Colonial America:
Historiographical Transformations
and Spanish Colonization
Teaching American History
Webb, Missouri
Alan Gibson’s Email
Agibson@csuchico.edu
General Points of this
Presentation
• The study of colonial America has been radically transformed since
the 1960s.
• Colonization did not take based upon an east to west trajectory.
• Colonization was hardly an exclusively English affair, but rather was
the result of contests for the continent primarily by four European
powers: France, Great Britain, Spain, and the Netherlands. But …
• English settlements deserve a special place in the study of the
American history because of their contributions to the development
of our political culture and institutions.
• Colonization should be taught as a contest between these nations
for the North American continent as well as a series of complex and
shifting interactions between the colonists, natives, transported
slaves, and authorities at home and in the mother country
Historiographical
Transformations in the
Study of the
Settlement of America
The Transformation of the Story of
the Settlement of North America
• In the past, the story of the settlement of what would
become the United States has been told as a celebratory
and narrowly confined narrative of the creation of a new
people in a new land. The settlement of North America,
according to this story of “American Exceptionalism,”
was the upbeat story of English colonists who fled
religious persecution and came to new land seeking and
securing prosperity and liberty, planting the seeds of
democracy, and gaining the character traits that we
associate with Americans (individualism, equalitarianism,
and acquisitiveness) when confronted with this new
continent.
Partial Truths in the Old Story
• By 1640, the great majority of free colonists were better
fed, clothed, and housed than their contemporaries in
England where about half of the people lived in
destitution.
• Colonial America did not have nobles and aristocrats in
comparison with Europe. More people participated in
politics in the colonies, especially those without wealth.
Town meetings were held in New England and
representative legislative assemblies throughout the
colonies. In a sense, the seeds of democracy were sewn
in the colonies.
• Many of the colonists did flee Europe to avoid religious
persecution, especially the Puritans.
The New Story (North America
as a Contested Wilderness)
Beginning in the 1960s and accelerating (though not
without resistance), a new story of the settlement of
North America has been told. Now scholars emphasize
the diversity of the peoples engaged in settlement, the
multiplicity of nations acting (the importance of
Spanish, French, and Dutch colonization), the
multifarious character of the colonists’ motives, the
disease and difficulty of the endeavor, and the
exploitation and cruelty of these peoples to each other.
Finally, scholars have emphasized the paradoxical and
ambiguous character of the development of democracy
and liberty (especially religious liberty) in colonial
America.
Diversity of the
Peoples Who
Settled North
America
The Diversity of the Peoples Who
Colonized North America
• The Spanish, Russians, French, Dutch, and British colonized North
America at roughly the same time. The Spanish colonized Florida
and migrated from settlements in what is now Mexico north into what
is now the state of New Mexico and California; Russians colonized
Alaska; the French colonized in the Great Lakes, Quebec, and
throughout the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys all the way down to
New Orleans; the English colonized not only on the east coast but
also in Hawaii. Obviously, when all of these nations and nationalities
are considered, settlement did not take place only from Europe to
the east coast of North America or even only east to the west, but
also west to east across the Bering Strait, north from Latin America,
and south from the Canadian territory. The contest between foreign
powers for control over the North American territory is of course
integral to the study of American history.
Spanish Colonization (Florida, New
Mexico, and California)
• San Agustin or St. Augustine 1565
• Santa Fe 1607
• Taos 1609
• El Paso 1659
• Tuscon 1709
• San Antonio 1718
• Laredo 1755
• San Diego 1769
• San Francisco 1776
• Los Angeles 1781
French Colonization (Florida,
Canada, the Great Lakes,
Louisiana and Missouri)
• Fort Caroline (Florida) 1562
• Quebec 1608
• Montreal 1642
• Green Bay 1634
• Sault Ste. Marie 1641
• Cahokia 1699
• Pensacola 1696
• Mackinac 1700
• Detroit 1701
• Mobile 1710
• Natchez 1716
• New Orleans 1718
• Baton Rouge 1719
• Vincennes 1724
• Ste Genevieve 1750
• St. Louis 1764
British Colonization
• Jamestown 1609
• Plimouth or Plymouth 1620
• Boston 1630
• Charleston 1670
• Philadelphia 1682
• Savannah 1733
• Louisville 1778
• Nashville 1780
• Cincinnati 1788
• Hawaii
Dutch Colonization
• New Amsterdam – New York, 1626
The Multifarious Motives of those
who voluntarily came to North
America in the 17th century?
