Early Spanish And Early English Colonization In America - Essay Example

Early Spanish And Early English Colonization In America In the 17th C various countries started inhabiting American North. The two known countries which colonized this area were Spain and England. As the stayed in two different places, they had different life aspects, mostly in their economic and religious development. Even back in their native lands, England and Spain were different in terms of their religion. This was eventually carried forward to the Native America. In the place that was referred to as the New Spain, St Augustine was the first place to be established (James et al, pp 36). Here was occupied mostly by Indians that were converted to Christianity. At the time New Mexico established, it collapsed because of inadequate wealth. In the New England, separatists and Puritans constituted the population. Following the dissent and reformation of England, the people of England stated to arrive in the new America for the reasons of religion. New England colonies were made up of mostly Catholics and puritans who banked their hope on putting their beliefs in practice with no interference from church hierarchy or England. The colonial extension under Castile’s crown was instigated by Spanish conquerors and grown by Spanish monarchy through its missionaries and administrators. Motivation for the expansion of colonies was increased Christianity faith and trade through local conversations. This took a period of over 400 years from the year 1492 to the year 1898. To start with is the arrival of Columbus in the year 1942, over 4 centuries the empire of the Spaniards would extend across: in the present day in most Central America, Mexico and Caribbean island; most of American North that include Southern coastal, Southern western, California part of United States; and although not active, with territory claimed presently British Columbia; and states of Oregon, Washington and Alaska; and south America. At the start of 19th C the movements on revolution ended up in independence of many American Spanish colonies, with exception of Puerto Rico and Cuba, released in the year 1898 subsequent to the war waged by Spain against the Americans, together with Philippines and Guam in Pacific. The political loss of the last territories by Spain brought an end to the Spanish colonization (Kathy, pp 64) The settlements of the Spanish in the South West of America and English colonies in the New England in the 17th C may be contrasted in basically two ways. To start with, their political patterns were based entirely on different government systems and classes of ruling. Secondly, they used different economic development avenues. The settlements of the Spanish started with Cortes while some conquered Americans of central, south and south west of North America. Following the eradication of a big part of the population of native America, the Spanish started intermarrying with the Native Americans. Consequently, only part of that population composed of pure Spanish. The Spanish held the highest political and social status. The native from Spain were a step ahead of the ones that were born in America while the ones who had Indian heritage or mixed were bottom placed in the social hierarchy. Moreover, as the Spanish arrived as conquerors, consequent system of politics was purely solely and autocratically aimed at extending the motherland. Just after have the Americans conquered, the Spanish stole huge portions of silver, gold and some valuables. The tradition made a step into the 17th C as the Spanish ships came to America to ferry these valuables like gold and silver to Spain. Through this, the Spanish perceived the Spanish America to be a useful tool to use in its objective of mercantilist. As mercantilism was its sole objective, Spain issued its colonies with slight self rule. Instead, the Spanish rulers decided every policy governing the territories of the new world (Kathy, pp 70) Coming back to the English, their settlement was peaceful on the North American Eastern sea board. The English moved into America not to conquer but to gain economic opportunity, political freedom and independence. With their traditional patterns of partially representing, the colonies of England had a huge caliber of self-government. All of their colonies had an assembly of representatives who were elected by the rule of majority. As the right of voting was only with the white landlords, it still showed a certain extent of democracy. Among some colonies, the governors were known by the rule of the majority vote. Additionally, most British colonies like Virginia were implemented by companies or implemented propriety like Pennsylvania. All royal colonies established by earning a charter although were still implemented by groups that were not affiliated directly with government like the Puritans that had their settlements in Massachusetts Bay (James et al, pp79) In that way, these colonies of the British unlike Spanish, was not established mainly for mercantilism purpose. The English inflicted some policies on mercantilism like navigation act, although they were imposed reluctantly. Even though they were imposed, the laws only controlled trade, but did not ever come close to the Spanish dictatorial measures of taking valuables and gold directly to the colonies of England. The colonies of Spain economically developed through the use of Econmienda system. By use of this system, the lords of Spain manipulated and exploited Native Americans. Moreover, they used them in doing manual work on land. However, the English depended on the slaves that were of African American descent and at times indentured the whites to do manual work. The Native Americans contracted diseases easily and died fast on plantations of the colonialists to be effective. The colonies of Spain did not have natural resources; therefore, it resulted to slow development of the economy. In contrary, the colonies of England have many natural resources. The English economy prospered in lumbering, farming, trade, fishing and raw material industries. The abundance of these resources instigated trade in the colonies like developed factories in Europe needed raw materials for conversion into refined commodities. Another main difference between the two colonialists is that Spaniards mostly sent men who were single without their families and wives. The conquest of the Spanish led to death for instance, in the Central America 70% died, in South America 90%, and in Caribbean 100%. In the year between 1490s and 1600s when Virginia, James English colony was found, above 50% of the number of natives were cleared in what turned out to be the US. This conquest in statistics is the hugest genocide in the human history. Most Spanish males mixed with Native Americans who survived during colonization of their countries. The practice was also common in Canada and in the US. Moreover, the difference was also clearly highlighted in the manner American’s history of colonization was obtained. In the colonies of England, there was an outstanding separation between non Natives and Native population. The action consequently led to formation of secluded countries that were known as native peoples’ reservations. In the Central America, there was a formation of a myth that the Mexican scholars referred as ‘Mestizo Myth’ that stated all individuals were part of a Native American and consequently, all land fit in to those individuals. Though false, the impact was that it deprived native people their property like land as call oneself Indian was saying you were not a part of broader country. The result was the customs and language. Though most people in the US are not conscious, it is a fact which has also posed an impact in that society. Spanish people often stay away from genocide that their ancestors were in charge of more deaths of over 80% of local Americans via western hemisphere. Unluckily, the action has led most people from Spanish race to refer to the whites as Latino and put blame on others European descendants for Native America destruction. In irony, the Spaniards who were like changing from the term white to use Latino were amongst the colonizing powers to discriminate themselves as the white from non natives, Africans and groups in Europe like the Irish that they enslaved. The Spaniards were responsible for enchaining 94% of the Africans during the trade where only 6% were for the US. The process of slavery continued in the Latin America for a longer time than the America. As they approached the late 1800s, they were destructive and violent. To add to that, Latin America unlike other states in the South of America that practiced seclusion into 1960s, practiced the rule of Apartheid till in the 1960s. Works Cited Kathy Sammis. “Focus on U.S. History: The Era of Exploration and Discovery” (1997) James L.et al. “The American Promise: A Compact History” 4th Edition (1877) Read More