02_CTP_LHP_(025-038) CZ

7/21/2019 02_CTP_LHP_(025-038) CZ

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/02ctplhp025-038-cz 1/14

25

The Progress of

Spanish America

In Search of Justice

In 1496, after exploring the coast of South America,

Columbus returned to Hispaniola to find the islandin revolt. Spanish colonists were discontent withthe governorship of Columbus’ brother, Bartolomé.

Instead of crushing the rebellion, though, Columbus paci-fied the rebels. He gave them free land grants and Indianslaves to work them.

Columbus called these land grants repartimientos—“partitions.” Later, when the Spanish crown regulatedthe repartimientos, they were called encomiendas— “com-plimentary land grants”— and the beneficiaries of thesegrants, encomenderos. While, strictly speaking the Indianson an encomienda were not slaves, their encomendero nev-

ertheless could compel them to labor for him. Thus, onHispaniola and other islands, colonists forced Indians towork in the fields and labor in the mines. Being unused tosuch labor, and having no immunities for European sick-nesses, thousands of natives died.

As governor of New Spain, Cortés also established enco-miendas, though he sought to regulate them justly. UnderCortés, Indians continued to live in their villages undertheir native chiefs, and he enacted laws regulating thenumber of hours an Indian should work and how much hemust be paid. Cortés also required encomenderos to pro- vide suitable religious instruction to their charges.Nevertheless, the Indians were often abused in Mexico, as they were elsewhere in SpanishAmerica where the government was less benign.

The Spanish crown recognized the Indians as the equals of the Spanish colonists andso forbade their enslavement. But because the crown had made slavery the punishment forrebellion and cannibalism, unscrupulous Spaniards found the Americas teeming with reb-els and cannibals. Thus began a brisk trade in human flesh.

The Spanish government enacted laws to deal with its extraordinary position in theNew World. The Laws of Burgos (1512) placed regulations on Indian labor, required thatcolonists work to convert the natives, and decreed that “no one may beat or whip or call anIndian perro [dog] or any other name, unless it is his proper name.” Another document, the

Map of SpanishAmerica, showing CubaHispaniola, Florida, andNew Spain

7/21/2019 02_CTP_LHP_(025-038) CZ


26 LANDS OF HOPE AND PROMISE: A History of North America

Requiriemento of 1513, required the Indians to acknowledge Spanish overlordship and per-mit the Faith to be preached to them. The conquistadors had to read the requiriemento whenentering an Indian village; only if the Indians resisted the requiriemento’s demands couldconquistadors subjugate them by force and enslave them as rebels. But since unscrupulousconquistadors recited the requiriemento in Spanish (which the Indians did not understand)and often out of earshot of the Indians, harsh conquests inevitably followed.

The Spanish crown justified the conquest of the Indians by appealing to InterCaetera— Pope Alexander VI’s 1493 donation of the Indies to Spain. But some questionedthe character of that donation — did it give Spain the right of conquest? Some argued thatit did not. The pope, they said, gave Spain the right to convert, not conquer, the natives.Among those who argued in this way was a Spanish lawyer turned priest who would gainfame as the “Defender of the Indians.” His name was Bartolomé de Las Casas.

A Voice in the WildernessThe text was the words of St. John the Baptist — “I am the voice of one crying in the wilder-ness” (Matthew 3:3). Commenting on the text, the Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinosdeclared: “Are these Indians not men? Do they not have rational souls? Are you not obligedto love them as you love yourselves?”

Bartolomé de Las Casas likely heard this sermon, preached in a straw-thatched churchon the island of Hispaniola in 1511. But the appeal of Fray Antonio’s “cry in the wilderness”only gradually worked its way into his heart. Las Casas had come from Spain to Hispaniolawith Governor Don Nicolás de Ovando in 1502 and had participated in expeditions againstthe Taino, in which he witnessed atrocities. In reward for his service, Ovando gave LasCasas an encomienda, which he continued to hold, with its Indian workers, even after 1510,when at the age of 26 he was ordained a secular priest. But his own experience of the dev-astation the Spanish conquest wrought on the Indians of Caribbean islands along with thecries of Montesinos and others against injustice gradually worked on Las Casas’ mind andheart. In 1514, he gave up his encomienda and a year later returned to Spain to plead for justice for the Indians.

In 1517, Las Casas was a second time in Spain to complain of the encomienda system.His denunciations caught the attention of Cardinal Francisco Ximénes de Cisneros, theregent of Spain. Disturbed by Las Casas’ reports of abuse, Ximénes sent a commission ofJeronymite Fathers to investigate and named Las Casas, “Protector General of the Indians.”When he returned to America, Las Casas soon found cause to complain of the Jeronymites:he thought they compromised too much with the colonial system. With other critics ofSpanish Indian policy in the New World, Las Casas suggested the importation of Africanslaves to replace the Indian laborers — a recommendation the government carried out. Las

Casas later regretted his advocacy of black slavery.“The same law,” he wrote, “applies equally to theNegro as to the Indian.”

