English and Spanish Relations With the Native Americans
The purpose of this paper is to prove that although both the English and the Spanish saw the natives as uncivilized and vulnerable savages; ultimately, the English, more so than the Spanish, took advantage of these characteristics to lead to bad relations with the Native Americans. Whereas the Spanish settlers, who forced Catholicism on the Pueblos and tried to obliterate Indian practices, ended their problems with hopes of peace, the English took over land with no effort at reconciliation with the Narragansett tribe. When the English first arrived in New England in the mid 1600?s, they were much amused at the Indians responses to their European culture. The natives were impressed with European technology and soon expressed a desire to experience the new bits of customs that had arrived on their shores. When the English saw that the natives venerated them for their new and interesting technology as almost supernatural in basis, they perceived this as bond that would be carried throughout settlement. Similarly, good intentions were met in the southwest part of the land where the Spanish sent Franciscan friars into the area of New Mexico to spread the Catholic faith. Beginning their expanse, they were welcomed by the Puebl
After a futile attempt at reconstructing English and Narragansett ties, Miantomi called for unification among Indians against the English. News of this remark was sent to New England with a fatal result of the assassination of Miantomi. The English made no endeavor to re-establish relations between the two groups, and as the Narragansetts would see, all the astonishing opportunities and accomplishments offered by the English settlements proved to be a catastrophe. Whereas land and settlement was the foremost important initiative on English minds, religion and power claimed the thoughts of the Spanish. They played upon the beliefs of the Indians that the Spanish were gods. Accounts described instances when the natives brought the sick to the Spanish so they could heal them with their supernatural powers. The Spanish kept up this charade even to the point when they would conceal their dead in hope that the Indians would perceive them immortal. Along with the Franciscan?s religious practices, this drive to control Indian life met an abrupt end when a period of drought took over the land and the natives recognized that the Franciscan religious aspects were not as supernatural as they thought. If they were not able to control the natural world, their religion was certainly no better than what the Indians had practiced before. Now was the time that the Indians felt the call to renew their own religion and devotion to the gods, and in 1680, the Pueblos rose up to stamp out the Spanish. With a distancing relationship between the two cultures, the English wasted no time in spreading their settlements into Indian territory. As several epidemics brought on by the English swept the coast of New England, the Indian population diminished and sent survivors trailing east. This gave the English t
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1221
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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