Spanish Colonization of New Spain: Benevolent? Malevolent? Indifferent?

Melinda K. Blade

Reprinted from the OAH Magazine of History
14 (Summer 2000). ISSN 0882-228X
Copyright (c) 2000, Organization of American Historians

The impact of the Age of Exploration has led some historians to consider this period as a "turning point" in history. Students learning aspects of the Age of Exploration need to be aware of the myriad motives that drove the European countries to explore, conquer, and settle the New World. Those reasons varied from desiring to trade and thus obtain new products, to finding the Northwest Passage and discovering new lands. Europeans also wanted adventure and to Christianize those not baptized in the "One and True Faith."

Exploration led to a dramatic increase in the size of European state treasuries. It allowed for the exchange of cultural ideas, the introduction of different foodstuffs, the study of flora and fauna in various parts of the world, and the intellectual expansion of knowledge. As New World colonization efforts succeeded, the colonies added to the wealth of the mother countries and provided Europeans greater prosperity than they had known before.

European colonization, however, was not without shortcomings. As the colonies became the source of wealth for the mother countries, the lives of the indigenous population were molded to fit the desires of the conquerors. However colonizers did not agree among themselves about the way that Indians should be treated. In the case of New Spain (a viceroyalty that laid claim to today's Central America north of Panama, all of Mexico, and much of the southwestern United States) Spanish ranchers, farmers, and miners wanted easy access to free Indian labor and found ways to obtain it. Other Spaniards, especially missionaries, wanted the native populations treated with compassion, with the goal of converting them to Christianity. Bureaucrats were often torn between their obligation to enforce their sovereign's orders to treat Indians kindly and to promote the conversion of Indians, and their desire to enrich themselves and their cronies at the expense of Indians.

This lesson plan will enable students in both high school and the introductory college course in United States history to have a better grasp of the contradictions inherent in the colonization and missionization of New Spain--ongoing processes that lasted through the eighteenth century. To allow students to obtain an understanding of the people responsible for colonization, the accompanying activities encourage them to visualize the experience through the eyes of the different social and economic groups affected by colonization and the ensuing missionary and political actions of the Spanish. Different types of projects are offered so that students can enter the experience though various learning modalities.

History is often an imprecise discipline. It allows students to gain an appreciation of the past, but challenges them to refrain from letting modern-day ethical issues color their perception of past events. Contemporary ethics and values are of no consequence when ascertaining the ethics and values of Spaniards of the 1500s, 1600s and 1700s, but a consideration of Spanish policies and the practices of individual Spaniards reveals a mix of benevolence, malevolence, and indifference when seen through the eyes of contemporaries.

1. To clarify the reasons why European countries began exploration and colonization efforts in the New World.
   
2. To articulate the primary characteristics of mercantilism and its impact on the domestic and foreign policy of Spain.
   
3. To explain Spain's political atmosphere during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
   
4. To discuss the religious fervor that led to the Christianization efforts of the Spanish missionaries.
   
5. To identify the significant advances in science and technology that enabled the Europeans to explore the rest of the world.
   
6. To explain the impact of the conquistadores and the missionaries on the indigenous population of New Spain.
   
7. To analyze the cultural and economic patterns of interaction between the Spaniards and the indigenous population.
   
8. To accurately interpret specific primary sources related to the colonization efforts.
   
9. To delineate the goals that Spain had for New Spain.
   
10. To prepare a cogent essay regarding the Spanish treatment of the indigenous population by Spanish conquistadores, bureaucrats, and missionaries.
    

I. Film

Use of film in the history curriculum needs to be approached with an awareness of the potential for distortion of historical information and the need for the film makers to convey a certain preconceived perspective. With that caveat in mind, the 1986 movie The Mission provides an introduction to the eighteenth-century Spanish Jesuit missionary presence among the Guaraní in South America.

The movie, approximately 125 minutes long, provides students with different perceptions of the same circumstances and thus presents them with the moral consequences of decisions made by political and religious leaders. The movie also enables students to visualize the difficulty of governing an empire thousands of miles away without the benefit of modern instantaneous communication. Articles by Barbara Ganson and James Schofield Saeger (see Sources for Further Study) can provide further perspective on the film.

Before showing the film, distribute the Reflection Questions, included with this article. Ask students to keep these questions in mind as they watch the movie. After the viewing, either discuss the questions as a class or have students complete them individually as homework.

II. Timeline

Ask students to prepare a timeline of the Spanish explorers and their places of exploration. Have them indicate the outcome of the exploration (i.e., colonization, establishment of a mission, abandonment of the site, settlement, etc.) on the timeline. For comparison, students should add key dates relating to French and English exploration and colonization.

III. Propaganda

Discuss with students the various types of propaganda available to the Jesuit or Franciscan missionaries. Break the class into groups and assign a specific Indian group to each. Then have students devise a list of appropriate strategies the missionaries may have used to entice Native Americans to attend Catholic religious ceremonies.

