Reasons for Rapid European Conquest & Cross & Sword Missions; and the Contrarian Work of the Indian Advocate Missionaries

Reasons for Rapid European Conquest

Though the Spanish conquistadors were significantly outnumbered by the indigenous populations in Latin and South America, the Spanish were able to effectively subjugate the Native American populations and conquer much of the New World. The primary reason that the Spanish were so successful in rapidly conquering the Americas is that they possessed several advantages that enabled them to outmatch the Native Americans militarily, including extensive knowledge of Latin and South America, superior military tactics and technologies, and the ability to transmit infectious diseases. Further, the conquering mentality that was instilled upon Europeans from the Iberian Peninsula provided them with a psychological inclination to dominate Native Americans in the New World.

The mindset that the Spanish possessed when they came into contact with the indigenous populations of the New World enabled them to mercilessly conquer and dominate native populations. As Chasteen explains, the conquering mentality that the Spanish and Portuguese possessed originated from their conflict with the Muslim Moors on the Iberian Peninsula. Though the Moors originally exhibited superior cultural achievements and dominated the peninsula, the Castilians and Portuguese engaged in a military struggle during the 15th century to push the Moors south towards Africa. As the statue of the “Moor-Slayer” at the Cathedral Santiago de Compostela in Spain reveals, the campaigns against the Moors instilled a respect for brutality among the Iberians. The image of a warrior decapitating Moor soldiers on horseback inspired stories of the Christian warrior and pilgrims from all backgrounds visited the church where the image was stored. The expulsion of the Moors confirmed the Spanish belief that they had the right to brutally conquer those who were religiously different from them.

Further, the military victory of the Moors provided the Iberians with many systems that they would need in order to dominate the native population in the New World. First, military conquest required the Spanish and Portuguese to develop systems of unified command that strengthened their military forces. Additionally, the conquest of the Moors provided Spain with the justification to consolidate its political power and expel infidels who did not conform to the Catholic Church. Finally, the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula encouraged Queen Isabel of the Castiles to fund the 1490 explorations of Christopher Columbus in order to expand Spain’s military influences. Thus, the Europeans had organizational and economic strength combined with the desire to expand their influence when they arrived in Latin and South America.

Along with a culture that supported conquest, one of the most important contributions to the victories of conquistadors Hernando Cortez and Francisco Pizzaro was their extensive understanding of Latin and South America and the indigenous people who inhabited the continent. Because a generation of Spaniards had already shared their experienced with the natives, the conquistadors knew what to expect in their encounters with the indigenous population. However, because the Aztecs did not have an understanding of the Spanish, they did not know what to expect from their encounter. Thus, the Aztecs allowed myth to stand in for true knowledge of the Europeans’ intentions.

Because of the foreign appearance of the Spanish, the Aztecs may have initially believed that the Spanish were gods, leading to their indecisiveness in determining how to respond to European aggressions. When Cortez arrived at Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs likely viewed his arrival as the fulfillment of tradition where the gods return. As an Aztec witness to the events surrounding Cortez’s march to Tenochtitlan noted:

The report of their coming was brought to Motecuhzoma, who immediately sent out messengers. It was as if he thought the new arrival was our prince Quetzalcoatle. This is what he felt in his heart: he has appeared! He has come back! He will come here, to the place of his throne and canopy, for that is what he promised when he departed. Motecuhzoma sent five messengers to greet the strangers and to bring them gifts.

As this account reveals, the Aztec ruler Moctezuma mistakenly believed that Cortez was the god Quetzalcoatl who had returned to the Aztec capital to fulfill a prophecy. As a result of this lack of this misjudgment, the Aztecs increased their vulnerabilities by being accommodating to Cortez’s army.

In addition to taking advantage of the comparative ignorance of the native populations, the Europeans possessed superior military strategies and technologies that they could wield against their indigenous foes. As an Aztec witness to Cortez’s invasion wrote, “…the white men… were very warlike, daring and valiant people, who carried superior weapons made of white metal. They said this because there was no iron among natives, only copper.” Francisco Pizzaro took advantage of a superior military strategy to surprise and conquer the Incans in South America. Because Pizzaro had an opportunity to practice conquering native populations throughout South America, he had developed the tactic of launching surprise attacks against groups of nobles. For example, Pizzaro took the Incan ruler Atahualpa hostage in 1532 and invited nobles to an enclosed square where his soldiers attacked the attendees with a canon and then proceeded to amputate the nobles by horseback. Along with the use of horses and guns to outmatch the Incans, Pizzaro also engaged in psychological warfare by killing the esteemed members of the community.