Las Casas believed that the Spanish governmentshould place the American natives under the author-ity and protection of the Church. In 1519 he won

approval for the establishment of a colony on TierraFirma (as the mainland of Latin America was called)to be made up solely of Indians and peaceful set-tlers — farmers and artisans from Spain. This settle-ment at Cumaná on the coast of Venezuela was afailure. First, Las Casas could not attract manyfarmers and artisans. Then, the Indians of Cumanárose in revolt against the violence of the Spaniards ofa nearby settlement. The Indians seized supplies

secular priest: a dioc-esan priest; a priestthat does not belongto a religious order

The Source of the “Black Legend”

Las Casas was a s tout defender of the Indians.

Sometimes, though, in defending them, he exaggerated

both Indian virtues and Spanish cruelty. His most famouswork, Brevíssima Relación de la Destrucción de Las Indias (A

Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies) is filled with

many gross exaggerations of Spanish cruelty, recounting

events Las Casas could only know by hearsay. This work was

translated into several languages and became the source of

the “Black Legend” used to this day by Spain’s enemies to

discredit her.

7/21/2019 02_CTP_LHP_(025-038) CZ


Chapter 2 The Progress of Spanish America 27

from the colony’s storehouse, killed asmany Europeans as they could find, andescaped into the interior. Discouraged atthe failure of his hopes, Las Casas retiredto a Dominican monastery on Hispaniola.He himself became a Dominican in 1522.

The Dominican Fray Bartolomé, spentthe next 40 years in the wilderness ofSpanish America crying out that Indians,as human beings, had the same rightsas Spaniards. The Spanish crown, hedeclared, had no right to conquer theIndians by force. Though he thought thecrown could exercise dominion over theIndians, Las Casas insisted that it couldnot abolish Indian tribal governments orenslave natives. The encomienda system,he argued, was little better than slav-

ery and should be abolished. Force mustnever be used in preaching the Gospel,he maintained, and he fought strenuouslywith those missionaries (most notably,the Franciscans) who baptized convertswithout first giving them suff icient instruction in the Faith.

Despite Fray Bartolomé’s opposition to Spanish policy in the New World, King Carlos I,in 1544, appointed him bishop of Chiapas in southern Mexico. Episcopal consecration, how-ever, did not temper Fray Bartolomé; he remained as uncompromising in his defense of theIndians as before. He provoked colonists by setting rigid standards encomenderos had tomeet before he would absolve them from their sins — basically forbidding communion toanyone who held an encomienda. Though he was unpopular with the colonists, Las Casas’policy of peaceful conversion drew many natives to the Church.

Las Casas labored hard for the passage of the Nuevas Leyes of 1542. These “New Laws,”which forbade Indian slavery and the perpetua-tion of the encomienda system enraged the colo-nists. They thought the loss of their encomiendas a sorry return for their labors in winning such vast new territories for the king. A bloody civilstruggle erupted in Peru when the Spanish gover-nor attempted to enforce the New Laws. Fearingfurther civil strife, Carlos I revoked some of theNew Laws in 1545. The encomienda system wouldcontinue as before.

The year 1547 found Las Casas again in Spain

engaged in a controversy with the Spanish juristJuan Ginés de Sepulveda. Sepulveda had never visited America; still, with all his limited knowl-edge of American natives, he had written a trea-tise that argued that Indians were “natural slaves”and as such could be conquered and reduced toservitude. Las Casas, of course, disagreed. Theircontroversy climaxed in a famous debate — at aconference held at Valladolid in 1550.

Spanish soldiersslaughter and enslaveNative Americans. This1595 image by Theodorde Bry helped perpetu-ate the “Black Legend”of Spanish cruelty.

Bartolomé de Las Casas

7/21/2019 02_CTP_LHP_(025-038) CZ



This debate was of intense interest to King Carlos I, for the question of the justice of theSpanish conquests troubled his conscience. He suspended all further conquests until juristsand theologians at Valladolid could discuss “how conquests may be conducted justly withsincerity of conscience.” At Valladolid the king asked whether it were just to subjugate theIndians by force in order more easily to Christianize them. Sepulveda answered, yes; LasCasas insisted, no. No one, said the bishop of Chiapas, should resort to violence to win his

brother to Christ.The fruits of the Valladolid conference came 23 years later, with the enactment of theBasic Law of 1573. Though not as thoroughgoing as Las Casas would have liked, the BasicLaw codified many of his demands. The Basic Law said Spaniards were not to “conquer,” butto “pacify,” the Indians. They were never to enslave them or exact tribute from them but toexplain to them the benefits of submitting to the Spanish crown. Force could be used if theIndians refused to cooperate, but conquerors were to use as litt le force as possible. In preach-ing the Gospel, missionaries, said the law, should deal gently with the Indians’ vices “so asnot to scandalize them or prejudice them against Christianity.” The Basic Law however didnot abolish the encomienda system. Both encomiendas and the Basic Law would remain foras long as Spain ruled in America.

