Spanish vs. English colonization of America Essay - 1

Spanish vs. English colonization of America - Essay utilizationSpanish conquest and colonization. There were millions of people living in the Americas when Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492. In the avocation centuries the population of the Native Americans decreased steadily (Brading 48). The writings of the Dominican friar Bartolom de Las Casas vividly depict atrocities attached on the natives by the Spanish conquistadors. It was a general rule among Spaniards to be cruel not tho cruel, but extraordinarily cruel so that harsh and bitter treatment would prevent Indians from daring to imply of themselves as human beings or hav-ing a minute to think at all. (Las Casas 70). At the same time, the Spanish rulers in America were unhappy at the high mortality rate of the natives, since they wanted to exploit the Indians laborers.The Spaniards were move to converting their American subjects to Christianity, often by force. However, as Cook mentions (94), American groups simply blende d Catholicism with their tralatitious beliefs, which could not have been regarded as a success. Nowadays, among many scholars it is believed that epidemic disease was the main beget of the population decline the figure of 80% is mentioned related to those who may have died due to European diseases, such(prenominal) as chicken-pox and measles (Cook 94, 212).