Finally, the ability to transmit infectious diseases was one of the most important advantages that the Europeans possessed over the indigenous populations. As Guns, Germs and Steel author Jared Diamond established, it is true that military superiority played a significant role in the defeat of the natives. As Diamond contended, Pizzaro’s surprise attacks on the Incans resulted in over 7,000 Incan deaths in ten minutes while his cavalry of 169 Spaniards received no casualties in battle. Yet, despite these staggering numbers, Diamond estimates that 95 percent of the indigenous casualties in North and South America were caused by “biological weapons,” such as smallpox, which accounted for 50 percent of the Incan deaths. As Diamond also explained, the reason that the indigenous people were susceptible to European diseases while the Europeans were immune was that the agricultural practices that Europeans adopted had already exposed them to infectious diseases. Specifically, the domestication of animals led to the development of infectious diseases that were unheard of on the American continents. Thus, because European immunity to these diseases was taken for granted, the Europeans unknowingly brought many deadly diseases that the native populations were defenseless against.

Another reason that disease was more deadly than military conquest for the natives is that disease often limited their strategic advantages over the Europeans and made contacts with benevolent Europeans just as dangerous. For example, in Brazil, the Portuguese, who arrived in 1500, were largely ineffective in their ability to extract labor from the native populations. Because the natives were non-sedentary, it was more difficult for the Portuguese to control their movements and force them to perform labor as slaves. Though the Portuguese engaged in destructive campaigns, their resources were consumed when captured natives escaped to the surrounding forests where it was difficult for European horses to follow with their weaponry. However, disease eventually decimated the native populations in South America, leaving an insufficient labor pool for the Portuguese and forcing them to turn to African slavery as an alternative. When the Jesuits attempted to build villages in order to introduce the ingenious Brazilians to their religion, disease broke out throughout the villages, leading to large death tolls. Thus, while non-sedentary natives could outrun the weapons of the Europeans, infectious disease was a force that they could not escape.

Prior to arriving in Latin and South American, Europeans from the Iberian Peninsula already possessed a mentality that prepared them to conquer people who were religiously and ethnically different from them. As their subjugation of the Moors demonstrated, the Spanish already held the view that brutality could be justified on religious grounds. In addition to this cultural mindset that allowed for the brutal suppression of others and territorial expansion, the Spanish and Portuguese benefited from their advanced knowledge of the natives that resided in Latin and South America. While the Europeans understood the best methods of subduing the natives, many groups, such as the Aztecs, believed that the Europeans were deities who arrived to fulfill prophecy. As a result, Cortez and other conquerors were able to take advantage of the ignorance of natives to surprise them militarily. Additionally, the advanced weaponry and the infectious diseases carried by Europeans played a critical role in enabling Europeans to decimate the native population in a short period of time. These factors worked together to enable Europeans to dominate Latin and South America with little resistance.

Cross & Sword Missions; and the Contrarian Work of the Indian Advocate Missionaries

During the Spanish colonization of Latin and South America, conflict emerged between the objectives of Spanish conquerors and the objectives of Spanish missionaries. Spanish conquerors were primarily motivated by economic gain yet held the desire to convert the native populations to Christianity by force. However, Spanish missionaries believed that the brutality waged upon the natives undermined their ability to positively promote their religion. As a result, many missionaries condemned these “cross and sword” styles of missionary activities. Among these advocate missionaries were Dominican monks Bartolome de las Casas and Antonio de Montesinos. Their protests against the activities of the Spanish colonists in the New World address the political and economic conditions that allowed corruption to flourish in the Americas and undermine the work of religious servants.

The differing views that monks held toward the indigenous people of Latin and South America informed their attitudes towards coercive military tactics. During early trips to the Americas, many Spaniards held a positive attitude towards the prospect of converting the Native Americans to the Christian faith. Documenting his impressions of indigenous Americans in his correspondence with the queen of Spain, Christopher Columbus wrote that the natives seemed very “inclined” to converting to the Christian religion because of their adequate communication skills. Overall, Columbus held a favorable impression of native culture while only noting that there is one island he has encountered where natives engaged in “monstrosities,” such as cannibalism. In 1540, Franciscan monk Fray Toribio de Motolinia, a missionary dispatched to central Mexico, expressed admiration for the values of the native population. As Motolinia noted in his correspondence, “There is hardly anything to hinder the Indians from reaching heaven, nothing like the obstacles which hinder us Spaniards and which submerge us.” As Motolinia’s comments express, he believed that the indigenous people possessed many qualities that made them better candidates for Christianity than their Spanish conquerors. However, some missionaries expressed discontent with the native population. For example, Dominican monk Fray Tomas Ortiz described the indigenous people along the northern coast of Colombia through the statement: “In short, I say that God never created people so steeped in vices and bestiality, with no leaven of goodness or politeness.” As these comments reveal, the Spanish held diverse opinions in their assessment of the suitability of the indigenous to be included in the Christian religion.