Reign of TerrorCortés’ departure for Spain in 1528 marked the beginning of a period of terror in Mexico.Suspicious of Cortés’ power in Mexico, King Carlos I had sent three men – Nuño deGuzman, Juan Ortiz de Matienzo, and Diego Degadillo — as the Audiencia Real to investi-gate the conquistador’s administration of New Spain. Instead, for three years, Guzman,Matienzo, and Delgadillo imposed heavy taxes on the Indians, enslaved them, brandedthem with hot irons, violated their women, and persecuted Cortés’ Spanish supporters.

Into this hell of injustice came Juan de Zumárraga. As the newly appointed bishop ofMexico and Protector of the Indians, Zumárraga’s task was immense. Though appointedbishop, he had not yet been consecrated — though even a bishop could not have inf lu-enced the cruel members of the Audiencia. A Franciscan, Zumárraga was envied by

other religious orders alreadyin Mexico, who thus sidedwith the auditors. When thebishop-elect tried to notifythe Spanish court of whatwas happening in Mexico,the audiencia took to censor-ing all letters sent out fromNew Spain. At last, with thehelp of a sailor, Zumarragaplaced a letter to the kingin a block of wax, whichwas dropped into a barrelof oil. In this way, the letter

escaped the scrutiny of the Audiencia Real and reachedthe king.

News of the audiencia’soppressions angered Carlos.In 1531, he sent a new audien-cia to New Spain to take theplace of Guzmán, Matienzo,and Delgadillo. With them

Map of New Spain,1570

7/21/2019 02_CTP_LHP_(025-038) CZ



went Cortés, with the title of Captain General. The new audiencia imprisoned Matienzo andDegadillo, but Guzmán escaped. He had departed on an expedition to Michoacán, Jalisco,and Sinaloa to the north.

Conquistadors of the SpiritIn 1524, a small band of 12 Franciscans, clad in rugged habits, passed through Tlaxcala onfoot. Hearing the Indians repeating the word, motólinia, the friars wondered what it meant.Learning that the word meant “poor man,” one of the friars, Fray Toribio de Benavente,said, “it is the first word I have learned in this language, and that I may not forget it, it shallhenceforth be my name.”

Bearing wooden crosses, Motólinia and his companions continued on to Mexico City.When they arrived before the city, Cortés came out to greet them, and kneeling before them,kissed their hands. The Indians marveled, for they deemed Cortés a great being, nearlydivine — and here he was honoring mere beggars! Cortés told the Indians that they, too,should reverence the holy men, who had come to teach them about the true God.

The Spanish missionaries evangelized with the zeal of conquistadors. They were conquer-

ors, subduing the souls of men, submitting them to the rule of Christ. Their weapons werenot worldly arms of iron but the more powerful weapons of the Spirit: faith, zeal for souls,and charity. Unworthy missionaries there were, who used physical force to convert theIndians; yet, most of the missionaries were noted for their holiness and charity. Like con-quistadors, they undertook extremely difficult labors and suffered terrifying trials. Someeven died heroically for the Faith they preached.

The Spanish government shared the missionaries’ zeal for evangelization. In fact, theking was the protagonist of all missionary work in the New World. In 1508, Pope Julius IIgranted to the Spanish kings the patronato real, the “royal patronage” — the right to select allbishops and abbots in the Spanish domains, and to publish papal decrees in the New World.

La Guadalupana

Into the maelstrom of violence and

tyranny over which New Spain’s first

Audiencia Real presided came an event

that would change Mexico forever. On

December 12, 1531, the Virgin Mary

appeared to the Indian Juan Diego on

Tepeyac hill — the si te where an Aztec

temple to the goddess Tonantzin had

once stood. Appearing as an Aztec

princess, the Virgin told Juan Diego to

ask Bishop Zumárraga to build a church

on the spot dedicated to her under thetitle of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.

Zumárraga was at first unwilling to

believe Juan Diego; however, when

the Indian opened his tilma, or cloak,

from which a flood of roses poured,

the bishop believed. Not only was it

wondrous that the Indian should find

roses in the dead of winter, but upon

the tilma

appeared the image of the

Lady. Zumárraga commanded that

the church be built on Tepeyac hill in

honor of the Virgin, under the title of

Our Lady of Guadalupe.