• Among those who came to settle, there
were diverse reasons for their choice to
come to North America and almost
certainly face a difficult and short life.
Some came to conquer; others to settle.
Many came and left – which is another
relatively untold story in American history.
“We’re Americans. We have been kicked out
of the Best Countries in the World.”
(Motives for Settlement)
• Religious Freedom for Religious Dissenters - Much more so from Britain than from
Spain and France which for the most part did not allow dissenters to colonize.
• Second, third, and fourth sons of Aristocrats
• Indentured Servants or Engages among the French – By far, the most numerous and
thus important group.
• Adventurers and Fortune Seekers: John Smith, Sir Walter Raleigh, the adelantados
from Spain, Fur Traders In Canada, land speculators in Jamestown.
• Criminals – many facing death penalties. Some came to “New France” – More came
to Louisiana. Georgia was founded as a penal colony.
• In Britain, joint Stock Companies supported settlement of the North American
continent because they sought a) a short route to the Pacific and to India b) extensive
mineral wealth
• The Governments of Britain, the Netherlands, France (until 1632 and the revocation
of the “Edict of Nantes”) encouraged North American settlement as a means of
quelling discontent and enhancing the status quo of those in the home country by
exporting portions of the society that were outcasts or supported change.
• In short, the colonists came for the freedom to create their own religious
communities, for opportunity and profit, and for a place to be more significant that in
Europe.
Involuntary Colonists – the Slaves
• The Africans who were enslaved and
forced to America in the slave trade were
from many different tribes including
Ashanti, Fulani, Ibo, Malagasy, Mandingo,
and Yoruba.
Growth of Slavery
• In 1640, there were 150 blacks reported in
Virginia. In 1650, about 300. By 1700, there
were 13,000 slaves in Virginia. By this time, they
constituted 13% of the population. Finally, during
the first half of the 18th century, their numbers
and proportion continued to grow. By 1750, they
constituted 150,000 people and about 40% of
the population of the colony. (See Taylor,
American Colonies, 154) See handouts 1-3
provided by Dr. Gibson.
The Natives
• Conquerors and colonists of course did not find an
unpopulated or virgin land. Native Americans already on
the continent included literally hundreds of linguistically
distinct people. “The native peoples of North America
spoke at least 375 distinct languages by 1492.” (Taylor,
American Colonies, 10.) Another old myth that has been
destroyed by recent scholarship is that the cultures of
natives were stagnate i.e. that they were much the same
as they had been for generations. We now know that in
fact Indian cultures were in a constant process of
transformation.
Diversity (summarized)
• Most broadly, the American colonies presented
an example of an “unprecedented mixing of
radically diverse peoples - African, European,
and Indian - under conditions stressful for all.
The colonial intermingling of peoples – and of
microbes, plants, and animals from different
continents – was unparalleled in speed and
volume in global history.”[1]
•
[1] Alan Taylor, American Colonies, xi.
The Impact of Disease on the
Settlement and Demographic
Transformation of North America
European settlers brought diseases into North America which the
immune system of Natives was unable to fight and thus they died in
the thousands. The introduction of disease or more likely diseases
(including the bubonic plague) preceded the establishment of
permanent English settlements in the colonies. This precipitated a
huge demographic transformation. In 1770, there were about 1.6
million Native Americans on the North American continent and about
330,000 Europeans and Africans. By 1800, there were about 1.1
million Natives Americans, many of whom now lived west of the
Mississippi and 5.5 million Europeans and Africans. Disease also
killed thousands of “English” colonists. The North American
continent was settled literally in a race to replace dead colonists and
Indians with living colonists. As a result of these massive deaths,
“between 1492 and 1776, North America lost population, as
diseases and wars killed Indians faster than colonists could
settle.” (Alan Taylor, American Colonies, xi.)
