User:Don'tTakeYourselfTooSeriously/European colonization of the Americas

Intro
The Spaniards began building their empire of the Americas in the Caribbean, using islands such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Hispaniola as bases. They had different goals in their exploration of the land than the other European powers did. The Spanish came to take what they could and make a fortune so as to better their lives back home to Spain. However, they never had the intention to stay and create a new life. They had three goals for exploration: “Conquer, convert, or become rich”. The Spanish justified their claims to the New World based on the Ideals of the Reconquista. They saw their reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula out from the Moor's control as evidence of the “divine help" . Thus, they believed it was their duty save the natives from eternal damnation by converting them to Christianity. Further, in 1431 the first Spaniard had finally became Pope. They interpreted this as justification of Spain’s right to implement Christianity throughout the world. And with the English Protestants colonizing North America, the Spanish Catholics felt even more pressure to exert their power throughout the Central and South American lands . The Mission System enabled Spanish priests to learn the Indian dialect by establishing supervised communities in frontier areas so that they could preach the gospel. These in manipulated the Indians into building villages, accepting Christianity, and settling into what they deemed as a civilized lifestyle . In doing so, the indigenous were forced to denounce their intergenerational tribal beliefs and subjugate their history. In addition to these religious conversions, the conquistadors succeeded in stealing what is now Central and South American mainland, consequently resulting in an estimated 8,000,000 deaths of indigenous people primarily through the spread of Afro-Eurasian diseases. Others were forced into slavery and died from overwork and malnutrition. Some authors have argued this demographic collapse to be the first large-scale act of genocide in the modern era. Florida fell to Juan Ponce de León after 1513. From 1519 to 1521, Hernán Cortés waged a campaign against the Aztec Empire, ruled by Moctezuma II. The Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, became Mexico City, the chief city of what the Spanish were now calling "New Spain". More than 240,000 Aztecs died during the siege of Tenochtitlan, 100,000 in combat, while 500–1,000 of the Spaniards engaged in the conquest died. Other conquistadors, such as Hernando de Soto, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, and Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, pushed farther north, from Florida, Mexico, and the Caribbean, respectively, in the early 1500s. To the south, Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire during the 1530s. The centuries of continuous conflicts between the North American Indians and the Anglo-Americans were less severe than the devastation wrought on the densely populated Meso-American, Andean, and Caribbean heartlands. As more and more explorers arrived hoping to gain riches and power, more natives were tortured and stolen from their land. In fact, the renowned Christopher Columbus kidnapped 500 Indians and shipped them to Spain where they were enslaved as prisoners of war. Additionally, the colonizers created the encomienda system which granted free native labor for the Spaniards to use. Based upon the practice of exacting tribute from Muslims and Jews during the Reconquista, the Spanish Crown granted a number of native laborers to an encomendero, who was usually a conquistador or other prominent Spanish male. Under the grant, they were bound to protecting the natives and converting them to Christianity. In exchange for their forced conversion to Christianity, the natives had to pay tributes in the form of gold, agricultural products, and labor. Even the Spanish crown saw the severe abuses going on and tried to terminate the system through the Laws of Burgos (1512–13) and the New Law of the Indies (1542). However, the encomenderos refused to comply with the new measures. Eventually, the encomienda system was replaced by the repartimiento system, but it was not abolished until the late 18th century. Another brutal activity waged against the Native Americans was called the “Practice of Tribute” which was where every Indian male had to turn in a certain amount of gold every ninety days or face death. Further, the reading of The Requerimento before war was used as a tool for manipulation. Although intelligible to the natives, the document stated that the indigenous were subjects of the Spanish Crown and would be tortured if they resisted. However, the most distinct and important way that the Spanish differed in their colonization practices was the creation of a new class of people: the mestizo. Due to rape and intermarriage with indigenous women, the mestizo population consisted of European and Native American ancestry. In addition to the mingling in blood with the Africans as well, a caste system based on skin tone was set forth. The darker the skin, the lower the status within the hierarchy. Thus the order from highest to low was Spanish, mestizo, indigenous, and finally African slaves.

Portugal colonized Brazil, tried colonizing the eastern coasts of present-day Canada and settled for extended periods northwest (on the east bank) of the River Plate. Meanwhile, France also founded colonies in the Americas: in eastern North America, a number of Caribbean islands and small coastal parts of South America. The Age of Exploration was the beginning of territorial expansion for several European countries. Europe had been preoccupied with internal wars and was slowly recovering from the loss of population caused by the Black Death; thus the rapid rate at which it grew in wealth and power was unforeseeable in the early 15th century.

Similarly to the Spaniards, the British explorers came to expand their empire. However they arrived a bit later to Native America, almost a century after the Spaniards did. Like the other European countries, England was enticed by the lure of both riches and power. Their first colonization attempts in what is now Roanoke and Newfoundland were unsuccessful. However, the relatively late arrival meant that the British could use the other European colonization powers as models for their endeavors. In 1606, King James I granted a charter to the Virginia Company of London for the purposes of colonizing Jamestown, Virginia. Yet, Britain soon had populated permanent settlements in what is now New England for a different reason: religious freedom. These people, known as the Pilgrims, believed the Church of England was corrupt and wanted to permanently live somewhere that they could practice their religion openly. Thus unlike the Spaniards, the British came with families and planned to make what is now North America their home. Since the wives and children of the British colonizers were present, there was no need to intermarry with the native women. Mainly due to discrimination, there was very little interaction between indigenous and British society. The Europeans viewed the natives as savages who were not worthy of participating in what they considered civilized society. Due to this racism, many conflicts arose between the British and Indians, such as the Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears. The pattern was repeated throughout time and again with Europeans continuing to strip the indigenous of their native lands and pushing them out west. However, the native people of North America did not die out nearly as fast nor as much as those in Central and South America due in part to their exclusion from British society. The English eventually went on to control much of Eastern North America, the Caribbean, and parts of South America. The British also gained Florida and Quebec in the French and Indian War. Most significantly, while the mestizo make up a large portion of the current population in Latin America today, there is only a small mestizo population in the present day United States of America due to the lack on interbreeding among Europeans and natives.