Hispanic Colonial Experience in the New World

Any understanding of the Spanish imperial project in the New World must be placed in the context of Spain's position in European Renaissance history. As much as military strength and stratagem, Spain exported the Spanish mind to the New World at the time of the conquest, and it was this mind that appears to have determined the shape that the conquest assumed. It cannot be stressed too strongly that 1492 was not only the year that Columbus reached America but also the year that the Moors (and Jews) were formally expelled from Spain. The background of the expulsion was the Spanish Inquisition, a form of what might be called religious cleansing, meant to guarantee the moral authority of the Roman Church in general and Spain in particular and meant to guarantee the benefits of religious hegemony.

The Crown of Aragon, the family into which Ferdinand was born, had long been the objective of a number of ambit

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s of the first voyage that he forced some Indians to act as guides (Jane I:10), an action that Jane says has been characterized as the first instance of exploitation of the Indians. Elsewhere, however, Columbus complains that they are not good warriors not only because their weapons are inferior but also because they are "marvelously timorous" (Jane I:6). In the report of the second voyage, the discrepancy between Christian characterization of behavior and supposedly Christian behavior is even more pronounced. In the account of the complete slaughter of the Spaniards left in the islands on the first voyage, Columbus does say that there are conflicting reports of why the massacre occurred and who was responsible. But he uniformly refers to the slaughtered men as Christians. The Indians, meanwhile, are "degraded," "live barbarously," and lack intelligence (Jane I:52). The blame for the massacre rests solely with the indigenous peoples, whom Columbus regards as being far too suspicious of him and his men (Jane I:50). Now this is so even though Columbus has in hand what appear to be the facts: "They began to complain that the Christians had taken, one three, another four women, from which we came to believe that the evil which had fal
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Cortes Diaz, Spain Indians, Columbus Indian, Asia Jane, Spanish Catholics, I3 Diaz, Spanish Christianity, , Diaz Cortez's, Ferdinand Isabella, indigenous peoples, cortez party, bring food, sicilian vespers, human sacrifice, indigenous peoples americas, body fat, american peoples, dress wounds, ferdinand isabella, experience cortez party, jane notes,
Approximate Word count = 3664
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)

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