disrupted the lifestyles and cultures of the Indians. The goals of the Spanish was to dominate and colonize the silver and gold laden countries of Central America, Mexico, and the southern territory North America. The Spanish came at around 1492 and were famed with easily manipulating the natives, earning friendships, kidnapping, and luring innocent Indians onto their boats to be whisked away to Europe to be sold as slaves. Upon first contact with the Arawaks, Columbus noted that With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want. Zinn pg.1 Originally settling in the southeastern parts of North America, they traveled down the coast into Mexico and beyond all the way to Baja California. IN 1495 the Spanish went on a great slave raid, treating the natives like cattle to make up for the gold that they did not find. They used the Indians as slave labor on large encomiendas or plantations in which a man of the name of Las Casas recorded the manner in which the Indians were treated. He noted that The Spanish became more and more conceited everyday....They rode the backs of Indians if they were in a hurry. Total control let to total cruelty. In 1559 the Spanish came north of Mexico and began to establish authority, in their path capturing slaves and destroying villages. New Mexico was a big target region for missionary activity. Santa Fe became the center of Spanish colonization. The Spanish weld on in depth incursions into the gulf regions, primarily for missionary purposes. According to Nash; In California and Florida, they would gather natives into large mission complexes where priests closely supervised every aspect of their lives,....attempting to bring about a full social and cultural reorientation of native life.pg.113 In Mexico they would surround a village and build churches on many sides which led to a town and church oriented religious aspect. Called Pops Rebellion, in the 1670s when the Jesuits tried to fo...
