As we know, England was not the only colonizer of the Americas. Spain claimed the South, covering vast amounts of modern day Mexico and parts of the US, and France claimed the North, now Canada. This begs the question, how did each colonizing nation treat the Native Americans?
Spain:
The Spanish were brutal and exploitive of the natives. They established a hierarchical system with Spaniards at the top and natives at the bottom. Under Spanish rule, Native Americans were essentially enslaved to the fields, the mines, and as servants; plus, they had to pay tribute, where every month or so each Indian was forced to pay a certain sum of gold, and if they didn't, they would be executed. Catholicism was also imposed on the tribes and empires. Also, the encomienda system was established, where, when the Spanish government granted land, that grant included any native inhabitants as their slaves. As a result, many Natives fled, and those who were caught were treated as prisoners of war. Finally, there was the mission system, where priests actually bothered to learn the local language and then convert people in village communities. This was fairly successful. The Spanish mistreated the Natives, but as a result of all their close affairs with them, they intermarried and created the mestizo class.
England:
While the Spanish were true settlers, mostly men of rank, the English colonizers were mostly families wanting to start a new life. There was some effort to enslave and convert the Indians, but they were much weaker and mostly failed. The relationship between the English and the Natives was founded on trade and land. In both cases, the Indians lost after white hunters killed all their fur prey, and then attempted to buy their land. The pattern to notice was that there was trade, attempts to secure land, misunderstanding, and conflict with each westward movement. One of the most important contrasts with the Spanish settlers was the absence of intermarriage -- Americans saw themselves as above intermarriage with the "savages".
France:
The French presence in North America was exceptional, as they actually had good relations with the Natives. They came mainly to trade furs, not settle land. They worked together with the Indians in hunting, and even learned the languages! When they settled their first city of Quebec, they kept these ties. They had the highest intermarriage rate of all. Of course, the French weren't so righteous. In the West Indies, alongside Britain and Spain, they held slave societies where treatment was so harsh that the death rate exceeded the birth rate, thus the constant importations of new slaves was necessary. Abolition in the 1820's allowed for these colonies to rebel and liberate themselves.
Each empire criticized the others' treatment of the Natives and used that criticism as evidence that their own ways were best.
https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-did-spain-france-england-treat-native-496372
https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/native-americans-treatment-spain-vs-england-issue
https://ancestralfindings.com/the-french-and-native-american-relations/
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Slavery_in_the_British_and_French_Caribbean#/Abolition
Thanks for your post Bennett! I think you make an important concession when you talk about the good relations between the French and the natives: the French were not inherently more benevolent colonizers (and on the other side of that coin, the British and Spanish were not inherently evil colonizers). The treatment of Native Americans was based purely on the economic circumstances of the colonies: the Spanish & the British were competing with Native Americans, so they treated them poorly; the French, however, were more profitable when capitalizing on the expertise of Native Americans, so they had to stay friendly.
ReplyDeleteUltimately, nearly every policy can be explained by economics, including the European treatment of Native Americans.