Spanish Colonialism Summary

Slavery, Colonialism, and the Catholic Church

Slavery in the New World and the Spanish and Portuguese Catholic priesthood are directly tied correlated in the history of Latin America. The enslavement and atrocious treatment of the Indigenous peoples and Africans by the Spanish and Portuguese nobility were both similar and different. By examining “A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies” by social reformer and Dominican friar, Bartolomé de Las Casas, and excerpts from Robert Conrad’s “Children of God,” we are able to look into the treatment and “black legend” descriptions of the enslaved peoples by the Iberian colonists. The Spanish treated their captives brutally, regardless of the slaves’ origin. In contrast, the difference
The Spanish had two goals in mind during Indian assimilation. On one side, they had secular conquistadors who wanted the Indians to work to death and, on the other, they had priests working to convert the Indians. This even extended to the prisoners set for execution, such as Hatuey who “was tied to the stake, [when] a Franciscan friar who was present, a saintly-man, told him as much as he could in the short time permitted by his executioners about the Lord and about our Christian faith, all of which was new to him” (De Las Casas 28). Spanish colonists installed haciendas, which were ranches and plantations that were used for forced labor. The Spanish also built missions that were utilized to protect Indians from colonists and learn Christianity in a spiritual place. Missions expanded the Spanish frontier and penetrated into Indian Territory. These establishments were the heart of the benevolent paternalism, which taught Indians to throw their culture away and be more like the colonists. From the Spanish perspective, society began to run more efficiently. There was no established system like this for the African slaves to assimilate, who instead were transported across the ocean and taken to places like the sugar