Colonialism And Religion Analysis

When the first colonist arrived in the Americas, they were astonished by many aspects of this new world. The encounter’s they had with the natives of the area was met with great deal of brutality due to conflicting ideologies. The vast differences between the natives and the Europeans was not well accepted by the first explorers. Many of the first explorers were missionaries who wanted to convert the indigenous to Catholicism, but once they started to observe the culture and beliefs system they readily condemned them as evil, backwards even. The colonist used theological ideologies to defend the brutality that they used against the Indigenous people. Spaniards like Juan Lopez Palacios Rubios claimed that they were helping to shape the barbaric …show more content…
Many atrocities have been, and still claim to be for some type of theological ideology. There are many moral and ethical values instilled in core religious values, many of which also consider the brutal conquest of the Americas and the enslavement of the natives as an utterly unethical and immoral act. There were many influential religious figures that were advocates for the rights of the natives. Often they used religion as a vector to display the immorality of actions taken by the Spaniards and Portuguese in the Americas. Fray Las Casas advocated for the human rights of the Indigenous, for he believed that the actions taken by the Spaniards were deplorable. They were committing an abominable sin in the brutality that the conquest and the enslavement of the Natives. Las Casas was a very influential figure that had close ties with King Charles V. The King who had such strong religious beliefs was quick to agree with Las Casas, for fear of having weight on his conscious. This was due to the unholiness of the actions that were taking place in the New World, according to the Fray. Because of this, new laws were passed that which were made to help ensure the natural rights and well being of Native people. With this initial step, the conditions that the Natives found themselves slightly began to …show more content…
They complied their resettlement into the pueblos. When King Philip, the son of King Charles V, took reign he inherited the territories conquered by Spain, he issued a questionnaire to be complete throughout all of the communities within his territory. Questions about geography, ecology, climate, vegetation, agriculture, culture and language, and the history of the people and the land. The King wanted to have detailed information about his territory, which served as great source of primary sources for historians to put together the puzzle of the past. All sorts of information made its way back to Europe. Everything from their perceived moral/personal characteristics, to what they produced and what they traded. While appropriating and learning to adapt to the changes, the Natives were still able to hold on to some aspects of their culture throughout the intentional destruction of their culture and belief system. Many natives towns governed themselves with civility, and many of them had learned trades that were practiced amongst the