Culture Collision: The Spanish and Native Americans APUSH – SPICONARDI

Noble Savages

Noble Savage – oxymoronic term used to described the European belief that Native Americans were

Untouched by the immorality and vices of civilization

Natural life is glorified

Innocent of Europe’s worst characteristics

Noble Savages

Europeans simultaneously lauded the simplicity of the indigenous way of life, but pitied the Native Americans for their “backwardness”

Native Americans are savage in regards to technology, but beautiful and wise when it comes to nature

“I am as free as Nature first made man,Ere the base laws of servitude began, When wild in woods the noble savage ran”

~The Conquest of Granada by John Dryden

Myth of the Noble Savage

Native Americans experienced War

Complex social and political structures

Hereditary succession

Widespread trade networks

Ter Ellingson, an anthropologist debunks the myth Claims Europeans

only saw savages

European Hegemony

Europeans felt compelled to “civilize” the Native Americans for the following reasons

Native Americans were not Christian

Animistic religions needed to be eliminated

Native Americans lacked writing

Europeans believed the gender roles of many Native Americans unfathomable (product of matrilineal societies)

Native Americans were more open about their sexuality

The Spanish & the Black Legend

Encomienda System Spanish colonists could demand tribute and labor from Native American Indians, if they instructed the natives in the Spanish language and Christianity

The Spanish & the Black Legend

Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda Bartolomé de las Casas

Charles I

The Spanish & the Black Legend

The Black Legend – a style of historical writing or propaganda that demonizes the Spanish Empire Term coined in 1914 by a

Spanish historian to describe the anti-Spanish writings and illustrations

The English propagated the legend to justify their own colonization of the New World Portrayed themselves as

altruistic , while Spanish were depicted as cruel and greedy

The Spanish & the Black Legend

The Spanish & the Black Legend

End of the Encomienda System

1537 Pope Paul III outlaws the enslavement of Native American Indians

1542 New Laws declare that Indians no longer be enslaved

1550 Spain abolishes encomienda system and establishes repartimiento system

Repartimiento System While natives were still required to provide labor, they were paid wages and could not be sold

Social Hierarchy

Intermarriage

Spain mandated that wives of colonists to join them in America

Female population remained low despite the mandate

Intermixing began and approved by Spanish government

Seen as way to bring Christianity to the natives

The offspring of a Spaniard

and Indian is a mestizo

A Spaniard and a

mestiza produce a

castizo

The child of an Indian

and a mestiza is a

coyote

And the child of an Indian man and African woman is a

chino

Short Answer Assessment

For this question, address all three parts

A. Briefly explain the system depicted in the illustration

B. Briefly explain how the scene impacted the Atlantic World

C. Cite one specific event and briefly explain the development of the labor system mentioned in part A