Why did the Spanish, Dutch, French, and English treat Native peoples differently
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Dec 6, 2023
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Why did the Spanish, Dutch, French, and English treat Native peoples differently?
Your Answer:
The treatment of Native peoples by the Spanish, Dutch, French, and English
can be explained to a combination of cultural, economic, and geopolitical
factors.
Spanish
: The Spanish pursued a policy of forced conversion and subjugation
of Native peoples. They sought to extract wealth from the New World,
especially through the encomienda system, which subjected indigenous
people to forced labor as mentioned in Chapter 2, “An English writer
explained that Native Americans “were simple and plain men, and lived
without great labour,” but in their lust for gold the Spaniards “forced the
people (that were not used to labour) to stand all the daie in the hot sun
gathering gold in the sand of the rivers”. The Spanish also sought to spread
Catholicism, often forcefully, which resulted in a more severe treatment of
the Native population, as mentioned in Chapter 2, “Catholicism had always
justified Spanish conquest, and colonization always carried religious
imperatives. By the early seventeenth century, Spanish friars had dozens of
missions along the Rio Grande and in California.”
Dutch
: Dutch treated Native peoples differently for their profits and trades.
As stated in Chapter 2 Colliding Cultures, “Like the French, the Dutch sought
to profit, not to conquer. Trade with Native peoples became New
Netherland’s central economic activity”. The Dutch were careful not to treat
the Native Americans in the same cruel way the Spanish did. They followed
guidelines based on the ideas of a philosopher named Hugo Grotius, who
believed that Native people had the same rights as Europeans, “They
fashioned guidelines for New Netherland that conformed to the ideas of Hugo
Grotius, a legal philosopher who believed that Native peoples possessed the
same natural rights as Europeans”. The Dutch leaders insisted on buying
land instead of forcefully taking it. In 1626, Peter Minuit "bought" Manhattan
from the Munsee people. However, it is likely that the Dutch paid the wrong
people for the land or that they and the Munsee had different understandings
of the transaction. These transactions showed that the Dutch wanted a more
peaceful way of colonizing, but there were differences in how Europeans and
Native Americans saw property. Like the French, the Dutch wanted to make a
profit rather than conquer.
French
: The French had a strong emphasis on the fur trade and developed
cooperative relationships with Native tribes. They often intermarried with
Natives and sought to establish alliances, as stated in book Chapter 2, “
Many French fur traders married Native American women. The offspring of
Native American women and French men were so common in New France
that the French developed a word for these children,
Métis(sage)”
. This
approach led to more positive interactions and cooperation.
English
: The English had a mixed approach. In some areas, they sought to
establish permanent settlements, like in Jamestown, as stated in Chapter 2
Colliding Cultures, “Despite these setbacks, the English built Jamestown, the
first permanent English colony in the present-day United States” and initially
had tense relations with the Natives. However, in other regions, like New
England, they established more cooperative relationships, as seen in the
interactions between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag as stated in Chapter 2
Colliding Cultures, “Not every English person who moved to New England
during the seventeenth century was a Puritan, but Puritans dominated the
politics, religion, and culture of New England”.
In summary, the differences in treatment of Native peoples can be explained
by the differing goals and attitudes of these European powers. The Spanish
were primarily interested in wealth and religious conversion, the Dutch in
trade, the French in cooperation, and the English had a mixed approach
depending on the region and circumstances.
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