Sophie Beasley

Whipple

AP US History, p 7

09 September 2018

Spanish Colonization SAQ Take Home Quiz

A) One major difference between de las Casas and Sepulveda is that de las Casas believed

the Indians deserved respect from the Spaniards while Sepulveda believed the Indians

were complete savages and did not deserve any rights. For example, de las Casas was

adamant about ending the encomienda system, a system of forced labor by the Spaniards

using the natives as laborers, because he thought it was unfair and abused the Indians.

Sepulveda argued for the encomienda system, however, because he thought the Indians

were made for servitude and the colonists had natural rights for the property. The fact that

de las Casas wanted to end the system shows he had respect for the natives and thought

they had rights just like the Spanish. This is the opposite opinion of Sepulveda who

wanted to keep the system because he believed the Spaniards were superior to the Indians

and that the Indians had no rights - they were simply there to serve the Spaniards.

B) One development in the period of 1491-1607 that supports the opinion of Sepulveda that

the Indians were inferior to the Spaniards is the spread of disease through the Columbian

Exchange. Diseases such as smallpox, influenza, and many more were brought to the

Americas from the Old World and devastated Indian populations. At the time, when little
 was known about disease, this was seen as proof that the Europeans were superior to the

Indians because none of the Europeans were dying from the diseases.

C) One development in the period of 1491-1607 that supports the opinion of de las Casas

that the Spanish treated the Indians brutally is Hernán Cortés’ conquest of the Aztec

Empire. Not only did Cortés take advantage of the Aztec leader, Moctezuma, who

thought the Spaniards were Gods, to take siege of the empire, he and his men killed over

two thousand Aztecs when they rebelled. The Spaniards had no right to take over the

empire in the first place and reacted in an inhuman, monstrous, and unreasonable way

when the Indians rebelled, killing every Indian in sight.