The conquest of Spanish America it was the process of occupation of America by the Spaniards and consequent control over the areas hitherto occupied by native peoples. The advance of the conquerors happened little by little, as they got to know and discover new regions and it happened, mainly, through the use of violence against the natives.
Historical context
With the arrival of the Spaniards in America in 1492 in the expedition led by Christopher Columbus , a great process of occupation of this territory began. Conquistadors found in America – called Indies by them – great civilizations that had quite complex political and social structures, which gave great dimensions to the Spanish enterprise. The arrival of the Spaniards to the American continent happened during the process of the great navigations , which took place from the 15th century onwards due to the need to find new trade routes to expand European trade. Those who risked crossing the Atlantic in this expansion project were looking for the chance to enrich themselves, mainly by obtaining precious metals such as gold and silver.
Achievement Features
The Spaniards who participated in the exploration and conquest expeditions did so of their own accord, so these undertakings consisted of private initiatives. Even so, these incursions should receive authorization from the Spanish Crown in the Casa de Contratación .
The desire for enrichment was what motivated participation in these conquest ventures. The leaders of the expeditions were, in general, members of the lower Spanish nobility and the troops were formed by soldiers and poor peasants who were looking for better living conditions.
In imprecise numbers, it is estimated that around 100,000 Spaniards crossed the Atlantic towards the New World and were responsible for the conquest of millions of natives there. The explanation for why such a small number of Spaniards conquered such a large number of natives lay in the superiority of their weapons . The Spaniards had firearms, spears, metal swords and, mainly, the crossbow, which gave them an advantage to overcome the large numbers of natives in combat. In addition, centuries of warfare and combat against Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula gave the Spaniards great tactical knowledge in warfare .
The crossbow was a fundamental weapon for the Spaniards in the fights against the natives
The Spanish victory can also be explained by the biological question , because the contact of the natives with the Spaniards was, at times, deadly because of a series of diseases that did not exist in America and that struck the natives in a fulminating way, killing many of them quickly. The fear was also another factor to be taken into account, since many indigenous people were completely terrified of horses, animals that did not exist in America until that moment, and thought that the Spaniards were the incarnation of gods, as in the case of the Aztecs, the who believed that the conquerors led by Hernán Cortés were messengers of Quetzacoatl, one of the main Aztec deities.
Violence
The violence in the conquest of America by the Spaniards was a strong characteristic of that moment and this was evident with the reports of the Spanish friar Bartolomeu de Las Casas , a strong defender of the indigenous people, who acted in defense of these peoples against the brutality used by the Spaniards. During his life, he wrote a series of texts denouncing the violence of the conquerors and reporting the cruelest acts carried out. Here's an excerpt from one of Bartolomeu de Las Casas' accounts:
His lieutenant murdered many Indians by hanging them and burning them alive. Casting others to the dogs, cutting off their hands, their heads, their tongues, while they were at peace, this only to instill terror in them, so that they would serve them and give them gold. |1|
While he was alive, Bartolomeu de Las Casas fought to defend the indigenous people and, because of that, he made countless enemies among the Spaniards and, even achieving some victories, he could not prevent the violence was a common practice throughout the conquest of Spanish America.
|1| LAS CASAS, Bartomlomé de. Paradise Destroyed:The Bloody Story of the Conquest of Spanish America. Porto Alegre:L&PM, 2011, p. 72.
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