The New England colonies, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were conceived and established as "holy experiments" by the puritans. This group of English Protestants, whose only wish was to "purify" the Church of England, began to receive savage punishment from England for their religious beliefs. In turn, driven by religion, thousands of the religious zealots immigrated to New England to worship God in the way that they saw fit. However, although the Puritans did leave England, running from there own religious persecution, once they had established themselves they self-righteously employed the
In the middle of the 18th century the American colonies experienced two major revivals that had lasting effects on the country regarding religion, government and society. The First Great Awakening was a Christian revitalization movement that swept first European countries and then, in the 1730s and 1740s, the colonies in America. Church leaders, such as Jonathan Edwards or George Whitefield, got concerned that the colonists lost their religious zeal and preached in a dramatic and emotional style, attracting a large following. The new faiths that emerged were much more democratic in their approach and they lessened the hold of the Anglican Church which was later applied to a political field. Through the Awakening, the Colonists realized that religious power resided in their own hands, rather than in the hands of the Church, or any other authority.
A primary cause of the Crusades was religious differences between the Muslims and the Christians. Christians made pilgrimages to Jerusalem, and when they saw that their Holy Land was owned by Muslims, they felt that they had a religious obligation to take back this land. Muslims felt that the land belonged to them, and that what the Christians were trying to do was unmerited. This is an example of the external pressures both cultures experienced in relation to the ownership of their Holy Land. Christians were promised that if they joined the war, they would be forgiven of sins and guaranteed a place in heaven, which was irresistible to many people.
American Holocaust: Columbus and the Conquest of the New World The inhumane and sadistic behavior of Columbus’ men was influenced by both the inherent violence in European society of their time and the opportunity to subject a race of people they thought to be inferior to their control. During Columbus’ lifetime Europe was governed by fanatical religious Christians and greedy rulers who’s main concern was to acquire as much gold and wealth as possible. Slave trade was a popular business at this time. Men, women, and children were captured during raids on tribes throughout Africa and forced into slavery. The Spanish Inquisition occurred at this time as well, in which people that didn’t convert to Catholicism were tortured and killed or put into slavery.
In 1519, he and his men took over and established what [now is Veracruz]; dismissing the authorities of Velazquez and placed himself directly under Charles V’s orders. Velazquez, not pleased about any of this, set out an expedition to capture Cortes. Once Cortes set out to fight, the Aztecs began to rebel back in Tenochtitlan [and Montezuma died]. Cortes’ hunger and determination for power drove him back to Tenochtitlan, [taking advantage of retrieving belongings and possessions that could contribute to his power]. Three months later, the Aztec empire fell and Mexico became New Spain.
The Spanish conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo wrote his version of what he had witnessed during the conquest, The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, decades after the Spanish victory in 1521. The spiritual conquest of the Indian Mexico commenced instantaneously after the Spanish conquistadores vanquished at the Aztec Empire military. The Spaniards were staunchly Roman Catholic. It is important to note that Spain’s rise to power resulted as a direct consequence of regaining the Iberian cape away from the Muslim rule. In Return, due to having driven out the Moors, the Pope granted the Spanish Crown authority over the Church within its spheres, efficiently making it an arm of the state.
One of the rules Christopher Columbus had from Queen Isabella (fig.5) is that he must spread the Catholic faith wherever his ship may dock. Therefore, Christopher Columbus as well as many others set about on the path of introducing Catholicism to the indigenous and making them abide to it. “…they were expected to live in the closest possible community with the Europeans to enhance the spread of Christianity…”.2 they were forced to convert in various cruel manners and some were even killed as to earn compliance by
From the first steps of Europeans to the New World missionaries and military might paved the way for the complete cultural conquering of the native people. When the people of the Aztec culture came in contact with the Europeans their lives changed in many facets from the introduction of new technological advances to mass religious conversions of the people. The lives of Aztec women changed as their roles and power from their society dwindled from war and disease. With the introduction of steel tools such as cookware and knives their lives changed for the better, but with the conquest of the Spanish into their civilzation came great hardship. They witnessed their loved ones die from disease and the Spanish religious and political edicts encompassed their lives and led to generations of suffering and renewal into the onslaught of forced, oncoming European cultural assimilation.
How it affected their people and some of the surrounding people and justification by the Spanish for war against the Aztecs. Secondly, what the Aztecs believed to be the return of the god Quetzalcoatl, the Spanish conquistador, Cortes and his Spanish army. Disease played a huge part in the fall. Small pox brought upon the Spanish spread quickly to the people and no cure for the disease was known therefore leading to many deaths. Lastly, the skillful tactics used by Hernan Cortes that leads to the surrender of the last Aztec emperor.
After an initial wave of conquistadors, Spain advantages was that the military had aided and infected diseases that decimated the native populations and defeated the pre-Columbian civilizations of the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas. Spain organized a huge imperial system to exploit the land, labor, and mineral wealth of the New World. Their disadvantage was that when they were conquering Maya, because of the Yucatan jungle, their metal weapons would rust. Spain treated the Native American very badly like they were animals. For example, altogether, they execute a large group of people such as the Natives in Cuba, Dominica, and Mexico, and those who weren’t in the massacre was turned into slaves; and those whoever refused to convert to Christianity.