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Shreshta Aiyar
Dr. Anelise Shrout
HIST 410
18 November 2016
Historical Primary Source Analysis
My final project will study Catholic justifications for Native American and African exploitation in the Atlantic World. I will analyze Catholic Spain’s tactics and intentions for exploration, and I will discuss with detail primary sources that signify European supremacy over Native Atlantic peoples. By studying the Spanish Requirement of 1513 and Christopher Columbus’s Journals, I will explain how European Catholicism largely contributed to Native oppression.
The Spanish Requirement of 1513 was a document that was read in Spanish to Native and Indigenous peoples of North and South America when conquered by Catholic Spain. Under the Requirement, the Spanish requested that Native peoples adopt the Catholic church as their religion, and that they accept subservience to the Spanish. Should indigenous peoples reject this offer, the Spanish would “powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church” (Requirement of 1513). The Spanish Requirement of 1513 represents the usage of Catholicism as a means to conquer and oppress Native American peoples. The Requirement is also an extension of Spain’s home religious and political climate. As Moors were being expelled from Granada, Queen Isabella used Just War Theory to justify the forced conversion or exploitation and conquering of Indigenous Atlantic peoples. Queen Isabella sought to expand Catholicism in order to spread Spain’s social, religious, and economic influence across the globe. In The Church Militant and Iberian Expansion, 1440–1770, historian C.R. Boxer analyzes relations between the regular and the secular clergy; the mission as a frontier institution in many climes and many cultures; the close and inseparable connection between Cross and Crown; and the role of the Inquisition overseas. The Church Militant and Iberian Expansion, 1440–1770 is an important secondary source that relates to the Spanish Requirement of 1513 because C.R. Boxer studies the impact of Catholicism on colonization. Boxer examines the effects of a Catholic crown, of Church Militant groups, and of missionaries on Atlantic civilizations, concluding that Catholicism played a pivotal role in European domination of the New World.
Christopher Columbus’s journals are an example of European supremacy and domination of Native Atlantic peoples. His journal entries depict the roots of white supremacy that endangered indigenous populations. The desire to achieve “God, Glory, and Gold” is evident in Columbus’s writings, and through Catholicism, he separates Europeans from Native Atlantic populations. Columbus showed that religion and exploration went hand in hand regarding Catholic expansion beyond Spanish boarders. Columbus states in his writings that the Native peoples “would be good servants and I am of opinion that they would very readily become Christians, as they appear to have no religion” (Christopher Columbus’ Journals). This ideology is further discussed in Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra’s Puritan Conquistadors: Iberianizing the Atlantic, 1550–1700. In this book, Cañizares-Esguerra argues that there is a striking resemblance between Spanish and Puritan discourse surrounding colonization. Puritan Conquistadors: Iberianizing the Atlantic, 1550–1700 compares and contrasts colonization by the Puritans and the Spanish and overall argues that the Spanish were much harsher and more evil towards Native Americans. However, both the Puritans and the Spanish believed in Christian superiority, and this is a common theme that contributes to the subordination of Indigenous peoples. Christopher Columbus and Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra both expose Catholicism and religion as tools of social superiority that stigmatize Native Americans as uneducated, savage, and non-religious.
In my final project, I hope to connect Catholicism with modern day Euro centrism in the Atlantic. I seek to bridge the Atlantic past of religious dominance over Native Americans with the present day state of American culture and politics, especially through the eyes of Native Americans. It is my goal to research Catholicism’s direct and indirect impacts on the Atlantic between the 15th and 19th centuries, as well as on today. Through the Requirement of 1513 and Christopher Columbus’s journals, it is evident that Spanish Catholicism was a tool used to dominate and exploit Native Americans in order to improve and skyrocket Spanish social status and economic importance. C.R. Boxer and Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra both successfully analyze the impact of white religion on the Atlantic, arguing that because of Catholicism and Puritanism, European religion is still a dominant driving force today in social, political, and economic power. I hope to expand on these points in my final project and create a concise digital history project that explains the exploitation of Native American peoples through a religious historical lens.