Is the colonial rule of the Spanish Empire in the United States really cruel?

Colonize! It is the most greedy golden dream of the colonists. Conquest and plunder are full of oppression and blood.

The Queen of Spain supported Columbus's dream of making a fortune by sailing, and Columbus also brought Mexico back to Spain, which contained information of great wealth. In just a hundred years, Spain has become the largest maritime power and the largest colonial country in America.

However, the empire, which rose by colonization for a hundred years, declined rapidly. What's going on here?

The New World was first discovered by Columbus, while the Pacific Ocean was first discovered by Spanish balboa.

Balboa, a Spaniard, has a very bad economic situation and is heavily in debt. At that time, I heard that Columbus discovered a new continent full of gold.

15 10, the Spanish royal family decided to organize an expedition to San Sevasti Anxin Colony (Laba Bay, an island in the northwest of Colombia) by Siso, a jurist from Hispaniola. But balboa is not on the crew list.

Helpless, balboa had to hide in a wooden box and go to sea with the ship. After arriving in Darien, they slaughtered and robbed the indigenous people who were friendly to them. Then, balboa replaced Enciso and colonized there.

15 19 to 1522, the Spanish royal family hired Portuguese ferdinand magellan to sail at sea for the first time. This time, he discovered strait of magellan, which was named after him.

In the past few decades, Spain sent a group of explorers to explore the coast of Central and South America, expanding the colonial scope to North America and almost to Washington State.

Colonists settled on many islands in the Caribbean and used the indigenous people as slaves to explore and mine the whole mine.

With the continuous flow of gold to Spain, Portugal, an emerging maritime power, began to participate in the colonial competition with Spain for the new continent, and the dispute between the two sides over the ownership of new territories became increasingly fierce.

Speaking of Portugal, he has a historical relationship with Spain. /kloc-Before the 0/5th century, it was only a small country on the Iberian Peninsula in Europe, with a small territory and a sparse population. Without an embattled enemy, the country may be destroyed and annexed at any time.

However, there are opportunities in the crisis. Portugal is too weak to compete with powerful countries. Just as Ottoman Turkey competed with Austria for land hegemony and Spain for maritime hegemony, the Mughal Empire was divided.

When the western powers were fighting for hegemony and the eastern powers were closed to the outside world, Portugal rose quietly, building a large number of ships, developing maritime power, occupying many strategic ports around the world, and at the same time possessing military power against Spain. As a result, Portugal and Spain launched a fierce battle.

1494, under the mediation of Pope Alexander VI, the Treaty of Todd silas was signed, from which the "papal meridian" was defined, and it was confirmed that South America was owned by Spain except Brazil, and Spain obtained the exclusive right of the New World.

After Spain learned that the Aztec Empire contained a large amount of gold and silver treasures. The greed of the Spanish empire expanded rapidly. They were not satisfied with the Caribbean islands, but with greater greed and desire for huge wealth, they decided to explore and colonize on a larger scale and carry out military conquest.

First of all, the demise of the Aztec Empire.

15 19, the Spanish sent Hernando Cortes to organize an army of 500 people to tenochtitlan. At that time, Emperor Montezuma II of the Aztec Empire regarded these white colonists as gods and warmly welcomed them.

However, these white colonists came to plunder the wealth of the Aztec empire. This, of course, met with desperate resistance from the Aztec Empire. Although the Cortes expedition had advanced weapons, it had to withdraw from tenochtitlan because of the Aztec siege.

However, how can the imperialists willingly fail and give up their predatory nature? Cortes also joined hands with local Indians to surround the Aztec Empire. The colonists not only had advanced weapons and strong lethality, but also brought smallpox virus to the New World.

Despite this, the Aztec empire persisted in resisting for many years, and was finally eliminated by imperial colonists, and the Aztec civilization died out. Cortes established a large colony in Central America for Spain.

Second, the demise of the Inca Empire.

The Inca Empire spanned Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Chile and other countries. With highly developed technologies such as tempering, stone cutting and construction, it has flourished for 400 years.

1532, the Spanish colonist Pizarro took advantage of the civil strife in which two princes of the Inca Empire competed for the throne, carrying smallpox virus, 168 people and advanced weapons, and with the support of local residents, launched a war of aggression against the Inca Empire.

However, the Inca Empire with 80,000 troops actually lost to the Spanish with only 168 people. American biologist jared diamond analyzed the book Guns, Viruses and Steel for three reasons:

1, the Spanish brought smallpox virus.

The Spanish were immune to smallpox, and they brought smallpox virus to the Inca. The Incas saw that the Spaniards lived forever and thought they were gods. Death also weakened the Incas' military strength.

The Spanish used an advanced fire monitor.

At that time, muskets were not very lethal, but they breathed fire with a loud voice. The Incas saw this thing. As soon as the gun was fired, the Inca army collapsed.

3, the Inca internal enemy consumption

The Inca brothers consumed too much cohesion when they competed for the throne.

