Spanish Imperialism

Spanish Imperialism and Colonialism

https://prezi.com/mbk5xlqwss83/spanish-imperialism-and-colonialism/

  • conquistadors in the Americas similar to a volunteer militia rather than an organized military
    • supplied their own materials, weapons, and horses
    • firearms and steel gave advantages to the conquistadors over the native people
    • diseases, advanced military technology, and divide and conquer tactics gave Europeans the power to overcome the natives
  • Columbus saw his “accomplishments” in light of spreading Christianity
    • worked under the auspices of of the Catholic monarchs of Spain

http://www.americanjourneys.org/pdf/AJ-062.pdf

  • Spreading Christianity (cont)
    • able to convert “all the jews” from the Kingdoms of Europe, specifically Italy, in one month
    • wrote in his journal he believed the Natives could “easily be converted to Christianity”

Scammell, G. V. “Discovering New Americas.” The International History Review, vol. 15, no. 3, 1993, pp. 546–553. JSTOR. Web.

  • obsessed with converting everyone to Christianity
    • “Europeans were the apostles of a civilization whose hallmarks were cruelty, poverty, dirt, disease, bigotry, and racism, all basically stemming from an oppressive Christianity obsessed with the evils of the flesh.” (546-547)
  • white Europeans believed it was their god given right to rule over people of color and crush anyone that stood in their way
    • “Columbus opened the Americas to the white man and so set in train a tale of ‘devastation not previously witnessed in the entire history of the world’” (546)