He followed the Zuni until he found the region inhabited by the Zunis. The members of the expedition were almost starving and demanded entrance into the village of Hawikuh. The natives refused, denying the expedition entrance to the village or trade. Coronado and his frustrated soldiers entered Hawikuh on Coronado's demands, when the Spanish requested intelligence and resources. The ensuing skirmish constituted the extent of what can be called the Spanish "Conquest of Cíbola."
On September 1, 1772 a cross was erected near San Luis Obispo creek and father junipero Serra celebrated the first mass, marking the site as the destination for yet another mission. However, briefly following the first mass, father junipero Serra returned to San Diego and left the responsibility of the mission’s construction to father Jose cavaller. Father cavaller, five soldiers and two neophytes began building what is now mission San Luis Obispo de tolosa. Father cavaller received help in the building of the mission from the local friendly natives, the Chumash Indians. The Chumash helped construct palisades, which would serve as temporary buildings for the mission.
From the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, Europeans explored and colonized parts of Asia, Africa, and the Americas. As the Europeans continued to discover more fertile and lush areas of the world their greed and lust for wanting control only became enraged. This caused them to treat the people horrible unjust and their cruel enslavement over the people only increased eventually causing the people to rebel for their independence. Bartolome de Las Casas’s story of the Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies is a perfect example of the Spaniards greed, selfishness, and brutality to other human beings. He opens the story up by describing the natives of the Indies.
California Missions Introductions Missions were started in the 1700s. King Charles III had ordered mission settlements to be built along the coast of Upper California and it was a Spanish missionary named Fray Junipero Serra’s task to carry out the king’s wishes. The missioners had a goal. They wanted Native Americans to change to their religion. These neophytes, as they newly converted were called, had to obey the missionary in charge.
From the moment Christopher Columbus set foot on the “New World” now known as the Americas, history was changed forever. As Spanish conquistadors rummaged through the lands in search of wealth, they observed many different cultures; the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayas were just a few of the tribal communities that were overtaken in the name of Spain, through the name and benevolence of their Christian God. As in the case of the Aztecs, the Spaniards used the tactic of gaining control of the ruler in order to gain control of the people; the Spaniards were aided by disease, which ended up killing thousands of Indians and weakened thousands more. In the case of the Mayas, the Andean religious culture would not surrender easily to Christianity, which ultimately led to ugly and protracted eradication campaigns by the European church. The conquistadors “truly believed that they were serving God” when they sought to convert the indigenous populations of the Americas; these God-serving military men became exasperated and irate when these civilizations could not and would not perceive the superiority of Christianity, nor the need for salvation of their souls under this unfamiliar monotheistic religion devoid of their beliefs (38).
Before the Civil War era, Columbus’ conquests for new lands lead to the genocide and enslavement of Arawak people who were obedient towards Columbus and his men. This quote from Howard Zinn, “Trying to put together an army of resistance, the Arawaks faced Spaniards who had armor, muskets, swords, horses. When the Spaniards took prisoners they hanged them or burned them to death. Among the Arawaks, mass suicides began, with cassava poison. Infants were killed to save them from the Spaniards.
Rodolfo Acuna also mentions that in Cortez’s spread of Christianity and destruction of indigenous religion, he burned 400,000 manuscripts and destroyed 20,000 idols. After the invasion, the catholic church became the ”colonial religious institution”. The Catholic God then replaced all of the indigenous gods by Cortez’s choice. This caused a major effect on indigenous beliefs, they were forced to worship a God they never had before, they were forced to stop worshiping the Gods they did in fact believed on and their religious views were dramatically changed. Although the pope at the time had prohibited slavery, he stated that natives could only be enslaved if they were cannibals, therefore the Spaniards justified the enslavement of natives with the claim that they were cannibals.
The Gold rush began in 1849 when around 50,000 miners (known as the ’49ers’) travelled to California to mine for gold on the Native Americans land. The mining took place on the Natives sacred land which understandably angered the tribes as it caused many problems for them. With all the noise and disturbance from the mining, the buffalo herd that the Natives relied on for food and to make their tipis from, was driven of their grazing land. As dangerous, dodgy gold towns began to populate the Natives area, forcing them of their land the Natives tried to defend their homes and tribes. War broke out between the whites and the Natives, the whites began scalping missions on the tribes and soon disease and conflict wiped out a majority of the Native population.
Spain tried to cover up what they were doing by lying to the public, making it seem like they were helping the Indians. A proclamation was read to the Indians, in Spanish describing the treatment they would receive, unless they followed the request of the Spaniards (DOC 1). The Spanish thought they were being fair by giving them an option, but the problem was, they read the proclamation in a language the Indians didn’t understand (POV 1). Cortez believed that engaging in a war against the Indians was right, because it was for his religion (DOC 3). To him, he thought God would support him and justify his reasons to treat the Indians poorly (POV 2).
So when he landed his men, who were on the verge of revolt, proceeded to rape pillage and destroy the Natives, quite literally killing and torturing thousands. Also the plagues brought by the Europeans caused further chaos. These Europeans, who lived in tight packed cities compared to the Naives, were disease resistant.