How Ceremonies Of Possession Presaged The Spaniard

, English And French Colonies Essay, Research Paper

HOW CEREMONIES OF POSSESSION PRESAGED THE SPANIARD, ENGLISH AND FRENCH COLONIES

The ceremonies of possession associated with the different colonies were very apparent in how they treated resided and co-habituated the land with the natives. They all treated the natives in their own distinct way. They all had different economics strategies they engaged in some being in regards to the mother countries, but most were in the self-interest of the colonists.

Spanish/Intro

The ceremonies of possession greatly influenced the later development of their colonies. The Spaniards throughout time changed from being extremely aggressive to being lenient towards the natives.

Spanish/Indian Behaviour

The Spaniards were unethical when they first encountered the North American natives. They had no regard for the natives that had habituated that land for many years. The Spaniards simply read “The Requirement” and expected the natives to abide. The Spaniards not only believed that they owned the land, but the natives had to, “either accept Christian superiority voluntarily, or we will impose submission at the point of a sword or a harquebus” (Patricia Seed, 71). The Spaniards “created their rights to the New World through conquest not consent”(Patricia Seed, 70).

To initiate a war that results in legitimate political dominion over the conquered, the procedures for launching it must be carefully proscribed by the same political authorities that will later claim to have established lawful dominion. To establish the right to rule by virtue of conquest means that all the soldiers, captains, and leaders in battle must follow the political steps they have been commanded to undertake. For what is at stake is not simply their own personal control over a region, but the legitimate government of an entire state. To omit the rituals would be to jeopordize the establishment of an entire state. Hence, it was not necessary for soldiers or their leaders to find the rhetoric or logic or the declaration of war compelling or convincing. It was only necessary that they observe its protocol, as they had been commanded to do…(Seed, 70)

“until they encountered the nomadic tribes of northern Mexico the Chichimecs’– that Spaniards found it necessary to seriously modify their procedures”(Olivia Patricia Dickason. 186). The Chichimecs started to revolt against the Spaniards. This sudden and unaccepted turn of events changed the Spaniards method of stealing land and enslaving natives. They now dealt with natives differently to save, “cost of military protection for their lines of communication” (Olivia Patricia Dickason, 186). This revolt quite drastically changed the way Spaniards dealt with the natives from that point forward.

“By the time the Spaniards established themselves in what was to become the southern United States, gift-giving had become a recognized part of their frontier policy… this kind of accommodation was usually referred to as a “treaty”, it was not in the form of a written and signed document. Spaniards do not appear to have done that with frontier tribes until toward the end of the eighteenth century, when they signed a mutual assistance pact with the Creeks at Pensacola in West Florida in 1784 and another one three weeks later with the Alibamos, Chickasaws and Choctaws at Mobile.”(Olivia Patricia Dickason, 187)

This gift-giving, treaty bearing technique seemed to work with the Spaniards when it came to dealing with the natives.

Spanish/Economic Orientation

The primary focus that a typical Spaniard would adopt would be to earn money and land for themselves and pay a small royalty to the Spanish Government. This venture usually consisted of Spaniards who were poor and wished to discover rich land that would be ideal for colonization. This does not mean that all Spaniards that came to “The Americas” were impoverished but a majority of them were. The conquest of Motecuhzama treasures is a great example of the Spaniards who were only interested in money and gold. After they secured all the gold they set fire to anything that had no value to them, no matter if it had a religious or sentimental value to anybody else.

Spanish/Racial Attitudes

The Spaniards used various ranks when they classified their populous. They were very race orientated when it came to class and rank in their society.

“The inhabitants may be divided into different castes or tribes, who derive their origin from a coalition of Whites, Negroes, and Indians… Whites may be divided into two classes, the Europeans, and Creoles, or Whites born in the country…intermarriage of the Whites and the Negroes…are Mulatto.(Keen, 114- 115)

The way the Spaniards treated the natives was always changing through time. When they first encountered the natives, they showed no respect and treated them as an inferior race, but afforded them the basic necessities. They paid the natives a paltry sum for work, but then offered them credit. The natives would take advantage of the credit by spending too much and forever be in debt to the Spaniards.

Under the system of forced labour known as the mita, in the viceroyalty of Peru, one-seventh of all formally free, unskilled Indian males over eighteen years of age were required each year to provide labor services to the Crow

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