(The above picture is when Christopher Columbus first landed in the Americas. In this picture you can see the Native Americans being depicted as half naked savages. Still image painting, John Vanderlyn, 1837.)
Abstract: The mission of this website is intended to look at how the Iberian world was able to use Christianity as a necessity for the conquest and colonization of the Aztecs in New Spain. This assessment of the Iberian world is vital, as it will provide valued insight into a time in which the church held all the power, while also using Christianity as their foot in the door to get treasurable metals like gold and silver and most importantly having the ability to convert the indigenous populaces.
Historiography: Spanish evangelization has started out as being only from the Spanish perspective. As time and history have progressed historians like Ronald Wright, John Kicza, Serge Gruzinski, and Charles Braden have gone back and looked at the Spanish’s historical evidence and began to question it. Seemingly all of the letters that were written by the conquistadors and sent back to Spain contained information that was over exaggerated or simply bias about what was taking place with in Spain’s evangelization. The field started out with Spain writing the history of what took place because they were the colonizers. Then a shift appeared which looked at the history of Spain’s conversion process and questions began to arise. Historians began to notice that there was a lack of Native American perspective and so they began researching and re writing the history books. Currently the topic of Spanish evangelization in Mexico still lacks Native American perspective. I intend to add to this historiography by looking at Spain’s evangelization process while also acquainting it with the indigenous perspective. I ultimately aim to shed light on how the Native Americans were able to adapt to Christianity while not losing sight of their old customs.
Historiography: Spanish evangelization has started out as being only from the Spanish perspective. As time and history have progressed historians like Ronald Wright, John Kicza, Serge Gruzinski, and Charles Braden have gone back and looked at the Spanish’s historical evidence and began to question it. Seemingly all of the letters that were written by the conquistadors and sent back to Spain contained information that was over exaggerated or simply bias about what was taking place with in Spain’s evangelization. The field started out with Spain writing the history of what took place because they were the colonizers. Then a shift appeared which looked at the history of Spain’s conversion process and questions began to arise. Historians began to notice that there was a lack of Native American perspective and so they began researching and re writing the history books. Currently the topic of Spanish evangelization in Mexico still lacks Native American perspective. I intend to add to this historiography by looking at Spain’s evangelization process while also acquainting it with the indigenous perspective. I ultimately aim to shed light on how the Native Americans were able to adapt to Christianity while not losing sight of their old customs.