Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Gillard
A.P. US History
1 September 2006
English Settlers vs. Spanish Settlers
When Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World, he met Native
Americans, and in the beginning treated them with honor and respect, but as time wore
on, relations between the Spanish settlers and the Native Americans began to change, and
for the worse. Their relationship with the Natives was different than the English settlers’
that came after them.
When the Spanish conquistadors, or conquerors arrived in the West Indies and
Central America, they had only a few goals that they wished to achieve, and one of the
was to find gold. When they met the Natives of the land they were exploring, the
conquistadors saw that the Natives had an abundance of gold, but instead of trying to
barter and trade for the gold, more often than not, the Natives were attacked and the gold
was forcibly taken. So forcibly, in fact, that one such event even led to complete
destruction of the Aztec people by Hernan Cortes, a Spanish conquistador in search of
gold.
Another instance where the Spanish cruelty to the Native peoples of the New
World is evident took place in what is now Florida. Hernando de Soto traveled to the
Florida coast and began to explore, in search of gold, but only found swamps, rough
terrain and Natives. De Soto and his men enslaved the Native men and raped the women
while they searched for food and water. Often, his men would burn the villages and set up
the Christian cross on the Natives’ sacred ground. De Soto and his men traveled along the
Appalachian Mountains, the Mississippi River and across the Midwest, where he
eventually died, but not before wiping out an entire tribe of Mauvila.
In the southern colonies, such as Georgia and Virginia, before black African
slaves were used, Native Americans were often enslaved to work on plantations. That only
lasted until the Dutch began the slave trade of African slaves.
Throughout the middle colonies of Maryland and Rhode Island, a war known a
King Phillips War took place. Thousands of Indians, as well as English were killed, all
because the English were pushing the Natives out of their homeland.
Even though the southern colonies were cruel to the Natives, the Northern
colonies had a different approach to the Native Americans when they arrived in North
America. In Pennsylvania, relations between the English and Natives was so good, the
English even trusted the Indians to babysit their children. The Indians were allowed to
walk and socialize with the English, and peace was kept and honored. No one betrayed
each other.
Both Spanish and English settled the Americas, and at times both were cruel to
the Native Americans that they encountered, but some of the English still managed to be
truly kind and friendly to the Natives.