The Spanish Conquest: Genocide or Not? By: Emily Zuckerbraun

Definition of Genocide In the present convention, genocide means any of the following acts, committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of live calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

A) Killing members of the Group Killing members of a group, leads to evidence that the Spanish Conquest was a genocide.

B) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; If many attempts were displayed of people being mentally and/or physically harmed, this leads to evidence of the Spanish conquest being a genocide.

C) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of live calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; If evidence of conditions of life being lowered and/or physical destruction in a group, then this leads to a bigger risk of the Spanish conquest being a genocide.

D) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; If people are forced to change their every day ways, they are imposing measures on their lives, which helps prove the Spanish conquest was a genocide.

E) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group If many citizens are being forcibly transferred this leads to the evidence of the Spanish conquest being a genocide.

Hernando Cortes In 1519, Hernando Cortes brought the conquistadors to America, because they wanted gold. They found a wealthy tribe known as the Aztecs. So the Cortes and Co. took 600 men to Aztec tribe. Aztecs thought of Cortes as a god, so gave him a lot of gold. However, Cortes was not satisfied. He claimed that he had a disease, and the only cure was gold. In 1520, the Aztecs rebelled against Cortes and Co. So the Aztec tribe attempted to fight the Spanish, but lost badly, because the Spanish were more advanced. Since they had cannons and gun- powder, while the Aztecs mainly had arrows. Also the Spanish brought foreign diseases, which the Aztecs were not used to so, there was a large reduction in the Aztec tribe, which all in all helped the Spanish win against the Aztecs.

Fransisco Pizarro In 1513, Pizarro brought conquistadors to conquer the Inca Empire in America. The leader of the Incas was Atahualpa, and he got captured by the Spanish. In order for Atahualpa to be released, the Spanish would receive a room full of gold. The Spanish agreed in the trade, but as soon as the gold was taken the Spanish killed the leader. Then they took over the Inca Empire. The Spanish enslaved and captured many natives. By the 16th century, Spain had a American Empire, instead of the Inca Empire.

A) Killing members of the Group Example of Hernando Cortes: Aztec Empire disagreed to give more gold to Cortes. So Hernando Cortes fought against the Empire. There were many members of the Aztec Empire that were killed, just so Cortes could conquer the Aztec Empire. This is more evidence that Cortes attempted to get as much gold and land as he could, and his way of doing that was by killing others.

A) Killing members of the Group Example of Fransisco Pizarro: Pizarro killed anybody who got in his way from his goal. After receiving as much gold as he could, he killed the king. This caused Inca Empire members to fight back against Pizarro. Pizarro and men won. Therefore many men and women were killed of the group of Incas.

B) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Example of Hernando Cortes: Hernando Cortes after conquering Aztec Empire, had many natives rebelling against him. So he forced the native to leave their freedom and become slaves in very poor conditions. They were physically beaten, and forced to complete tasks that scarred them mentally. The forced labor was a very common job for the natives at that point, and the owners of the slaves were not kind. This example proves genocide, since there was both bodily and mental harm to members of the Aztec Empire.

B) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Example of Fransisco Pizarro: Fransisco Pizarro had such harsh conditions that many members of the conquered group died. Although many thought that it was better to be dead, then it was to be alive and experiencing the things they had been forced to experience. Many believed that if Pizarro and Cortes had not intervened in daily life, the natives would not have had to be slaves for such horrible bosses, who would make them suffer by hurting the slaves or by making them see horrific images. This example proves genocide, because like with Hernando Cortes, Fransisco Pizzaro was hurting the members of the group mentally and physically.

C) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of live calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Example of Hernando Cortes: Hernando Cortes used fact that the emperor of the Aztec Empire thought he was god. So he managed to use this thought against tribe, and in addition gained as much gold as he could. Cortes took advantage of the citizens, and forced them to work as slaves. Thus, which is very unfair and he lied to innocent tribe members. This example displays inflicted conditions of life, because the members of the tribe were forced to have lower conditions of life, while being slaves.

C) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of live calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Example of Fransisco Pizarro: Fransisco Pizzaro promised if he let the king of the Inca Empire go, he would receive a room full of gold. But, Pizzaro broke the promise, and killed the king as soon as he got the gold room. The natives were infuriated that their alliance had been broken between the king and Pizzaro. But, Pizarro enslaved the natives, so they were forced to give up their freedom. Then he sold them to abusive owners around the world, so the tribe broke apart. This example shows the infliction on the group conditions of live, because the natives were forced to give up their freedom to be sold to abusive owners.

D) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Example of both Pizarro and Cortes: Encomienda was a slavery system, in which Spanish landlords got slaves to work for them, and the slaves came from captured victims of Pizarro and Cortes. These slaves were forced to work in terrible conditions. Intermarriages between the Spanish and natives grew very common. The men that came with Pizarro and Cortes sometimes were only there in search of brides. These marriages created mestizo, which is a intermixed marriage between Spanish settlers and native women. These women mostly had no say in marriage, and were forced to go with it and get married to a Spanish man. This example shows imposed measure intended to prevent births within the group of the natives, because then the natives were only helping build the Spanish society, not their own, since they were then married to Spanish settlers.

E) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group Example of both Pizarro and Cortes: Enslavement relocated millions of natives from their homes to new homes. Slaves were sent on bad conditioned boats, and shipped to their owners. In fact, most slaves never saw their family again. A lot of slaves became ill on the journey to their new owners. Then some slaves died, because of their new lack of nutrition and of the new diseases, that came from their new homes. The slaves were forced to transfer to other lives, and not just to a new home. This is a example of genocide, because the members of the groups that were conquered were forced to transfer to a new home to be slaves for their new homes.

In conclusion, from all the reasons shared, I believe that.. The Spanish Conquest was a.. GENOCIDE.