Another important oddity is that writing should be an important factor in the development of civilization. It is strange that the Inca civilization is very high, but there is no writing. It is conceivable that if a big empire has no writing, how will the central government's decrees be promulgated and how will the empire be governed?

From the end of 16, Spain began to colonize North America.

I. Formation of the Spanish Empire

154 1 year, hernando de Soto, Pizarro's assistant, led an expedition into the Mississippi valley in the southeastern United States.

From 65438 to 0542, Francisco coronado entered the western United States, including New Mexico and da Can? as.

1565, Pedro moniz de Aviles landed at Augustine Castle from the northeast of Florida Peninsula and established a military base.

Thirty-three years later, Don Juan de Onate entered North America from Mexico, tried to conquer the local Pueblo people, met with resistance, and once drove them out of New Mexico. It was not until the17th century that Spain completely colonized Pueblo people.

1640, Spain and Portugal merged, Brazil was ruled by the Spanish, and the Spanish Empire was formed.

Second, the rapid decline of the empire.

The essence of capitalism is aggression and plunder by war. When Britain, France and Holland discovered that colonizing North America could bring money at the beginning of the17th century, they also joined the colonial ranks and competed with Spain for colonial hegemony.

In less than a hundred years, Britain and France have far surpassed Spain in strength, influence and control in North America. This is really not good news for Spain and Portugal.

By the industrial revolution of the18th century, the United States established by Britain and France in North America was advancing by leaps and bounds. The colonial empires of Spain and Portugal are in decline. Why is this happening? There are three reasons for this:

First, height determines strategy, and strategy determines the situation. Spanish colonization is mainly for profit, the purpose is to seize wealth, and there is no height of economic development.

Second, Spain did not establish an independent political system or a European society for overseas colonization, but mixed with local aborigines.

Compared with Britain, France and other countries, they are mercantilists and encourage immigrants to establish colonies freely and independently.

In a word, the colonization of the New World is related to the development of the world market and capitalism in Western Europe. What capitalism in western Europe needs, American colonies produce.

Spanish American colonies developed silver and gold mining industries. The development of sugarcane, cocoa, tobacco, indigo planting and animal husbandry in the British and French colonies all revolved around the world market and the demand of capitalism in western Europe, and American colonies played an important role in the development of capitalism in western Europe.

With the great geographical discovery in15th century, Spain and Portugal took the lead in entering America, an isolated paradise on earth. Although America was isolated from the rest of the world in the past, their civilizations developed brilliantly, such as the Inca Empire established by the Incas, the Aztec Empire established by the Aztecs and Toltecs, and the Mayan Empire established by the Mayans. Especially the Aztec Empire, after a series of wars, became the strongest and largest empire in ancient American history. They have accurate calendars and developed agricultural irrigation systems. Without the invasion of western colonists, they might be able to develop a high degree of civilization in their own country. But with the invasion of Spain and Portugal, all this went up in smoke and became a great disaster for the whole Indian civilization.

1493, Spain took the lead in establishing the first permanent colonial base in Spanish history-Santo Domingo. Based on this, the Spanish colonists continued to advance to the American continent. Relying on far more advanced weapons and tactics than American Indians, they successively occupied and destroyed the Aztec Empire, the Inca Empire and the Mayan Empire. They plundered and slaughtered these countries inhumanely. Many Indian tribes were burned after being plundered by Spanish colonists. Captured Indian prisoners were forced to work in plantations and mines. For Indian slaves who can't work, they lose the right to live. They were either brutally killed by these colonists, or left to fend for themselves in the wild and let wild animals prey on them.

With the development of time, Spanish colonists found that these American Indians had no resistance to the disease viruses they brought from Europe. In order to reduce the Indians' resistance to the colonists, they gave the Indians clothes, quilts and towels infected with smallpox virus. After the Indians were infected with smallpox virus, many villages and tribes disappeared completely overnight because they could not be treated. Due to the massacre of Indians by Spanish colonists, the Indian population has dropped sharply, which makes it difficult to meet the development needs of its plantations and mines. They trafficked slaves from Africa and raped Indian women in the United States in order to get Indian women pregnant with their children. Many Indian men were brutally killed by colonists to protect their wives and daughters.

According to limited information, Spanish colonists forced their way into Indian tribes, awakened women and girls in the tribes, abused and raped them wantonly, and many Indian women became pregnant with colonists' children. Today's American Indians are descendants of those colonists. Because of the backward sanitary conditions at that time, most luxurious Spanish colonists contracted syphilis and brought it to Europe, but now it is all over the world. During the Spanish colonial rule of America,150,000 Indians died and 8,300 kilograms of gold and 300,000 kilograms of silver were plundered. It was not until 1898 that Spain lost the war with the United States that Spain's brutal rule in the American continent completely ended.

Quite cruel, catching Indians everywhere as slaves and slaughtering Indians at will. Of course, compared with western Europeans, it is not worth mentioning. The population of North American Indians is larger than that of South America, but now Indian descent accounts for a large proportion in South America and a small proportion in North America. At one time, the American government used money to buy Indian skulls, which was not as cruel as the Spanish.