The Difficulty of Settlement
• Many Native American tribes were nomadic and
lived by foraging, farming, hunting, and fishing.
Unlike the English, French, and Spanish
colonists, they knew how to survive on the North
American continent. Furthermore, many of the
early attempts at settlement were
entrepreneurial ventures by men who did not
plan on farming and foraging. Many colonists
relied on the generosity and help of Native
Americans for food and starved in times of
shortage. E.g. “The Lost Colony of Roanoke.”
Cruelty Between the Diverse
Groups and Within Them
• Brutality between Native peoples and colonizers was as much the
rule as the exception. Periods of cooperation and shared
“thanksgiving” celebrated in our national myths were unfortunately
not common. Indians and colonists were also brutal to members of
their own group. Punishments for violations of laws were extremely
harsh and meant to set an example. One man who was convicted of
stealing two pints of oatmeal to allay his hunger was punished by
having a long needle thrust into his tongue to prevent him from ever
eating again. He was then chained to a tree and starved to death as
a lesson to other colonists. Some English colonizers went off to live
with the Indians and were welcomed by them if they brought guns or
tools. If recaptured by the colonists, the colonists who had
abandoned the settlement were often tortured before being put to
death.
Systems of Exploitation (Slavery
and Indentured Servitude)
The relative prosperity of the English colonists in
comparison to their English contemporaries resulted
primarily from the shortage of labor and abundance of
land on the North American continent. With labor scarce
and land plentiful, free colonists were not forced to work
for others and were eventually able to secure relative
prosperity. But the colonists prosperity was achieved, in
part, by taking lands from Native Americans.
Furthermore, the very conditions that made for the
relative prosperity of the colonists – the scarcity of labor
– led to the importation of unfree laborers (slaves) by the
thousands.
Indentured Servitude
• More than half the European immigrants to the colonies
prior to the American Revolution were indentured
servants. Many were criminals. Others were poor,
orphans, or debtors. Indentured servants signed
contracts for right of passage to North America for four to
seven years labor. Skilled laborers might be able to
negotiate a better contract. Indentured servants were
under the control of a master who could discipline them
with force. They were usually not allowed to marry or
have children. Many indentured servants fled their
masters. Indentured servitude was a system of labor,not
of apprenticeship.
The Foreignness of
Colonial Society
(Church and State)
Colonial society was foundationally different than the
world that we live. It contained a different understanding
of the relationship of church and state. There was, as
Michael Zuckerman has put it, “totalitarianism of true
believers.“ The “Peaceable Kingdoms” of the colonial
period were not theocracies (priests did not rule), but
rather communities of religious uniformity in which
taxation was used to support the Christian religion, there
was compulsory church attendance, the criminalization
of sin, political control of doctrine and clergy, and
exclusion of political participation for non- believers.
Foreignness continued
(the Individual and Society)
Colonial society contained a different
understanding of the relationship of the
individual to society. In these colonial
societies, rights were not conceived of
spheres of autonomy and liberties carried
duties with them. The needs of the few
and the one were subordinated to the
needs of the many.
The Ambiguity and Paradoxical
Quality of Colonial America
• “Democracy” grew up alongside slavery and in
context of religious authority (particularly in the
form of the New England town meeting and the
congregational organization of churches).
• As stated earlier, the conditions that allowed for
prosperity for the free colonists – the abundance
of land and the need for laborers – eventually
led to the importation of thousands and
thousands of slaves.
The Ambiguity and Paradoxical
Quality of Colonial America
• Religious toleration grew from the splintering of biblical
commonwealths. Many colonists had come in search of
religious liberty, but did not intend to grant it. They came
to promote their religious orthodoxy and avoid the
imposition of someone else’s religious orthodoxy.
