Question

compare the treatment of the indigenous peoples by the spanish in mexico, the portuguese in brazil, and the french and british in north america

Answer 1

The correct answer is: Christopher Columbus’ landing on the island of Hispaniola in 1492 was reported to Queen Isabella of Spain and she decreed that the natives were equal to all her other subjects including the Spaniards themselves. They were to be treated equally and not to be enslaved. They had to be Christianized and Europeanized. Notwithstanding, Columbus violated these commands from the beginning and he created stress between the Crown and the field behavior. Columbus' first illegal act was to ship Indians to Spain as slaves. When Queen Isabella learned this, she ordered that the Indians be sent back to Hispaniola but Columbus' men had continued their practice of brutalizing Indians. Indians tried to  rebel after some time  and those that survived the repression of rebellion were imprisoned and were forced to work. In addition to the enslavement Columbus started a practice called tribute in which each Indian was required to pay a certain amount of gold and if they failed, they were sentenced to death. Catholic priests tried to bring Spaniards and Indians together which resulted in second class caste of Spaniards called the mestizos and a set of social inconciliable social issues. Opposite to that, English settlers did not try to bring the Indians into their society or brutalize them. There were some similarities between both experiences as the British sought to enslave Indians without success, and Puritans also tried to Christianize them but not as diligently as the Spanish.  Trade and land ownership concepts were totally different to Natives which led to misunderstandings and often resulted in conflict, but Indians were never brutalized or slaved.