vants(Gorn, p.8). Substituting slave labor for material goods was a perfect way for the Europeans to procure the workers they needed. Unfortunately, the Indians were not able to maintain this type of labor and soon the Indian population started to suffer. In document 2, Bartolome de Las Casa shows us that the Spanish had attempted to enslave the natives but seemed to have failed by stating, they are less able to endure heavy labor and soon die of no matter what malady (Gorn, p.12). Divine also shows this by saying, The death of so many Indians deprived the conquerors, especially the Spanish, of indigenous workers needed to operate new mines and plantations (Divine, p.5). Due to the Indians being insufficient slave labors, the colonists had to start looking else where for slave labors. Divine explains this by saying, This loss may have caused colonists throughout the new world to seek a substitute labor force in Africa (Divine, p.5). Regardless of how they were treated, this system relegated the natives to a status of being inferior and uncivilized. Another situation that compounded the exploitation of the natives was the initial belief that the newcomers were gods arriving to punish the Indians. In document 3 Motecuhzoma says, Our lord, you are weary you have come to your cityyour have come here to sit on your throne, to sit under its canopy (Gorn, p.15). The leaders of the gods, the conquistadors such as Columbus and Cortes, all seem to have exploited the native population, due to the fact that they were treated like kings in a foreign land. In addition to outright greed being a reason for the exploitation of the native populations, a misconception of who the Indians really were, and a naivet when faced with the truth led the European conquerors to take advantage of their new subjects. Many Europeans viewed the new world as a mythical land without adversity, like the Garden of Eden, a Heaven on Earth. We can see thi...