Religious toleration expanded only as dissenters fled
and created their own colonies and (later) as diversity (at
least among Protestant groups) expanded and made
religious orthodoxy difficult to impose.
• Finally, the colonists had unprecedented freedom in the
New World. Who was to regulate them? But this freedom
came at the expense of terror, insecurity, and insularity.
The Settlement of the
North American
Continent
Spanish
Conquest and
Colonization
Spanish Colonization of North
America
• The Spanish Empire in the 16th century exceeded the
size of the Roman Empire at its zenith. By 1550, Spanish
territories included the Caribbean and large sections of
North and South America, including Mexico and Peru. In
the initial decades of the 16th century, the Spanish
established gold mines, cattle ranches, and sugar
plantations in the Caribbean (especially in Cuba and
Hispaniola), but the populations of these areas declined
rapidly because of disease and overwork. This led the
Spanish to engage in slave raids and the conquest of
natives peoples throughout central America, especially in
Mexico but also on the coasts of North and South
America.
America’s First Conquistadors,1492-1536
• Christopher Columbus
• Hernán Cortés
• Francisco Pizarro
• Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo
• Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
• Juan Ponce De León
• Cabeza de Vaca
• Hernando De Soto
The Conquistadors
(Guns, Germs, and Steel)
• The most famous of the slave raids and conquests by
conquistadors was Cortez’s conquering of the Aztecs in
1519-1521.
• In the 1530s, Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca
empire and explored the western coast of South America
and Peru.
• The Spanish also conquered the Mayans during the
1540s.
• Cortez, Pizarro, and the other conquistadors were able
to defeat the native peoples of Latin America despite
being greatly outnumbered because of the superior
technology of Spanish weapons (guns), their use of dogs
and horses, the help of local allies, and (most
importantly) because of disease.
Explorations of Land that would
Become the United States
• Legends of great cities of gold and the desire to exploit the labor of
the natives, also led to extensive expeditions into the territory that
would become the United States. The most famous of these
legends, spread by Cabeza de Vaca, was of the seven golden cities
of Cibola.
• Pounce De Leon began his exploration of Florida in 1513.
• In 1528, Cabeza de Vaca traversed the Southwest, first as an
adelantado, then as a slave, and eventually as a healer for the
Indians.
• In the 1530s, Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo explored the Pacific Coast all
the way to Oregon.
• In expeditions begun in 1539 and 1543, Hernando de Soto and
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado engaged in separate conquistador
expeditions into American southeast (Soto) and southwest
(Coronado).
Cabeza De Vaca
Justifications of Exploration
and Conquest
• Like French and British colonization efforts, Spanish colonization
was justified on the basis of a particular view of Native Americans as
“barbarians” and “uncivilized.” Spaniards’ beliefs in their superiority,
in turn, were rooted primarily in three propositions:
• 1) natives’ religion (which was characterized by Europeans as
superstition )
• 2) land use (many tribes were nomadic and did not settle and use
the same land year after year)
• 3) gender relations (in many tribes women performed much of the
manual labor including harvesting crops).
• These beliefs and practices were foreign to Europeans and
considered backward by them. By Christianizing the natives and
forcing them to adopt new social and religious practices, the
Europeans believed that they were bringing “freedom” to them.
Spanish Justifications of
Exploration and Conquest
• The Spanish justified their conquests on the basis of
efforts to Christianize and civilize natives. The most
shocking practice of the Aztecs that justified their
slaughter in the eyes of the Spanish was their
uncompromising and frequent use of human sacrifice.
The Aztecs believed that the fertility of the earth
depended upon their rites of human sacrifice.
• Spanish goals of conversion also overlapped the
Protestant Reformation and were paradoxically
strengthened by it. As the Reformation spread, Spain –
the most Catholic nation of Europe – felt even more
compelled to win converts to Catholicism. As more and
more Europeans became Protestant, the need to win
converts from the New World increased.
