In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, European nations began to claim different regions in the New World. Using new sea technologies such as the astrolabe and improved navigation techniques, Europeans sought new trade routes to the Indian Ocean and Asia. Sailing west and finding new continents instead, the Europeans soon realized the economic potential of the Americas. The Spanish, French, and British each took a unique approach to how they utilized the New World territories in which they settled, resulting in distinct and profound patterns of social development. The Spanish had two major goals: to gain wealth and to spread Catholicism to the native populations. Realizing the potential to mine precious metals and profit from large-scale agriculture, the Spanish forced American Indians into labor, such as through the encomienda system. Violence and deception were often used to subdue the indigenous populations, aided by the technological superiority of European weapons and the spread of devastating diseases. Although some Spanish came as missionaries with the goal of converting American Indians to Christianity and often protested the abusive treatment of the American Indians, even missions sometimes essentially forced labor and coerced assimilation to Spanish culture. In the long …show more content…
Using the St. Lawrence River for transportation and trade, the French profited from trading fur pelts, particularly beaver, with the American Indians, and then sending the pelts to Europe. These traders profited from the knowledge and goods of the American Indian populations who lived there, and certainly desired to develop mutually profitable relationships with them. Overall, this more cooperative relationship helped preserve American Indian cultures and led to alliances between the French and different American Indian nations. These alliances benefited the French in later wars with the