• De las Casas argued natives ought not be put under the heavy yoke of the encomienda system, but suggested Africans replace them in forced labor
• Africans bore the weight of enslaved labor in the Americas and much of the Western Hemisphere from then on