Question

Discuss European colonization in North America from the mid-1500s through the late 1600s. What factors motivated each European faction to claim vast stretches of the continent, and compete for control with American Indians? Compare the presence of the Spanish, French, and English, and how each group interacted with native cultures, both peacefully and violently. What resistance did American Indian cultures offer to the Spanish and English in particular during the 1600s, and how did Europeans emerge dominant by the century’s end?

Answer 1

Each European faction had different motivations to claim vast stretches of the continent, the Spanish for instance, claimed to do it in the name of God and the Catholic Church, the considered their given right and obligation to evangelize the native american population. England wanted more land and spices to trade and work with, France wanted pretty much the same as England.

The three of them interacted both peacefully and violently with the native cultures, in its broadest terms, the Spanish preferred to mix with the native Aztec, Maya and Inca populations, they were baptized and several times became part of new native-spanish (mestizo) families. Both England and France interacted with the natives in a more capitalistic way, either to trade with them peacefully, or settled on their land and either ignore them or fight them out.