“The Maxim of the
Conqueror Must be to Settle”
• Large numbers of more ordinary
Spaniards also came in search of the
opportunity of a better life. 225,000 came
in the 16th century and over 750,000 in the
three centuries of Spanish rule in Latin
America. Unlike Britain, Spain did not
allow its religious dissenters to emigrate.
Indeed, non-Spaniards and non-Christians
were not allowed to come to Spanish
colonies.
The Growth of the Spanish Empire
• The Spanish built their empire in the Caribbean and
North and South America between 1519 and 1550 and it
continued to expand thereafter. By 1574, there were
over 300 Spanish towns in the Americas. The Spanish
empire was a urban civilization an “empire of towns.”
The center of the Spanish empire in North America was
Mexico City – a vast and complex city built on the ruins
of the ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlan (Ta- noch –tit-
lan). The urban centers of the Spanish empire far
exceeded in complexity and population those
established by the British. (Taylor, American Colonies,
54, 61; Foner, Give Me Liberty, 23).
The Structure of Spanish Authority
• King
• Council of the Indies (Spanish body in
charge of colonial administration).
• Viceroys
• Local Governors (Initially the adelantados
(a –de- lant- todd- os) who had financed
the exploration and settlement of the land)
• There were no elective assemblies in the
new territories.
“The Black Legend”
• The Spanish treated natives – Mayans, Incas, and
Aztecs – with infamous cruelty, slaughtering thousands.
The reality of that cruelty but also the desire of the other
European imperial powers (the French, English,
Portuguese, and Dutch) to justify their own imperialism
and cruelty led to the creation of the belief that the
Spanish were particularly savage in their treatments of
native peoples. The British, French, and Dutch argued
that their colonization would be in the name of humanity
because the Spanish were so cruel. They would liberate
natives from the cruelty of the Spanish. This became
known as “the Black Legend.” Actually, the Spanish were
probably no more or less cruel than other Europeans,
but had greater opportunity since they arrived first.
The Natives as a Pool
of Forced Labor
• The Spanish, unlike British colonists in North
America, were able to force the indigenous
Indian populations of the regions into labor on
their behalf. The large numbers of these Indians
– they always outnumbered the colonists -
meant that African slaves did not have to be
imported. Instead, tens of thousands of native
Indians were forced to work in gold and silver
mines and on large scale farms called
haciendas.
“The Entire Human Race is One”
“The Entire Human Race is One”
• The most outspoken critic of Spanish policy with the
natives was of course the Dominican priest Bartoleme de
las Casas. In A Very Brief Account of the Destruction of
the Indies, Las Casas recounted the massacre of natives
that attended Spanish colonization. The Indians, Las
Casas argued, are “totally deprived of their freedom and
were put in the harshest, fiercest, most terrible servitude
and captivity.” Las Casas also argued that the natives
were rational beings, not beasts and should be given the
full rights of Spaniards. Las Casas writings had the effect
of spreading the idea of the “Black Legend.” Even
though he argued for the reform of the Spanish system,
his writings were taken up by Spain’s rivals and used to
suggest their unique cruelty.
Were the Natives Slaves?
• Were the natives slaves? They certainly were
not free. They were forced to labor for others
and not allowed to collect the fruits of that labor.
But unlike the English, the Spanish envisioned
their eventual assimilation and gave them rights.
Indeed, the Spanish more freely intermarried
with the native populations. Relatively few
women from Spain came from the colonies. As
early as 1514 the Spanish government approved
of such marriages. The mestizos (mess–t–a–
zos) were formed from such a union.
Were the Natives Slaves?
• Furthermore, in 1542, in large part
because of Las Casas’ writings and efforts
on behalf of the Indians, Spain adopted
the “New Laws” setting forth the
proposition that Indians could no longer be
enslaved. This was not universally obeyed
and it was hard to enforce. Still, it was in
effect.
Reform of the Encomienda System
• In 1550, the Encomienda system was abolished.
