La conquista: la Cultura y la sociedad

The Conquest: Culture and Society

The conquest of the American territory by the Europeans can be defined as one very complex and complicated topic to explain. With the whole process of Christopher Columbus encountering these majestic islands, that in fact were qualified by himself as a beautiful earthly paradise, and trying to takeover territory and people (indigenous people), also several events happened in matters of social and cultural aspects, just because of being the collision of two or more civilizations. It is said, that the strongest and more solid social system was the one which would remain and dominate such large territory. Of course, when comparing these two civilizations, indigenous people could be described as primitive and not as advanced as the Europeans. When talking about the actual accomplishment of the “conquest”, specifically about land taking, it was not very difficult for the Spaniards achieve, just because of all the resources the could count on when fighting against the indigenous people. Guns, horses, and cannons were some of the arms that allowed the European control so many people so rapidly. Also, psychological factors played a very important role on taking over these people. Because the indigenous people though the Spaniard came from another world, a sense of superiority in the Europeans made the indigenous population feel even more vulnerable and full of fear.

Religion seemed to be the greatest aspect the Europeans tried to emphasize with the conquest, because of the fact that one of the main purposes of this whole process was to gain power, and by converting all these new civilizations into Christian was basically going to be a huge movement that would give the European countries more influence and authority over lager territories. Of course, these primitive civilizations had their own very strong religious systems already settled. Is important to emphasize, that these religious basis were completely different to what the Europeans were used to believe in, making the whole process of the Conquest a little bit more complicated. For example, one of the biggest civilizations in the area was the Maya, located in Guatemala, Chiapas (Mexico), and El Salvador. This society seemed to a have a strong believe in their ancestors and somehow tried to connect them with the things and places around them. This connection between living and non-living aspects make us think about the Mayas trying to worship death in some way. Some examples are, giving the names of dead people to newborns; therefore they would acquire all the positive features of this person. Also, the objects and land their ancestors possessed had great importance in their cultures, so they would preserve them and worship them. Another example would be, within a family group, Mayas would bury their people in the same land to keep them close to them. Certainly, Europeans were shocked by all these beliefs that resulted

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