This apparition of the Virgin brought

on an amazing increase in native bap-

tisms. The Spanish government had

not been remiss in trying to convert

the Indians of Mexico, but because of

the brutality of the Spaniards, many

Indians had remained aloof from the

Church.Our Lady of Guadalupe is to this

day the patroness of Mexico and all of

the Americas.

Our Lady ofGuadalupe

7/21/2019 02_CTP_LHP_(025-038) CZ



In return, the king was responsible for funding all missionary endeavors and for foundingchurches and monasteries.

The missionary endeavor was twofold — to evangelize and civilize. In accomplishing thefirst, the missionaries worked to adapt Church teaching to the native mind. They learnednative tongues, and they even used drama, so eager were they to convey the message ofChrist. On the sites of pagan temples, which they had ordered destroyed, they erected

churches. Though they could be ruthless in stamping out paganism (and along with it, muchof native culture), the missionaries preserved much of what was good in the Indians’ cultureand attempted to find in it a new Christian meaning. In Mexico, some missionaries trans-lated Aztec hieroglyphics and so preserved the knowledge of Aztec institutions and history.

Though some missionaries could be harshly critical of the Indians, others saw the nativesas especially suited to receive the Faith. Some missionaries viewed the conversion of theIndians as an opportunity to renew Christian civilization that, they thought, had been cor-rupted in Europe. Missionaries thus not only toiled to save souls; they labored to found anew Christendom.

Schools and CollegesOne way New Spain’s missionaries sought to Christianize and civilize native cultures

was by founding institutions of learning. In New Spain, every church and convent had itsschool where the children of the rich and poor learned writing, music, and Latin, as wellas practical arts, such as tailoring, carpentry, and painting. At the college of Santa Cruzin Mexico City (founded 1536), students studied native American languages. Girls, too,went to school — Bishop Zumárraga himself founded eight schools for girls in Mexico. TheFranciscan friar, Pedro de Gante (Peter of Ghent), a relative of Carlos I, opened a school inMexico City for about 1,000 children where they studied religion, music, singing, and Latin.He founded a school of fine arts and practical trades, as well as a college for higher studies.

The Spaniards established the first universities in the New World, the oldest being theUniversity of St. Thomas Aquinas in Santo Domingo, founded by the Dominicans in 1538.There students studied theology, philosophy, natural sciences, languages, and history. Otheruniversities included Santiago de la Paz (1540) and the universities of Lima, Peru (1551), andMexico City (1557). By the 18th century, there were 26 universities in Spanish America.

In South America, in Paraguay, the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), carried out a more radi-cal plan to Christianize Indian culture. In the early 17th century, the Jesuits sought and

obtained permission to separate themission field of Paraguay from theSpanish colony of Peru. In Paraguaythey established Indian republics, or“reductions” (because they “reduced”or brought the natives into subjec-tion to the Gospel), which they keptisolated from the influences of theSpanish colonists. In this way, theJesuits hoped to preserve Indians

from the influence of lax Christiansand protect them from injustice andslavery.

In harmony with traditionalnative ways, the Indians on a reduc-tion held and farmed their lands incommon, though each family had itsown house and garden. Indian lead-ers, elected by their communities,

Motólinia

Fray Toribio de Benavente, called Motólinia,

eventually left Mexico for the regions of what

are now Nicaragua and Guatemala. He became

a bitter opponent of Las Casas, whose ideas

on the encomienda he thought impractical and

destructive of whatever good Spain had brought

to America. Even so, the Indians loved Motóliniawell, for he was most virtuous and filled with

ardent charity. Of Motólinia’s charity, an eyewit-

ness wrote: “Whatever was given him he gave

to the Indians, and sometimes was left without

food. He wore very torn clothing and went bare-

foot, and the Indians loved him much, because

he was a holy person.”

7/21/2019 02_CTP_LHP_(025-038) CZ



helped the Jesuits govern the villages. To protect the villagers from raidscarried out by other Indians and by Portuguese slavers from Brazil, theJesuits oversaw the military training of the village men. The Reductionsbecame quite prosperous between 1650 and 1720 and presented sucha unique and humane way of colonization that they even earned thepraise of some of the Church’s enemies in Europe.

It was a treaty that Spain signed with Portugal in January 1750that spelled the end of the Reductions. The treaty granted Portugalseven districts of Paraguay in return for the Portuguese colony of SanSacramento. Once in control of Paraguay, the Portuguese ordered the30,000 or so Indians on the Reductions to abandon their lands. In 1759,Portugal expelled the Jesuits from its colonies.

