The colonization of North America began in 1492 when Christopher Columbus and his Spanish expedition sailed west in such for a new trade route to Far East. As such, the first European power was Spain. Spain colonized the largest areas of North America and Caribbean and extended its colonial territories to the Southern part of South America. Some of the Spanish cities that were founded at the time of colonization were Santo Domingo in 1496, Puerto Rico in 1508, Panama in 1519 and Veracruz or Mexico 1496.
In North America, the Spanish missions were Christian missions and they had been established by the Spanish Empire between fifteenth and seventeenth century. During this time, the Catholic Church instated massive effort to spread Christianity by converting indigenous people. The establishment of Christian mission went parallel with the colonization efforts of the European powers i.e. France, Portugal, and Spain. For the colonialists, colonial enterprise was founded on the necessity to expand the European commerce as well as, the obligation to spread the Christian faith.
Christian leaders and doctrines have often been accused of allowing perpetration of violence against native North Americans. Colonizers did not consider indigenous Americans to be human beings. Meltzer asserts that colonizers were shaped by Christian monotheism and centuries of ethnocentrism that espoused one time, one truth and version of reality. Meltzer notes that “the devastation of Spanish America’s rape has remained to be one of the most intoxicating and pungent case in point in the entire history of human conquest during the wanton destruction of a culture by another in the name of Christianity.” Spanish mission also resulted to massive population decline of North Americans, food shortage, violence and increased demand for labor. Nonetheless, many scholars defend the Catholic Church claiming that the often defended the rights of indigenous Americans.
In keeping with Pickett et al. (2011) the clash of native cultures and Spanish at the time of Mexican Alta California and Spanish New Spain eras of control that left lasting consequences after American statehood. The Spanish occupation of California came with negative consequences to the indigenous people’s cultures and populations, the two missionaries kept constant relationships. Spain claimed California; however, they considered the place too far north to inhabit. Arguably, California was an uncolonized periphery until Russian and British interest in the area prompted a defensive extension up the coast.
The 1769 sacred expedition that was led by Franciscan Father Junipero and Captain Gaspar de Portola established outposts at Manterey and San Diego. In by 1823, Spaniards had established 21 missions and many villages from Sonoma to San Diego. Conspicuously, the mission system sprung parallel with economic, political and religion motivations. The Spain centuries’ old technique of advancing and securing its colonial frontiers involved Hispanicizing and Christianizing natives. Where they lacked sufficient settlers, Spanish people used natives to colonize new lands and to supply sufficient labor force to sustain its colonies. The missions were one leg of an extensive mission system from Baja California, New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona.
New Racial Hierarchy
In North America the Spain Empire sustained a complex system of racial classification that arranged people hierarchically that was based on purity of their blood. The California frontiers (pure blood elites) were a place where castas (people with mixed ancestry) could go up the racial hierarchy. Most of the people who referred to themselves as Spaniards in 18th and 19th centuries were of mixed Spanish, Native American, and African Ancestry. Overtime, many people declined their Indigenous and African ancestry and declared themselves as people with a purpose i.e. gente de razon. They were in explicit opposition to California natives. Arguably, affluent Spanish families could extend to purchasing certificate of blood purity from Spain. More so, wealthy Spanish Californian residents separated themselves from the working class who did not own land. The Spanish missionary was stratified in other parts of Colonial California and Spanish America developed the racial hierarchy where the land owning Spaniards and missionaries topped the class, in the middle were the Christianized natives while at the bottom was the non-Christianized natives. Racial categories were based heavily on opinion and the aptitude to influence official record keeping but not the factual genetics.
With the passage of time, the lives of most Spanish settlers and indigenous Americans became intertwined in a shifting series of strained relationships. Spaniards had manufactured superior weapons and goods, while the Native Americans were many and had intimate knowledge of their landscape. Motivated by self interests and curiosity, numerous native Californians were duped to join the mission and villages. After joining these camps they were not allowed to leave. Because of this, outbreaks of violence became more constant in the colonial California. Accommodations and intercultural communication were also common in North America during this time. Consequently, the Spanish suffered raid and lived under constant threat of uprising. At the same time, the native groups fashioned other ways of life with the rise of new technologies, emergence of new disease and a foreign political structure.
Catholicism remains the major colonial heritage of Spain in North America. Catholicism superseded both economic relationships and language and continued to pervade Spanish-America culture up-to-date, building an overriding cultural unity that transcends all the national and political boundaries dividing the continent.
References
Meltzer D. Peopling of North America Review Article. Developments in Quaternary Sciences, Volume 1, 2003, Pages 539-563
Pickett, Margaret F., and Dwayne W. Pickett. The European struggle to settle North America colonizing attempts by England, France and Spain, 1521-1608. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co, 2011.
Pinto M, Gerardo S & Grizly M. Information Competence of Doctoral Students in Information Science in Spain and Latin America: A Self-assessment Original Research Article. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Volume 39, Issue 2, March 2013, Pages 144-154
Reid, John G., and Emerson W. Baker. Essays on northeastern North America, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Toronto Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 2008.
Silverman M. The earliest recorded aurora in North America since European colonization. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Volume 67, Issue 7, May 2005, Pages 749-752