IV. Maps

Have students prepare maps indicating their awareness of the expansiveness of the Spanish Empire. These maps should identify areas and the dates of their conquest, as well as indicating the exploration routes of the Spanish explorers. Have students use overlay maps of sixteenth-century exploration with contemporary maps in order to correlate New Spain with its contemporary counterparts.

V. Identification of Important People

Ask students to provide a one-to-two-paragraph identification of important people involved in the exploration, colonization, and missionary work of New Spain, particularly its northern frontiers. Include the following:

1. Hernan Cortés
   
2. Montezuma/Aztecs
   
3. Bernal Diaz del Castillo
   
4. Bartolomé de las Casas, O.P.
   
5. Juan de Oñate
   
6. Viceroy Luis de Velasco
   
7. Diego de Vargas
   
8. Eusebio Kino, S.J.
   
9. Juan Maria Salvatierra, S.J.
   
10. Cuerno Verde
    
11. Juan Bautista de Anza
12. Salvador Palma
13. José de Gálvez
14. Junípero Serra, O.F.M.
15. Father Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, O.F.M.
16. Carlos III

VI. Technology of the Period

Have students research the technology present at the time of colonization. How were adobe bricks made? How were cattle used in the hide and tallow industry? How was water diverted for village use? Allow the students to present the information orally so that the entire class will benefit from their work.

Use this information to encourage group cooperation by having the class prepare a diorama of a typical village of some native group. This diorama should illustrate the technology of the time and include changes brought about through contact with Spaniards. Reinforce for the students the central presence of the Catholic Church within the villages of some Indian peoples. What are the limitations and biases of the sources from which we reconstruct Indian life?

VII. Mercantilism

Mercantilism, defined simply, is an economic and political theory that gained prominence during the Age of Exploration. It maintained that countries should accumulate bullion (gold and silver), establish colonies to provide a ready-made source of goods from the Mother Country, and develop a favorable balance of trade through the establishment of industry.

Assign a research project where students explore the main tenets of mercantilism, drawing conclusions about its effects on present-day economics. Questions that might assist them in this effort are:

1. How does a developed country establish its economic policy? What decision-making processes do the leaders of the country institute to establish economic viability in a global economy?
   
2. How might countries rich in natural resources improve their balance of trade?
   
3. How does the fluctuation of gold prices impact a country's economy?
   
4. Are gold and silver the desired acquisitions of countries today?
   
5. Do countries today view their political power as being economically based, as was true in the Age of Exploration?
   
6. In what ways do developing countries struggle to maintain a favorable balance of trade?
   
7. What international movement has arisen in the past few years to assist developing countries in their economic struggle? (A call to eradicate debts owed to developed countries.)
   

VIII. Religious Orders

Have students research the prominent religious orders present in New Spain. Background on the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits will enable students to better understand the political power wielded by these orders and the ensuing political differences that led to the expulsion of the Jesuits from New Spain and the resulting takeover of the missions by the Franciscans and Dominicans.

IX. Role-playing

Assign students identities from the following list and have them write a diary from this perspective. Teachers need to determine the time period and length of the diary entry. Those details might depend upon significant historical events that occurred and how the imaginary diarist might respond to that information. Students should be reminded that some of the imaginary respondents might be illiterate (such as the Native American man and woman). Thus, their entries might then be recorded via an (imaginary) oral history response.

1. Native American living under the encomienda system, a system of forced labor or tithe.
   
2. Spanish nobleman
   
3. Queen of Spain
   
4. Jesuit or Franciscan priest
   
5. Native American woman
   
6. Native American man
   
7. Spanish noblewoman living in New Spain
   
8. Spanish viceroy
   
9. Bureaucrat for the Council of the Indies, which formulated policy for New Spain
   

X. Bureaucracy of New Spain

Have students develop a chart indicating the governmental structure present in New Spain. Include the audiencias, local magistrates, alcaldes mayores, corregidores, and town council (cabildos or ayuntamientos).

XI. Primary Sources

Use the following primary sources to allow students to draw their own conclusions regarding the mind-set of Spaniards as they colonized and Christianized the native population of New Spain. Unless otherwise stated, these documents can be found in Charles Gibson, The Spanish Tradition in America (New York: Harper and Row, 1968). Page numbers are given in parentheses.

1. Letters of Father Junípero Serra (Antonine Tibesar, ed. and trans., Writings of Junípero Serra, 4 vols. Washington, DC: American Academy of Franciscan History, 1955-1966.)
   
2. Sections from Bernal Díaz's The Conquest of New Spain (translated by John M. Cohen, Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1963.)
   
3. Royal Order for New Discoveries of 1573 (Dora P. Crouch, et. al, Spanish City Planning in North America. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1982.)
   
4. Account of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 (Gibson, 183-93)
   
5. Laws of Burgos, 1512-1513 (Gibson, 61-82)
   
6. Sublimis Deus, papal Bull, 1537 (Gibson, 104-5)
   
7. New Laws of the Indies, 1542 (Gibson, 109-112)
   
8. Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494 (Gibson, 42-51)
   

XII. Debates

After students have studied the primary sources sufficiently, divide the class into debate teams. Assign each team specific positions and specific "people" and stage a debate regarding Spanish policy in the New World.