Yet in general, early missionaries also held a relatively positive view regarding the capabilities of most indigenous people to convert to Christianity. For example, early missionaries optimistically believed in the principle of tabula rasa, which asserted that indigenous cultures could be transformed into a “blank slate” upon which the values of Christianity could then be imposed. Thus, early missionaries focused on instilling Christian practices and rituals among indigenous Americans in order to replace any cultural practices that conflicted with Christian values. In a 1532 letter to Spain’s King Charles I, Flemish Franciscan monk Peter of Ghent described his efforts to attract Mexican Indians to Christianity by establishing medical services for the population and teaching reading and writing to indigenous boys. Further, he described his trips to nearby localities to destroy the idols that natives worship. Peter’s letter is representative of the blank slate approach because he attempts to assert the Christian religion through education and destroying competing cultural symbols and practices that can be regarded as idolatry. Yet, as critics of the blank slate approach to missionary activity assert that the missionaries were Eurocentric, coercing natives into being more like Europeans in their cultural expression. As Peter’s comments reveal, the tactics that early Christians utilized to convert the natives, though well-intentioned, resulted in a one-sided cultural exchange that was dismissive of the values of native traditions and practices.

While most missionary tactics were primarily benevolent, though Eurocentric in practice, the entanglement between politics, economics, and religion added an element of physical coercion to the missionary activities in Latin and South America. Because Spain derived its authority to conquer the Western Hemisphere from the Catholic Church, there was an inseparable religious component to Spain’s quest for territorial domination. In 1493, the Catholic Church first became a partner in Spain’s ventures when it established the Line of Demarcation where it settled a territorial dispute between Spain and Portugal. This 1493 declaration issued by Pope Alexander VI attempted to settle the colonization claims of Spain and Portugal by drawing a demarcation line across Azores and Cape Verdes Island. Though the initial agreement enabled Spain to obtain sole possession of all territories west of the demarcation line, Portugal successfully renegotiated the agreement in the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, which enabled Portugal to expand its western territory to include Brazil. However, the result of these two initial agreements is that Spain was allowed full access to Latin America and most of South America. Additionally, Spain was indebted to the Catholic Church for securing its possessions in the New World.

However, Spain’s expanded access did not come without conditions. The papal decree of 1508, Universalis Ecclesiae Regimen required that Spain commit to converting the inhabitants of the Americas to Christianity in exchange for their authority to rule. Yet, many advantageous concessions were initially made to the Spanish to aid them in achieving their imposed religious objectives. Specifically, the decree enabled the Spanish Crown to appoint and dispatch its own bishops. Yet this left room for corruption because secular authorities could oversee religious affairs without input from the Church. Further, the authority granted by the Church provided religious justification for Spain’s subjugation of the native population. The Requirement of 1513 was a proclamation that was read to the Native Americans that asserted that the Spanish Crown was granted the divine right to control the lands and inhabitants in the New World. As the proclamation read: Leaders and citizens of such-and-such town of this Mainland. Be it known to you that there is one true God, one Pope, and one King of Castile who is the rightful owner of these lands. You are hereby summoned to pay allegiance, etc. Should you fail to do so, take notice that we shall make just war upon you, and your lives and liberty will be forfeit, etc.