Nuevo MéxicoCaptain Castañeda de Najera had warned him of the dangers of hisplan, but it did no good. Fray Juan cared little for safety if it stood in the

way of his mission.After Coronado’s return to Mexico, Castañeda had remained with afew soldiers in the Gran Quivira (now Kansas) as escorts to Fray JuanPadilla and his companions: Fray Luis de Ubeda and two IndianFranciscan postulants, Lucas and Sebastián.

Bell tower of the oldmission church of SanGeronimo, Taos PuebloNew Mexico

A Strange Occurrence

In 1629, a group of Indians of the Jumano people from the nor thwest of Texas arrived in

Santa Fé. They came requesting baptism. Questioning these Indians, the friars were sur-

prised by their knowledge of Christian prayer

and their grasp of Church teaching. How had

they come to learn all this?

The Jumano related a strange story. Many

times, they said, a beautiful lady in blue

had appeared to them and instruc ted them

in the Christian religion. It was by her com-

mand, they said, that they sought baptism.

When some friars traveled the 200 miles to

the Jumano settlement, a group of Indians

greeted them, bearing a cross covered w ith

wildflowers. Everyone in the tribe requested

baptism.

Later, in 1631, when some of the friars

returned to Spain, they found a convent ofPoor Clare nuns who wore blue habits. The

head of this convent, Sister María de Agreda,

claimed that in an ecstasy she had several

times visited the Jumanos and instructed

them in the Faith. The appearance of

Sister María agreed well with the Jumanos’

description of a lady dressed in blue.

Blessed María de Agreda, right , displays herbook, The Mystical City of God , while St .Francis of Assisi holds three globes, atopof which stands the Blessed Virgin. BlessedDuns Scotus, left, holds his text defending theImmaculate Conception. Fresco in the Church ofthe Immaculate Conception, Ozumba, Mexico.

7/21/2019 02_CTP_LHP_(025-038) CZ



Castañeda could see that the friars had made progress converting the Pawnee and Guiatribes. Why jeopardize this success with an imprudent foray into the eastward plains? Afterall, the enemies of the Pawnee and Guia lived there — how would they receive those whobeen the friends of their enemies? Such thoughts likely passed through the captain’s mindas Fray Juan with Lucas and Sebastián, the soldier Andrés Ocampo, and a few other soldiers,set forth on their dangerous journey.

Castañeda’s judgment was well founded — Fray Juan and his companions never returnedto New Mexico. After traversing the wide, grass-covered plains, they met, on November30, 1542, a band of Aciales Indians, who attacked them near the present site of Dodge City,Kansas. Pierced through with arrows, Fray Juan fell to his knees. In his hands he held a cross,“and raising it, he promised to keep it standing there for as long as it was possible to do so.”

These were the words of an eyewitness of the death of the first martyr in what would oneday be one of the United States of America. Fray Juan’s companions, who escaped death,returned to bury Fray Juan. For several years they wandered through what would one daybe Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas, until, traversing hundred of miles of desert, they returnedat last to Mexico City. Years later, Fray Juan’s remains were removed from his Kansas graveand buried at Isleta pueblo in New Mexico.

Fray Juan Padilla was not the sole martyr of this period. In 1542, his companion, Fray

Luis de Ubeda, met his death at the hands of the Indians of the Pecos River region. Thatsame year, natives killed Fray Juan Escalosa on the Río Grande. In 1581, the friars AgustínRodriguez, Francisco López, and Juan de Santa Maria, were killed by the Indians of Cibola,in New Mexico.

A Successful SettlementJuan de Oñate was one of the richest men in Mexico. A conquistador and the husband ofHernán Cortés’ granddaughter, he was also one of the most well known. So the viceroy ofNew Spain could not doubt Oñate’s competence when he promised to finance an expedi-tion to found a settlement in New Mexico. With Oñate would go 200 soldiers and colo-nists, a contingent of Christian Indians from Mexico, 7,000 head of livestock, and eightFranciscan friars.

The journey to New Mexico was, as ever, long, hard, and dangerous. After crossing theharsh desert lands of northern Mexico, Oñate and the settlers forded the Río Grande at aplace called El Paso (“the ford”). On Ascension Thursday, April 30, 1598, he took possessionof the land in the name of the king of Spain. Continuing on to the north, Oñate establisheda settlement at the confluence of the Río Grande and Chama rivers. By the end of 1598, thefriars who had accompanied Oñate had established three missions for the Pueblo Indiansof the region.

