Conquest of America: main FEATURES

There are numerous events throughout history that have changed the world landscape forever, clearly one of them being the conquest of America. The arrival of the European colonizers The continent changed not only the history of the continent, but also the history of all humanity. Therefore, in this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to talk about main characteristics of the conquest of America.

Before talking about the main characteristics of the American conquest, we must briefly summarize the process itself, in order to better understand the different phases through which the conquering process went through.

• The first phase of the conquest was the call discovery, being the whole process since Christopher Columbus left Huelva for America, until the first conquests and form of government created by Columbus in his different trips. It was at this stage that parts of the continent were discovered, when the support of the Pope to begin the conquest, and when a division of the territories between Castile and Portugal.
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• The second stage is the call conquest, being when the majority of the conquest of American peoples by the Europeans, both Spanish and Portuguese, took place. Some examples of important conquests of this time are that of Hernan Cortes against the Aztecs or that of Francisco Pizarro against the Incas.
• The third phase was the colonization being the one in which the Europeans imposed their customs and language on the Americans, seeking a conversion to the European way of life. Diseases carried by the Spanish decimated the Americans, diminishing their ability to oppose colonization.
• The last stage of the European conquest was the evangelism, being the imposition of the Catholic religion in the area, converting the American polytheists into believers of the predominant religion in Europe. This was due in part to the fact that the Pope himself had asked the Spanish and Portuguese to evangelize the American infidels, giving them permission to conquer the area under that condition.

To continue this lesson on the characteristics of the conquest of America, we must talk about the many peculiarities existing at this stage, since it was a key moment in history, and has unique characteristics compared to other conquests or wars. Some of the very special characteristics of the conquest are the following.

Bloody conquest

For many historians the American conquest it was a genocide, since the deaths carried out by the Spanish in American lands are enormous. All the towns that faced the Spanish were devastated, since the European military forces were much more powerful than the American ones. To this must be added the enormous amount of diseases carried by the Europeans, which were fatal to the natives, who died en masse. In total there is talk of about 70 million dead, being the largest number of any war in history.

Europe divided the continent

As happened with Africa years later, the Europeans decided that the American lands were belonged, and began a conquest to divide the continent into parts as if from a cake will try. Spain conquered from Río de la Plata to Mexico, the Portuguese took over what is now Brazil, the British conquered part of North America, and other countries such as Holland or France were taking small areas American.

The role of the Church

The role of the pope In the conquest, since he had given bulls to give permission for the conquest as long as the population was evangelized, he gave a great religious spirit to the conquest. An attempt was made to justify the murder and violence by giving an air of crusade to the massacre, since they were due recover souls for christianity. The strong repression that Americans suffered to lose their customs and embrace Christianity is still remembered in American lands.

Slavery

After the conquest the transfer of African slaves to the American continent, being essential for the exploitation of the great amount of resources that existed in the region. To this was added the case of the Native Americans, who although they were not slaves if they were in a middle point, called serfdom. Both groups became servants and slaves of the Europeans who used them to exploit the continent as if it were their property.

Of mixed race

Relations between natives and Europeans led to numerous cases of miscegenation, even creating legal texts that spoke of the resulting mixture in each case of miscegenation. This miscegenation continued over the years, giving rise to the great multicultural situation in which the American continent is divided today. It should be taken into account that not all Europeans were so in agreement with miscegenation, being much more common in the Portuguese area than in the rest.

Globalization

The conquest of America can be considered the first world event, since it was the clash between Americans and Europeans, but one way or another also had Asian and African participation. The raw materials obtained in America and the new forms of navigation allowed the increase of the called international trade, being able to find in this conquest what we currently call globalization.