In 1492, Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer, initiated colonization by Europe in the New World when he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. English and Spanish colonies grew to become very different from one another with frequent similarities. The Spanish colonies and New England greatly differed in terms of control by a European government, were both vastly similar and extremely different in terms of religion, and were largely similar in terms of treatment of indigenous people.
The Spanish colonies and New England were slightly similar and greatly different in terms of control by European government due to supporting their European country and their acceptance of European religion. The Spanish colonies and New England …show more content…
The Spanish colonies and New England had largely similar views on intermarrying with the native tribes. In the Spanish colonies, colonists started to form relationships with the indigenous people. With the almost completely male population of conquistadors being sent to the Americas from Spain, the conquerors began to marry and have children with the indigenous women. These children, with one Spanish parent and one native parent, were called Mestizos. The child would be considered white if the father was Spanish, but if the father was a native then the child was illegitimate. Mestizo children started to bring about a race-based social order with whites being superior, mestizos in the middle, and Native Americans at the bottom. In New England, intermarriage between a colonist and a native was mainly because of the goal to change the natives’ culture. According to Ann Marie Plane, professor of colonial North America at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in Colonial Intimacies, the colonists frowned upon the indigenous peoples’ practices of premarital sex, polygyny, and easy divorce which were viewed as sins. To change the natives’ ways, the colonists started to marry the natives. The English used these marriages as a way to get the natives to change their ways voluntarily by marrying into a Puritan community. Like the colonies’ views on intermarrying with the native tribes, the Spanish and English were also largely similar in terms of enslaving the native people. The Spanish were nearly completely reliant on slavery. In Spanish colonies, the encomienda system, forcing the Indians to work for and pay tribute to the Spanish in return for protection and entrance into heaven through conversion to Catholicism, were placed upon the natives.
The Spanish colonies and New England were slightly similar and greatly different in terms of control by European government due to supporting their European country and their acceptance of European religion. The Spanish colonies and New England …show more content…
The Spanish colonies and New England had largely similar views on intermarrying with the native tribes. In the Spanish colonies, colonists started to form relationships with the indigenous people. With the almost completely male population of conquistadors being sent to the Americas from Spain, the conquerors began to marry and have children with the indigenous women. These children, with one Spanish parent and one native parent, were called Mestizos. The child would be considered white if the father was Spanish, but if the father was a native then the child was illegitimate. Mestizo children started to bring about a race-based social order with whites being superior, mestizos in the middle, and Native Americans at the bottom. In New England, intermarriage between a colonist and a native was mainly because of the goal to change the natives’ culture. According to Ann Marie Plane, professor of colonial North America at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in Colonial Intimacies, the colonists frowned upon the indigenous peoples’ practices of premarital sex, polygyny, and easy divorce which were viewed as sins. To change the natives’ ways, the colonists started to marry the natives. The English used these marriages as a way to get the natives to change their ways voluntarily by marrying into a Puritan community. Like the colonies’ views on intermarrying with the native tribes, the Spanish and English were also largely similar in terms of enslaving the native people. The Spanish were nearly completely reliant on slavery. In Spanish colonies, the encomienda system, forcing the Indians to work for and pay tribute to the Spanish in return for protection and entrance into heaven through conversion to Catholicism, were placed upon the natives.