The Pueblo Indians, however, did not submit easily to Spanish rule or the Spanish reli-gion. In 1598, the Indians of Ácoma (a pueblo set atop a mesa of sheer cliffs) assaulted andkilled a small escort led by Juan Zaldivar. To avenge his brother, Vicente Zaldivar led aSpanish force against Ácoma and for three days fought a hard battle against the Indians.Using thick ropes, the Spaniards scaled the sheer rock walls of the mesa and took the pueblo,capturing 500 Indians. The Spaniards harshly punished their captives to teach them never

again to resist Spanish authority.The Ácoma war was the last major rebellion in New Mexico for about 80 years. Still,

despite the long peace, the settlers of New Mexico were unhappy. The land was poor and thetask of colonization hard. When, in 1601, Oñate returned to the settlements after a five-month, eight-hundred mile expedition across New Mexico and Kansas, the settlers’ discon-tent was acute. They had complained to the viceroy in Mexico of the settlement and ofOñate. They wanted permission to return to Mexico. The Spanish officials would haveacquiesced to this demand, but for one consideration — if there were no settlement, theIndians would be deprived of the Gospel.

7/21/2019 02_CTP_LHP_(025-038) CZ



The discontent continued until, in 1608, Felipe III (who had become king of Spain in1598) decided to withdraw the settlers. However, hearing reports of the great number of converts among the Indians in New Mexico and the growth of the missions, the king relented.Instead of abandoning New Mexico, he made it a royal province. Oñate did not fare so well.Forced to resign his governorship, he returned to Mexico, where he died in modest circum-stances. He had spent his fortune on the New Mexico settlements.

In time, New Mexico began to flourish. By 1630, there were 25 missions and 90 villagesof nearly 60,000 Christian Indians. Santa Fé (Holy Faith), a settlement founded in 1610 byOñate’s successor, Governor Pedro de Peralta, boasted 1,000 Spanish inhabitants.

La FloridaOn August 27, 1565, sailors and passengers of a fleet sailing off the eastern coast of Floridasaw “a miracle from heaven.” “About nine o’clock in the evening,” wrote one eyewitness,

Fray Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales, “a comet appeared, which showed itself directlyabove us, a little eastward, giving so much light that it might have been taken for the sun.”The comet traveled westward toward the coast of Florida, where the fleet was bound. Thenext day, August 28, the feast of St. Augustine of Hippo, the sailors sighted land. Sailingfurther north, the captain, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, found a small bay and named it SanAgustín in honor of the saint on whose feast he first saw the coast.

When he had learned that French Huguenots had settled on the eastern coast of Florida,King Felipe II (Carlos I’s son) sent Menéndez de Avilés to establish a settlement in Floridaand to drive out the Huguenots. Menéndez founded a settlement on the small bay he had

Ácoma pueblo, atop asheer sandstone mesa

7/21/2019 02_CTP_LHP_(025-038) CZ



discovered, naming it also San Agustín. Asfor driving out the Huguenots—if it had notbeen for another “miracle,” the Spaniards andnot the French might have been the onesdriven from La Florida.

It did not take long for the French at Fort

Caroline, north of San Agustín, to learn ofthe Spanish settlement. Hoping to destroySan Agustín before the Spanish perfected itsfortifications, Jean Ribault, a French navalofficer, directed his fleet south on September10, 1565. The French fleet would have madeshort work of the Spanish settlement, whichwas less than a fortnight old, had not a hur-ricane suddenly struck the Florida coast anddriven Ribault’s fleet onto the beaches southof San Agustín.

Meanwhile, learning of Ribault’s foray

that drew most of the men of arms fromthe French settlement, Menéndez surprisedFort Caroline and overwhelmed it. Then,Menéndez went after Ribault; and, discover-ing the French force at a place called SlaughterInlet, captured both captain and men. Unableto keep prisoners at so fledgling a settlementas San Agustín, Menéndez executed them all,sparing only the Catholics among them andsome 50 women and children.

Rampage of the PolygamistOnce they had secured the eastern coast of Florida, the Spaniards began the slow work ofcolonizing the land and establishing missions. By the 1590s, Franciscans had set up missionsin Florida, and northward into the region of the Guale people, in what is now southernGeorgia. Missionary work in the region was not easy, for the Indians had to learn an entirelynew culture and morality, including monogamy. Indian men had multiple wives and sofound the Christian teaching on marriage difficult to embrace. Still, the Franciscans madeprogress in this and other areas, and many Indians became Christian.

In 1597, however, Juanillo, a converted Indian and the son of a cacique of the Guale peo-ple, took a second wife. Fearing other natives might emulate Juanillo, Fray Pedro de Campo,pastor of Juanillo’s misson, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, privately exhorted him to give uphis concubine. When, after another private exhortation, the cacique again refused, Fray BlasRodriguez, who directed the Guale missions, publicly denounced Juanillo and removed himfrom the leadership of the Christian Guales.

