Spanish Discovery and Colonial Life

US History Summary Historical Themes (HST 200) Spanish Discovery and Colonial Life Spain extended its colonial empire in the 1500s, including regions in the Americas that would eventually become the United States as well as the Philippines in the Far East. The Spanish had visions of converting multitudes of enthusiastic Native Americans to Catholicism and of mountains of gold and silver. They imagined a colonial society in which each person would be aware of their station. Spanish colonial culture was molded by patriarchy, or men's dominance over the home, community, and state. Women had a lesser standing. The Spanish believed that they were at the top of the social pyramid in all areas, and that Native Americans and Africans were at the bottom. However, aboriginal peoples and Africans disagreed with Spanish claims to domination. Native Americans suffered horrendous deaths as a result of the terrible illnesses the Spanish carried with them to every place they established, including smallpox. Native Americans were slain by European illnesses considerably more often than by Spanish swords. Native Americans' pre-colonial understanding of the universe was further shattered by Spanish colonial actions. In the territories they ruled, the Spanish enforced the encomienda system. Authorities used this method to assign Native laborers to plantation and mining owners on the condition that they would protect the colony and instill Christian values in the workforce. The encomienda system really harmed indigenous laborers. Eventually, the repartimiento, a colonial labor system that forced Native villages to provide a pool of labor for Spanish masters, supplanted it. Augustine Street, Florida Spain established itself in what is now Florida, considering the region and the regions north of it to be a natural extension of their power in the Caribbean. The region around what is now St. Augustine was seized by Juan Ponce de León for the Spanish crown in 1513, and the country was named Pascua Florida (Feast of Flowers, or Easter) in honor of the closest feast day. Though Ponce de León was unable to make the area his permanent home, by 1565 Spain needed an outpost to fight the French and English privateers who were using Florida as a base from which to assault Spanish ships carrying treasure on their way from Cuba to Spain. When a group of French Protestants (Huguenots) founded a tiny town north of St. Augustine that they named Fort Caroline in 1562, the danger to Spanish interests changed. Pedro Menéndez, a Spanish nobleman, launched an assault on Fort Caroline with King Philip II's approval, murdering most of the colonists and demolishing the fort. For the Spanish, destroying Fort Caroline had two benefits: it eliminated the French challenge to Spain's claim to the region and lessened the threat posed by French privateers. The battle for Florida serves as an example of how European rivalry, particularly the war between Catholics and Protestants over religion, permeated the Americas. The first European colony in the Americas, St. Augustine, was established in 1565 by the triumphant Menéndez. The nearby Timucua Natives were forced from their old settlement of Seloy, which had existed for thousands of years, by the Spanish during this process (Figure 3.3). The illnesses brought by the Spanish caused the Timucua people to drastically decline, from 200,000 or more before contact to 50,000 in 1590. There were just a thousand Timucua left by 1700. Similar to other Spanish conquered regions, Catholic priests endeavored to establish a spiritual conquest by compelling the remaining Timucua, who were traumatized and suffering from the terrible losses of their society and family, to become Catholics. For Spain's imperial rivals seeking access to the Caribbean, particularly the English, Spanish Florida presented an alluring prospect. Spanish colonists at St. Augustine learned how vulnerable they were to assault in 1586 when the town was destroyed by English pirate Sir Francis Drake, who had a fleet of twenty ships and one hundred soldiers. More wooden forts constructed by the Spanish over the course of the next several decades were destroyed by marauding European competitors. To further protect St. Augustine from attackers, the Spanish built Castillo de San Marcos, a stone fort, between 1672 and 1695. New Mexico's Santa Fe With the intention of extending their dominion, the Spanish in Mexico looked northward, into the Pueblo Native territory. Juan de Oñate scouted the American Southwest for Spain in the late 1590s, following King Philip II's instructions. The Spanish had high hopes for gold and silver in what is now known as New Mexico, but they received little value from the territory. Several Pueblo settlements were situated in Santa Fe, which was first known as La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís, or the “Royal City of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi,” when Spanish immigrants arrived there in 1610. The Kingdom of New Mexico, an outpost of the greater Spanish Viceroyalty of New Spain, with its headquarters located in Mexico City, made Santa Fe its capital. Franciscan missionaries worked to convert the Pueblo to Catholicism in an effort to bring about a spiritual conquest, much as they had done in other Spanish colonies. Initially, the Pueblo embraced the aspects of Catholicism that aligned with their enduring worldview. Spanish priests, on the other hand, infuriated the Pueblo by emphasizing the youth and separating them from their parents, insisting that the Indians completely abandon their traditional traditions. This severe insult, together with a protracted drought and a rise in raids by the Navajo and Apache in the area during the 1670s—distresses the Pueblo eventually came to attribute to the Spanish presence—pushed the Spanish and their religion out of the region. Pueblo chief Popé insisted on a return to indigenous practices in order to alleviate the suffering his people endured. It became clear to him and hundreds of others that “when Jesus came, the Corn Mothers went away.” The Spanish expulsion would result in a restoration to wealth and a clean, indigenous way of life. The Pueblo began a planned uprising against the Spanish in 1680. Almost two thousand Spanish settlers were forced to flee south into Mexico by the Pueblo Revolt, which also claimed the lives of almost four hundred of the remaining settlers. But when opposing tribes continued to assault and there were more droughts, the Spanish saw an opportunity to retake territory. They came again and reaffirmed their dominance over the region in 1692. Some Spanish said that the Devil was responsible for the Pueblo's triumph in 1680. They believed that while Satan had incited the Pueblo to turn against God's chosen people, the Spanish, together with their God, had ultimately triumphed.