This system had given to the first settlers in an
area the right to Indian lands and the right to
forced labor from them. The Encomienda system
was replaced by the Repartimiento system in
which residents of the village were legally free,
were given access to land, had to be paid for
their labor, and could not be sold. Still, they were
required to labor (for some pay) for a fixed
period on behalf of the Spanish.
“Royal Orders for the New
Discoveries”
• In 1573, aware of the cruelty leveled against native populations by
conquistadors and of the reputation that it had given the Spanish,
the Crown issued the “Royal Orders for the New Discoveries.”
These orders argued that Christianity could be spread without force
or injury to natives. These orders exposed a long standing rift
between conquistadors on the one hand and the Franciscan priests
and the Crown on the other about the necessity of massacres in the
subjugation of native populations. As adelantados , the
conquistadors had to finance their own expeditions and were
charged with subduing native cultures. In exchange for
accomplishing these tasks, they were named the governors of the
area that they conquered and were allowed by the Crown to keep a
large percentage of the fruits of the raids (slaves, gold,etc). They
thus wanted a quick profit and believed that it was necessary to use
violence freely against natives to intimidate and subordinate them.
“Pacification”
• In contrast, the Crown and the Church
(especially Franciscan priests) wanted to
Christianize the natives and draw a steady, long-
term profit from their labor. They were thus less
enthusiastic about plunder. “The Royal Orders
for the New Discoveries” stated that Christianity
could be spread “peacefully and charitably” or
without force or injury to natives. This edict
established the policy of “pacification”
(conversion without violence).
Gold and Silver to Spain … and to
French Pirates
• Whether by conquest or pacification, the conquistadors
raids and Spanish military expeditions led to the
enslavement of thousands of native peoples who, in turn,
were put to work mining precious metals. Between 1500
and 1650, according to Alan Taylor, the Spanish shipped
about 181 tons of gold and 16,000 tons of silver back to
Spain. The problem, however, was that much of this gold
and silver was taken back from the Spanish by English
and especially French pirates. During the 1550s, French
pirates reduced by half the revenues that the Spanish
crown took from the New World. This “piracy” was
actually a form of state sponsored piracy encouraged
and rewarded by the governments of these countries.
(Taylor, American Colonies, 63.)
St. Augustine
(San Agustin)
St. Augustine (San Agustin): The
First Permanent Settlement in
North America
• Most important, state sponsored piracy and the rivalry between the
French and the Spanish led in 1565 to the first permanent
settlement – St. Augustine, Florida - in the territory that would later
become the United States. St. Augustine is, in the words of the
historian Eric Foner, “the oldest site in the United States
continuously inhabited by European settlers and their descendants.”
(Foner, Give Me Liberty, 30). In 1564, French Huguenots
established a colony on what is now the St. Johns River near
Jacksonville, Florida. This was known as Fort Caroline. It lasted only
a year. Fort Caroline was both a haven for religious dissenters
escaping sectarian fighting between Catholics and Protestants and
a French outpost to launch attacks against Spanish vessels.
Spanish vessels shipping gold to the mother country were
particularly vulnerable as they passed along the coast of Florida.
(See Handout 4, Kenneth Davis, “A French Connection.”)
St. Augustine (San Agustin): The
First Permanent Settlement in
North America
• A French colony in the Spanish territory of Florida was
unacceptable to the Spanish crown, but one established
to raid Spanish ships was unthinkable. The crown
therefore dispatched a Spanish naval officer named
Pedro Menendez de Aviles to Florida, named him
governor of the territory, and ordered him to raze Fort
Caroline. Menendez eventually accomplished this goal
and executed some 300 Frenchmen in two separate
massacres. Menendez then founded St. Augustine about
40 miles south of where Fort Caroline had been.
