In this blog, I'll be focusing on the Spanish conquistadors' treatment of natives in the New World: especially the Aztecs.
Both the Spanish and English practiced the extremely poor treatment of natives. However, the Spanish CONQUISTADORS' abuse of the natives was far worse than the New England colonists'.
The Spaniard's hunt for gold and silver was a crazed frenzy, an obsessive search that often led to the bloody slaughter of natives as they moved through southern America. An example of this would be Hernando Cortes, a Spanish conquistador.
"...he invited the headmen of the Cholula nation to the square. And when they came, with thousands of unarmed retainers, Cortes's small army of Spaniards, posted around the square with cannon, armed with crossbows, mounted on horses, massacred them, down to the last man. Then they looted the city and moved on."
While the English colonists were more concerned about their settlements and their religion to focus on anything more than the banishment of the Indians, the conquistadors enslaved the natvies that they came across. In their search for GOLD and as part of the ECOMIENDA, they forced the natives into SLAVERY.
The working conditions and lifestyle that the enslaved natives endured were almost unimaginable. They were often worked to the death, and treated worse than animals.
"Total control led to total cruelty. The Spaniards 'thought nothing of knifing Indians by tend and twenties and cutting slices off of them to test the sharpness of their blades.'"
"[They] 'grew more conceited every day' and after a while refused to walk any distance. They 'rode the backs of Indians if they were in a hurry' or were carried on hammocks by Indians running in relays. 'In this case they also had Indians carry large leaves to shade them from the sun and others to fan them with goose wings.'"
The picture below shows a mass hanging of natives, and the murder of native children.
The Spaniards' use of natives for labor was also an important part of the COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE. The enslaved AZTECTS and INCAS worked to collect the gold and silver that was sent from the New World back to the Old World.
In addition, Cortes and his followers created a generation of MESTIZOS, the offspring of raped indigenous women, and the BLACK LEGEND, one view of the actions taken by the Spanish conquistadors.
The battle fought by the Aztecs- and the siege they now refer to as "NOCHE TRISTE"- was fought and lost. But what if the they had succeeded and driven Cortes out? It may have frightened Spain off for a time, perhaps. However, it's more likely that Spain would have sent more troops and wiped out the natives completely.
