“God, glory, and gold” –Europeans broke away from the area they confined themselves in for the almost a millennium in search for these. Although the Europeans never really lost touch which the outside world, their contact with non-European civilization stayed limited. Europeans soon embarked on many overseas journeys and found what was known as the “New World.” Many explorers such as Christopher Columbus found native people in the “New World.” Despite the differences from Europeans, the natives flourished in their own way; however, that all changed when Europeans flooded the land. The exploration and colonization on the native peoples in the fifteenth century by explorers such as Columbus and Cortés killed much of the population due to foreign …show more content…
In a letter to Santangel, the man who persuaded Queen Isabella to fund Columbus, Columbus wrote about how he gave the Indians many items to gain their affection so that they would convert (Document 2). Every attempt was made in order to veer the natives away from their gods (Document 1). Some Native Americans incorporated the Christian beliefs into their own beliefs. Despite the Europeans’ efforts, many still did not convert. Brave souls such as Chief Hatuey resisted the faith that was being presented to them and held on strongly to their own beliefs. Hatuey believed that the only reason the Spanish wanted to convert natives was to gain gold and jewels. When captured by the Spanish conquistadors and given the chance to be baptized, Hatuey refused because he did not wish to go to the same place after death as the Spanish (Document 9). The Spanish declared The Spanish Requirement, or El Requerimiento, which gave the Spanish military to assert their power over the natives. Craving religious unity, the Spanish made many plans to convert as many as they could to Christianity. This threatened that if natives did not convert, a war would be wages and they would be enslaves (Document 5). Frightened by these words, many more converted to