St. Augustine: The First Permanent
Settlement in North America
• In addition to serving as a base to thwart
French piracy, St. Augustine was also to
serve as a base for recovering gold lost to
native Indians who had plundered ship
wrecked vessels and taken Spanish
seamen captive. With these goals in mind,
Menendez also built seven other posts
along the Gulf and the Atlantic shores,
including Santa Elena (at what is now Port
Royal Sound in South Carolina.)
St. Augustine: The First Permanent
Settlement in North America
• In 1570, Menendez even established a
Jesuit mission in the Chesapeake Bay
near what would become Jamestown. This
mission, however, was soon overtaken by
Native Americans. The Spanish never
established a permanent settlement in the
Chesapeake. This left the Chesapeake
region open to English colonization.
St. Augustine: The First Permanent
Settlement in North America
• Isolated and subject to both Indian and French
attack, the settlements that Menendez
established never lured colonists. Indeed, by
1574, only St. Augustine and Santa Elena
remained and the later was evacuated in 1587.
Instead of colonization, Spanish authorities
turned to conversion. This was done by
establishing a series of missions that ran north
into what is now Georgia, in north central
Florida, and on the Gulf coast.
St. Augustine: The First Permanent
Settlement in North America
• Although it was periodically attacked and
proved to be a burden to the Spanish
crown, St. Augustine remained in place for
many decades. Furthermore, the Spanish
missionaries remained in place and
influential for many years.
New Mexico and
the Rio Grande
New Mexico
• In addition to colonizing St. Augustine and creating a
mission system throughout Florida and the Gulf coast,
the Spanish also colonized the Rio Grande in the area
that is now New Mexico. The most famous city to come
out of this is Sante Fe. Colonization of this area was
pursued in order to obtain new subjects and tax payers,
promote “pacification” of the natives, and prevent
European rivals from occupying this territory as a base
for attack. Here, as in many areas of North America,
myths of rich cities with streets of gold also fueled
expeditions and the general effort to colonize. The more
concrete and sober – but ultimately also far fetched hope
- was to find places to establish silver mines.
Don Juan De Onate
• In 1598, Don Juan de Onate was named the adelantado
for the Rio Grande Valley and was charged with
pacifying this area and founding the colony of New
Mexico. In the spring of 1598, Onate led 500 colonists
(including 129 soldiers and 7 Franciscan friars) into the
northern Rio Grande Valley in order to pacify the native
Pueblo Indians, find mineral wealth, and exploit their
labor. The colonists initially occupied a Pueblo village of
the natives and made increasing demands upon them,
taking their crops, clothes, and housing. By January
1599, a rebellion had already taken place in which
Onate’s nephew and ten other soldiers were killed.
Swift and Cruel Retribution
• Onate ordered swift and cruel retribution.
Over 800 of the Pueblo natives were put to
death. Many others were put on trial.
Eventually, all males over 12 were
sentenced to twenty years of slavery. Any
males over 25 also had a foot severed off
in order to prevent them from escaping.
Don Juan De Onate
• Onate engaged in numerous expeditions
in search of fabulous treasures. These
proved to be fruitless and drained his
authority and credibility. Eventually, many
of the colonists fled back to Mexico.
Meanwhile, the Friars reported Onate’s
incompetence and cruelty to the Crown.
He was removed from office as the
governor of the province by the Viceroy in
1607.
Santa Fe
• Eventually a new governor was named
and was ordered to establish a city outside
of the Pueblo settlements. This new city
became Santa Fe. In order not to provoke
the natives, the new governor employed
only 50 soldiers. The effort was redirected
toward “pacification” and the Friars were
allowed to pursue this goal.
Santa Fe
• The New Mexico – Santa Fe colonization
experiment was never really successful. At its
zenith, there were only 1000 colonists. The
colony was difficult to supply with goods.
Distance also made exports impractical. Only a
limited number of elites ever had even decent
lives. These were the families who had been
given - in direct contraction of official policy -
encomienda rights to native land, labor, and
tribute despite. Otherwise, Santa Fe was known
as a place of danger and poverty.