Juanillo felt his public humiliation to be a grave affront. Seeking revenge, he gathered agroup of warriors and commenced a rampage of murder. On September 13, he beheadedFray Pedro de Campo and stuck the severed head on a pole. Juanillo and his followers thenattacked several missions, killing four other missionaries, including Fray Blas Rodriguez.One priest they captured, however, they did not kill — Fray Francisco de Ávila. Instead, FrayFrancisco had to spend ten months among the Guales, undergoing tortures and humilia-tions. Once the Indians sent a squaw to tempt Fray Francisco to violate his vow of chastity,but the priest fled into the forest.

Felipe III by JuanPantoja de la Cruz,Museo del Prado,Madrid

7/21/2019 02_CTP_LHP_(025-038) CZ



Juanillo met his death in 1598 at the hands of a Guale cacique faithful to the missionar-

ies. But Juanil lo did not die before his rampage had destroyed the Guale missions. It wouldbe another eight years before more friars arrived and reestablished the missions amongthe Guale.

Progress and More RebellionIn 1606, the same year that saw the beginnings of the reconstruction of the Guale missions,Franciscans began establishing missions among the Timucuan people in the interior ofFlorida, west of San Agustín. These missionaries were so successful that, by 1612, a largenumber of caciques and whole villages were seeking baptism. In the 1630s, Franciscansestablished missions among the Apalachee Indians in western Florida, baptizing nearly halfthe population by 1639.

But it was not long before tension between the friars and the governors of Florida hadbad effects on the missions. As representatives of the king, the Spanish governors claimedauthority over all of colonial life. Outside of teaching the Faith, which they left to the friars,the governors thought they had the right to direct all Church activities in the colony. Thefriars disagreed. They saw the Church, not the government, as the source of their commis-sion to go among the Indians; and so, they said, missionary activities were not subject to theroyal governor.

Many of the governors imposed labor on the Indians. They forced warriors to carrybaggage on long journeys — which the Indians deemed a deep insult. The governmentalso required caciques to supply men for military and labor duty. These duties would not

St .

J o h n

s R

.

St. Augustine

APALACHEE

Charleston

GEORGIA

FLORIDA

SOUTH

CAROLINA

A t l a n t i c

O c e a nG u l f

o f

M e x i c o

30°N

80°W

Spanish missions in Georgia

Spanish missions in Florida

100 miles0

100 kilometers0

Spanish missions in17th century Georgiaand Florida.

7/21/2019 02_CTP_LHP_(025-038) CZ



Summary

• In 1496 Columbus pacified a revolt in Hispania bygiving rebels free land grants and Indian slaves.This led to many problems concerning slavery andabuse of the Indians in the Spanish New World

dominions.• The Spanish government established the Law of

Burgos in 1512, which placed regulations on Indianlabor in an attempt to reduce the abuse of Indianson encomiendas.

• In 1513 Spain established the Requiriemento, a doc-ument requiring Indians to acknowledge Spanishoverlordship and permit the Catholic faith to bepreached to them.

• Cortés departed for Spain, and the Reign of Terrorbegan in Mexico. The Audiencia Real , sent to inves-

tigate the conquistador’s administration of NewSpain, imposed heavy taxes on the Indians and per-secuted them in many violent ways.

• The Spanish priest Bartolomé de Las Casas laboredhard for the passage of the Nuevas Leyes (NewLaws) of 1542, forbidding slavery and the perpetu-

ation of encomiendas. These laws angered colonistsand resulted in a bloody civil war in Peru.

• King Carlos I revoked the New Laws in 1545. Adebate took place in which it was discussed whetherIndians are natural slaves or not. This conference of

Valladolid resulted in the Basic Law in 1573, whichsaid that Spaniards were not to “conquer” but to“pacify” the Native Americans.

• The era of the Spanish missionaries began as anattempt to evangelize and civilize the Indians.

Key Concepts

repartimientos: land grants and Indian slaves givento the rebels in Hispaniola

encomiendas: complimentary land grants given toSpanish colonists in which the Indians were not slaves

but were forced to labor for the colonists, who wererequired to civilize and evangelize them

Laws of Burgos: laws approved in 1512 that put regu-lations on Indian labor and required the Spaniards toconvert the Indians

Requiriemento: a document of the Spanish govern-ment, written in 1513, requiring Indians to acknowl-

Chapter 2 Review

have been so onerous except that the Indian population was dwindling due to contactwith European diseases. So great was the devastation wrought by disease on the Indianpopulation that of the estimated 150,000 Timucuan Indians who were alive in 1492, only3,230 remained in 1689.

