A MISSIONARY CHURCH CHAPTER 11

THE SPANISH IN THE NEW WORLD Beginning in 1492 with the arrival of Columbus on the Caribbean island of Santo Domingo, the Spanish sent missionaries in great numbers to the New World. It was the goal of the Spanish to not only conquer land, bring gold, silver and other treasure back to Spain, but to also convert the natives and bring new souls to the Catholic Church. The Spanish Crown, beginning with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, had the complete backing of the Vatican, and of Pope Alexander VI, the first and only Spanish pope, and arguably the most corrupt, cunning and ruthless pope in history.

THE SPANISH IN THE NEW WORLD When the Spanish arrived in the Americas, there already existed great civilizations; in what is now called Latin America, there were 3 great civilizations – the Aztecs, the Mayas and the Incas. Aztecs = Central Mexico Maya = Mexico and Guatemala Incas = Peru All of these civilizations, by the time of the arrival of the Spaniards, had achieved great feats of architecture, construction, art, language, culture, government, religion, and even warfare. In some respects, they were already far more advanced than many European kingdoms.

THE CONQUISTADORS Despite their cultural sophistication, the Aztecs, Incas and Mayas were no match for the conquistadors and the two main weapons they used in warfare: superior weapons and tactics and germs (biological warfare). In no time at all, Hernando Cortes conquered the entire Aztec civilization by the end of the 1520s. Even though the Aztecs believed Cortes and his men were gods sent from the heavens, Cortes conquered their entire empire and took all their wealth. Fernando Pizarro did the exact same thing to the Incas; conquering their entire empire and taking all of their gold and silver with him.

THE EFFECTS OF THE CONQUISTADORS The Spaniards killed a multitude of men, women and children in a very short period of time. Those who weren’t killed were enslaved, and many eventually died. If they didn’t die from the sword, they died from disease - specifically small pox and measles. By the end of the 1500s, the native peoples of Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South America were reduced to less than 15% of what they had been before the arrival of Columbus in Moreover, most of the Spanish colonizers were poor and uneducated, and who only wanted wealth and land by any means necessary, and saw the native peoples as subhuman.

THE SPANISH CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES The missionaries who traveled to the New World were generally powerless to stop the exploitation of the native peoples. In some cases, some missionaries even assisted in the brutality and exploitation. The first missionaries were the Franciscans, who arrived in 1500 to Santo Domingo. In 1524, the Franciscans went to Mexico and were later joined by the Dominicans and then later the Augustinians. Soon, they were in Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Honduras. By 1549, the Jesuits landed in Brazil.

TWO VIEWS ON CONQUEST The missionaries did some positive works for and with the native peoples: wrote birth certificates, kept records of deaths and marriages, at times collected taxes, taught them how to read and write in Spanish, but also learned the Native’s language as well. However, the missionaries did not allow the native peoples to take part in all of the sacraments (specifically the Eucharist) and the native peoples were not allowed to become priests for 300 years.

TWO VIEWS ON CONQUEST What the native peoples were forced to give up far outweighed what they received in return. The Spanish, and later the Portuguese, were incredibly brutal and violent toward them. The native peoples were forced to give up EVERYTHING they knew – their culture, civilization, language, religion and even their own people. Native Person + Spaniard = Mestizo One Spanish priest chronicled the brutality of the Spanish – Bartolome de Las Casas ( ). de Las Casas allied himself with many others friars and the Jesuits and encouraged missionaries to respect the native peoples. He believed that war and violence were not the ways to convert people to Christianity.

WHERE ELSE DID THE SPANISH GO? Jesuit priest St. Francis Xavier traveled to, established missions and spread the Gospel in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Japan. Eventually, the Spanish landed in and conquered the Philippines. They became the most successfully evangelized Asian country. And even today, the Philippines remains the only predominantly Christian (Catholic) country in Asia – even though the Muslims had arrived in and converted many Filipinos to Islam about 200 to 300 years prior to the Spaniards arrival.