The New Mexico Missions,
1610-1680
• Like Florida, the New Mexico settlement
was never a successful colony but
became successful as a system of
missions. By 1628, there were 50 missions
in the Rio Grande and Pecos Valley
region.
Friars, Colonists, Natives, and
Nomads
• The ousting of Onate led to a new system
of control in which the crown became
more sympathetic to the goals of
Franciscan Friars. The Friars were
backed (in most endeavors ) by the force
of a limited number of Spanish troops.
Nevertheless, the relationships between
the four groups in the region – the Friars,
the Governor, the remaining colonists, and
the natives – were quite complex.
The Friars and the Natives
• The Friars and natives lived in a state of surface serenity
and mutual cooperation but submerged disagreement
that could quickly ignite in violence. The Friars lived lives
of sacrifice and self-denial. Unlike the adelantados and
governor, they did not want the property of the Pueblo
natives but instead their conversion and their labor to
build and maintain the missions. For their part, the
Pueblo natives never really gave up their traditional
religion and its customs. Instead, they integrated
Christian principles into it as they fit their prior framework
of beliefs. The Friars never seemed to fully understand
or accept this.
The Governor, Colonists,
and Friars
• The Governors and the colonists wanted the
Natives for their labor. The governors and the
colonists had not taken a vow of poverty.
Indeed, the governors needed to recover the
money that they paid for their office. They thus
resented native labor being directed to build
and maintain the missions and not to their
ranches. They also worried that the Friars
demanded conversion of the natives to
Christianity too quickly. They feared that this
might cause revolt.
The Governor, Colonists,
and Friars
• The Friars, however, resented the fact that the governor
often did not enforce Christian religious practices. They
believed – rightly – that allowing natives to practice their
customary religious practices would undermine the
authority of the Friars. The Friars also opposed raids that
were ordered by the Governors to capture nomadic
Indians in the surrounding area to sell into slavery. For
the Governors, selling slaves became the way to make
money in this poor and distant land. But the Governors
ordered native Pueblos to help in these raids. The Friars
opposed this practice vehemently because it undermined
their goals of pacification and because it led the nomadic
Indians to engage in their own raids of revenge.
1675 Revival of Religious Rituals
• In 1675, the Pueblo natives decided to revive their
traditional religious rituals. These ceremonies created
great fear in the Friars and the governor and led to a
crackdown in which 47 Pueblo religious shamans were
arrested and three hanged (a fourth averted hanging by
committing suicide). The 43 remaining shamans were
first threatened with being sold into slavery. This met
with fierce resistance from the Pueblo natives who
threatened revolt. The 43 shamans were then publicly
whipped and humiliated. One of them was a then
unknown religious leader named Pope.
The Pueblo Revolt of 1680
• The threat of mass revolt prevented the sale of the 43
shamans into slavery, but five years later such a revolt
took place. The divisions among the Spanish authorities
suggested to the Pueblo natives that a rebellion might be
successful. Pueblo natives also resented the Friars’
unwillingness to let them practice aspects of their
traditional religion as they resented the cruelty and
exploitation of the governors, especially as established in
the encomienda system that took natives’ land, extorted
their labor, and ask tribute from them in the form of
blankets and maize.
The Pueblo Revolt of 1680
• In August of 1680, led by a charismatic religious leader named
Pope, the 17,000 Pueblo natives in the Rio Grande engaged in a
well-coordinated and successful rebellion against the Friars and the
governor. The rebels destroyed many of the missions and returned
to their native religious practices (including polygamy). By the
estimate of one scholar, “the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 was the greatest
setback that natives ever inflicted on European expansion in North
America.” (Taylor, American Colonies, 89) Within a couple of weeks,
one hundred years of colonization had been destroyed. By 1692-
1693, the Spanish under a new governor recaptured New Mexico
and Santa Fe. Still, the Spanish had learned their lesson and
governed the natives in more moderate terms, allowing them greater
economic independence, demanding less of their labor and
resources, and allowing them to integrate their traditional religious
practices into Catholicism.