Such conditions incited further rebellions. In February 1647, pagan Apalachees revoltedand drove the Spaniards from Apalachee. The Indians burned seven missions and killed

three friars. By the end of March, however, the Spanish had subdued the rebels.Another rebellion flared in 1656, this time among the Timucuan people. Governor Diego

de Rebolledo, fearing a British attack on San Agustín, had ordered the Timucuan caciques tosend him a large contingent of warriors to defend the city. Smarting from past insults fromGovernor Rebolledo and from the burdensome levies for laborers he laid on their dwindlingpopulation, the Indians revolted. Under the Christian cacique, Lucas Menéndez, Timucuanwarriors killed Spanish soldiers and laborers, sparing only the friars. For the eight monthsthe rebellion raged, many friars continued to minister to the rebels.

When the rebellion at last was quelled, the royal government investigated Rebolledo’sadministration of Florida. Uncovering a number of abuses, the crown removed Rebolledoas governor and brought him to Spain to stand trial. As for the Church, the years followingthe rebellion saw a period of and expansion in the missions. By 1655, seventy friars were

laboring among 26,000 Christian Indians in Florida.

7/21/2019 02_CTP_LHP_(025-038) CZ



edge Spanish overlordship and permit the Catholicfaith to be preached to them

Audiencia Real: the Royal Audience of Spain, whichserved as an appeals court

secular priest: a diocesan priest; a priest that does notbelong to a religious order

Reductions: Indian republics founded by the Jesuitsin Paraguay to isolate new Indian converts fromSpanish settlers, many of whom were lax Christians,and to prevent injustice and slavery

Dates to Remember

1496: Columbus quells the revolts of Spanish colo-nists by instituting repartimientos.

1512: the passage of the Laws of Burgos

1513: the Spanish government issues theRequiriemento.

1524: Franciscan missionaries come to the NewWorld

1528: the Reign of Terror begins in Mexico

1531: the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe toSaint Juan Diego

1538: the founding of the first university in the New

World, St. Thomas Aquinas in Santo Domingo1542: the passage of the New Laws

the death of Fray Juan Padilla, the first martyrin what would be the United States

1550: the Valladolid Conference

1573: the passage of the Basic Law

Central Characters

Bartolomé de Las Casas (1484–1566): Spanish lawyerturned priest who gained fame as the “Defender of theIndians”

Juan de Zumárraga (1468–1548): the first Bishop ofNew Spain.

Fray Juan Padilla (1500–1542): the first martyr inwhat would become the United States

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés (1519–1574): Spanishadmiral who discovered and named the bay of San

Agustín in Florida, and established a settlement there.

Questions for Review

1. What situation in the New World brought aboutthe establishment of the repartimientos and theencomiendas?

2. What abuses arose from the establishment of theencomiendas, and why did so many of the Indianson the encomiendas die?

3. What role did Cortés’ play in the establishment ofencomiendas?

4. What were the benefits of the Laws of Burgos?

5. What were supposed to be the benefits of theRequiriemento, but what abuses did it lead to?

6. Why did the establishment of the New Laws resultin civil war in Peru? Why were the New Lawsrevoked?

7. Explain the controversy that climaxed in theConference of Valladolid. Who were the two mainopponents involved?

8. Why were the missionaries so avid in theirpreaching and evangelizing?

9. Name two ways in which the missionaries evange-lized and civilized the Indians.

10. What events led to the revival and expansion ofthe missions in Florida?

Ideas in Action

1. Research the lives of the early Spanish-Americansaints and martyrs.

2. Choose a mission church of colonial Mexico andresearch its founding and mission.

3. Look up the art and music of the Spanish missions.Listen to composers such as Ignacio de Jerusalem yStella and Manuel de Zumaya. Look up the worksof artists such as Sebastían López de Arteaga andFray Alonso López de Herrera.

Chapter 2 Review (continued)

7/21/2019 02_CTP_LHP_(025-038) CZ



Chapter 2 Review (continued)

Highways and Byways

Pagan Christianity When the Spanish came to the Americas, it wascustomary for their missionaries to adopt elementsof the native pagan religion when converting theIndians. This made it was easier for the Indians toadapt to the Christian faith without too much resis-tance. For example, many of the native Indian tribespracticed human sacrifice, so they could easily acceptthe idea of consuming the body and blood of Christ.

The Indians had bestowed the title Tonantzin, “OurReverend Mother,” upon female deities, giving them

the status of a mother figure; the idea of the VirginMary was thus easily introduced among the Aztecs.The Church strove to put an end to most pagan

practices, but she also made a point of assimilatingpagan celebrations into Christian celebrations. AllSouls Day on November 2 closely coincided with theAztec autumn rituals in honor of departed ancestors.This assimilation gave rise to the Day of the Dead,which is still observed in Mexico today.

Documents

02_CTP_LHP_(025-038) CZ