Lope De Aguirre's Crew

Throughout the decades, numerous expeditions have made contact with indigenous people. When it comes to the different crews of the expeditions, they differ when it comes to the attitude and treatment of natives. This paper will focus on the contrast between Lope de Aguirre’s crew and the Rondon Commission. The first difference involves the goal of integration versus enslavement. The Rondon Commission view themselves as “agents of change” and believes in the eventual integration of the natives ("Science to Build," 2012). The Umutina group serves as a prime example of the Commission’s implementation of their goal of integration. The documentary considers the Umutina group to be “very integrated” into society, to the point where they seek to …show more content…
As stated earlier, the Rondon Commission seeks to integrate the natives as opposed to recruiting them as slaves. With the Commission’s goal in mind, they avoided “physical aggression” ("Science to Build," 2012). To put it simply, the Rondon Commission feels that coercion via force is unnecessary and the natives will eventually be “won over” to the civilized way of life ("Science to Build," 2012). In regards to Aguirre’s crew, physical force is definitely utilized. The crew uses their guns, cannons, and swords against the natives throughout the expedition. As a result, many lives were lost. Furthermore, one specific incident serves to highlight how Aguirre’s crew treats the natives. In that one incident, a native misunderstands the priest and tries to listen to the bible for the “word of the god.” When he fails to hear anything and says that the bible does not speak, the crew is quick to react in anger and proceed to apprehend the native (Herzog, 1972). Overall, there is no doubt about the fact that Aguirre’s crew treats the natives in a heavy-handed manner. The Rondon Commission, however, prefers not to utilize physical threat to force the natives to change their