The above activities, while not exhaustive, are designed to foster deeper awareness within the students of the reasons for colonization, the methods used to colonize, and the ensuing missionary efforts in New Spain. The students should, at the conclusion of the unit, be able to explain the rationale for Spain's foreign policy toward New Spain and the rationale for the procedures used to Christianize the indigenous population.

Further, the student should be able to articulate, both orally and in writing, the debate that has ensued among historians as to the Spanish attitudes and actions toward Native Americans: were they benevolent, malevolent, or indifferent?

Bolton, Herbert E., ed. Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1542-1706. 1908. Reprint, New York: Barnes and Noble, 1967.

Diaz del Castillo, Bernal. The Conquest of New Spain. Translated with an introduction by John M. Cohen. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1963.

Gibson, Charles, comp. The Spanish Tradition in America. New York: Harper and Row, 1968.

Moziño, José Mariano. Noticias de Nutka: An Account of Nootka Sound in 1792. Ed. and trans. Iris H. W. Engstrand. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991.

Tibesar, Antonine, ed. and trans. Writings of Junípero Serra. 4 vols. Washington, DC: American Academy of Franciscan History, 1955-1966.

Brading, D. A. The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots, and the Liberal State, 1492-1867. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Cooke, Jacob Ernest. Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies. 3 vols. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1993.

Crouch, Dora P., Daniel J. Garr, and Axel I. Mundigo. Spanish City Planning in North America. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1982.

Cutter, Charles R. The Protector de Indios in Colonial New Mexico, 1659-1821. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986.

Cutter, Donald and Iris Engstrand. Quest for Empire: Spanish Settlement in the Southwest. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 1996.

Cutter, Donald C. California in 1792: A Spanish Naval Visit. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990.

Engstrand, Iris H. W. "The Eighteenth Century Enlightenment Comes to Spanish California," Southern California Quarterly 80 (Spring 1998): 3-30.

Engstrand, Iris H. W. "The Enlightenment in Spain: Influence upon New World Policy," The Americas 41 (April 1985): 436-44.

Dunne, Peter Masten. Black Robes in Lower California. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1952.

Ganson, Barbara. "'Like Children under Wise Parental Sway': Passive Portrayals of the Guaraní Indians in European Literature and The Mission." Colonial Latin American Historical Review 3 (Fall 1994): 399-422.

Greenleaf, Richard E. The Roman Catholic Church in Colonial Latin America. New York: Knopf, 1971.

Guest, Francis F. Fermín Francisco de Lasuén: A Biography. Washington, DC: Academy of American Franciscan History, 1973.

Gutiérrez, Ramón A. When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1846. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991.

Haring, Clarence H. The Spanish Empire in America. 1947. Reprint, New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1963.

Ives, Ronald L. José Velásquez: Saga of a Borderland Soldier. Tucson: Southwestern Mission Research Center, 1984.

Kanellos, Nicolas. Thirty Million Strong: Reclaiming the Hispanic Image in American Culture. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 1998.

MacLachlan, Colin M. and Jaime E. Rodríguez O. The Forging of the Cosmic Race: A Reinterpretation of Colonial Mexico. Expanded edition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.

Meigs, Peveril. The Dominican Mission Frontier of Lower California. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1935.

Meyer, Michael C., William Sherman, and Susan M. Deeds. The Course of Mexican History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

O'Malley, John W. The First Jesuits. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993.

Powell, Philip Wayne. Tree of Hate: Propaganda and Prejudices Affecting United States Relations with the Hispanic World. New York: Basic Books, 1971.

Saeger, James Schofield. "The Mission and Historical Missions: Film and the Writing of History." The Americas 51 (January 1995): 393-415.

Sale, Kirkpatrick. Conquest of Paradise. New York: Knopf, 1990.

Wagner, Henry Raup and Helen Rand Parish. The Life and Writings of Bartolomé de las Casas. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1967.

Weber, David J., ed. What Caused the Pueblo Revolt of 1680? Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999.

------. The Spanish Frontier in North America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.

Web sites spring up with great frequency. Numerous university sites contain information regarding specific periods of history. The following are given as possible sources for information concerning the Age of Exploration and the Spanish presence in the New World. The accuracy and timeliness of the sites are not guaranteed.

Age of Exploration: <http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/westn/explor.html>.

Age of Exploration Timeline: <http://www.mariner.org/age/histexp.html>.

Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico: <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/aztecs1.html>.

Cultural Readings: Colonization and Print in the Americas: <http://www.library.upenn.edu/special/gallery/kislak
promotion/diaz.html>.

European Voyages of Exploration:
<http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/HIST/tutor/eurvoya/aztec.html>.

Resources for Spain:
<http://www.ukans.edu/~iberia/ssphs/spainresources.html>.

Spanish Missions of California: <http://library.thinkquest.org/3615>.