While the Spanish Crown played an active role in dispatching missionaries to Latin and South America, Spain’s policy of violently suppressing natives conflicted with the objectives of the missionaries. Dominican monks Bartolome de las Casas and Antonio de Montesinos describe the conflicts that emerged between the economic interests of Spanish explorers and the religious interests of the Spanish missionaries. Fray Bartolome de las Casas arrived in Hispaniola in 1502 where he later converted and became a priest in 1510. In his theology, Las Casas asserted that the Requirement simply poses as a religious edict but is simply a cover for economic gain in the New World. Further, Las Casas spoke out against the encomienda system, which forced indigenous people into slavery under the claim that their servitude would make them suitable for salvation. In his 1552 account of the activities of the Spanish in Latin America, Las Casas asserts that the natives are highly intelligent and possess the ability to be “perfected” by Christianity, yet the Spanish behave as “ravening wolves.” Further, Las Casas gave testimony to the destructive behaviors of the Spanish conquerors and asserts that the Christians have murdered the natives on a large scale and are primarily motivated by greed. Yet, Las Casas’s primary concern was that the poor behavior of Christians created a negative perception among the natives of the Christian religion and prevented natives from being properly converted. As he wrote, “…all the millions that have perished [at the hands of the Spanish] having gone to their deaths with no knowledge of God and without the benefit of the Sacraments.” Thus, as Las Casas demonstrates, conquest by the sword was least desirable for missionaries because it prevented them from fulfilling their mission of leading the natives to salvation.

Antonio de Montesinos further expressed his outrage at the behavior of the Spanish in Latin America. Appointed to the island of Hispaniola, Montesinos delivered a 1511 sermon where he established himself as “the voice of Christ crying in the wilderness of this island[.]” Condemning the enslavement of the indigenous by the Spanish, Montesinos declared that the Spanish colonists were guilty of a mortal sin because they committed massive acts of murder and exposed their slaves to severe conditions. Further documenting how the economic interests of the Spanish colonists overshadowed their religious obligations, Montesinos condemned the Spanish for failing to provide their indigenous laborers with proper religious instruction and failing to enable them to observe holidays or attend religious ceremonies on Sunday. Thus, while the Spanish Crown was active in dispatching missionaries to the New World, the protests of the non-European advocates reveal that exploitation prevailed over religious activities in the colonies.

In a contrast of civility, the primary lesson revealed from the abuses endured by Native Americans at the hands of Spanish Christians is that religion can often be used as a justification for exploitative practices. Though the Spanish established that their missionary activities were a main priority in the New World, Spanish colonists primarily used their religious authority as an excuse to exploit native populations. Further, the cross and sword system reveals that military and economic expansion is incompatible with religious objectives. Because the Catholic Church granted the Spanish Crown the ability to appoint missionaries to the New World, it was likely that the state’s secular objectives soon merged with the state’s religious obligations. Religious missionaries in today’s world should make an effort to avoid the fatal practices of the Spanish Crown. In order to effectively share one’s religion without being exploitative, today’s missionaries should identify any conflict of interest that prevents them from acting in the best interest of those they wish to convert. If missionaries expect economic gain or social power from their work, then they should take a lesson from the atrocities committed by Spain and refrain from missionary work.

Works Cited

"Aztec Account of the Spanish Conquest." In Readings for Latin American Civilizations. St. Paul, MN: Bethel University, 2013.

Chasteen, John C. Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America. 3rd ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2011. Print.

"Christopher Columbus." In Readings for Latin American Civilizations. St. Paul, MN: Bethel University, 2013.

"Four Missionary Views of Indians." In Readings for Latin American Civilizations. St. Paul, MN: Bethel University, 2013.

"Hernan Cortez, Second Letter to Charles V." In Readings for Latin American Civilizations. St. Paul, MN: Bethel University, 2013.

"Las Casas: A Missionary’s Account of the Spaniards in the New World." In Readings for Latin American Civilizations. St. Paul, MN: Bethel University, 2013.

"Line of Demarcation." In Readings for Latin American Civilizations. St. Paul, MN: Bethel University, 2013.

Rivera, Ruben. “Church Advocacy for the Native Peoples.” Lecture, Latin American Civilizations. St. Paul, MN: Bethel University, 2013.

Rivera, Ruben. “Cross & Sword Missions.” Lecture, Latin American Civilizations. St. Paul, MN: Bethel University, 2013.

Rivera, Ruben. “Era of Conquest: ‘For God, Gold & Glory’ But Not Always in that Order – Spanish Conquest of Mexico.” Lecture, Latin American Civilizations. St. Paul, MN: Bethel University, 2013.

"The Story of Santiago de Compostela." In Readings for Latin American Civilizations. St. Paul, MN: Bethel University, 2013.

"Treaty of Tordesillas." In Readings for Latin American Civilizations. St. Paul, MN: Bethel University, 2013.

"Why were Europeans the ones to Conquer the World? Jared Diamond’s Thesis and Debates." In Readings for Latin American Civilizations. St. Paul, MN: Bethel University, 2013.