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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