Evaluate the influence of religion on the development of colonial society in TWO of the following regions.
-The Spanish Southwest
-New England
-New France
The Spanish Southwest
Spain used religion as an effective instrument of colonial control. Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries
established isolated Catholic missions where they imposed Christianity on the Native Americans. After 10 years missions were secularized, lands were divided among converted Indians, the mission chapel became the parish church, and the inhabitants were given full Spanish citizenship (had to pay taxes). Soldiers sent to protect the missions lived in presidios (forts); their families and accompanying merchants, in adjacent villages. Those who did not accept the requerimiento (freedom to all Native Americans who accepted Spanish authority) were threatened with war and enslavement. In reality Spanish colonial society, while extremely Catholic, was very stratified.
-conquistadors
-encomiendas/encomendero
-Ginés de Sepúlveda, Juan
-Juan de Onate colonizes New Mexico for Spain (1598)
Las Casas, Bartolomé de
-Laws of Burgos (1513)
-mestizo
-missions, missionaries, conversions, presidios
-New Laws (1542)
-Popé revolt (Pueblo) in New Mexico (1680)
-reconquest of New Mexico (1699)
-requerimiento (1513)
-Santa Fe established (1610)
-Spanish settlement established in Albuquerque
(1706)
New France
New France differed greatly from the Spanish and English settlements. Most settlements in New France were predominantly male and much smaller in number. The smaller numbers required the French to develop cooperative relationships with the Native Americans. The French, unlike the English, established trading outposts rather than farms, and on land not claimed by Native Americans. This resulted in no initial hostility. The French also served as mediators among Great Lakes tribes. This diplomatic role gave them much more local authority and influence than their English counterparts.
The outnumbered and disproportionately male French settlers sought to integrate themselves with Native American culture rather than eliminate it. This more fraternal bond proved a source of strength in the wars with the English. A source of wealth was the fur trade; however, the charter limited the population to French Catholics only. In 1663 New France became a royal colony under Louis XIV.
While the fur trade fueled the economy and peopling of New France, the activities of Catholic missionaries gave New France its dynamism. Like Spain, New France was aggressive in converting Native Americans, but in New France the Jesuits did the conversion work. Unlike the Spanish, the Jesuits were rarely accompanied by soldiers, and they did not require Native American converts to move to missions. The Jesuits lived among the Native Americans, and they borrowed from each other’s ways. The Native Americans may have converted, but they never embraced Jesuit teaching and learning. This approach enabled New France to prosper and its settlers to spread deep into Canada and as far south as Louisiana.
Cartier, Jacques (three trips for French
exploration, 1534–1542)
Champlain, Samuel de (began exploration of
Quebec, 1608)
Franciscans, e.g., Louis Hennepin
French settlers arrive in New France (1614)
Jesuits, e.g., Jacques Marquette
New France becomes a royal colony (1663)
New England
Religious fundamentalists who looked to the Bible for authority and inspiration, the Puritans came to New England to purify the church and to create a successful community within the parameters of their religious beliefs. With the exception of religion, moderation was the key. As a result of their experiences in Britain, they wanted a separation of church and state, but in New England only church members could vote and
therefore the state supported the church. From this an assembly of true Christians could enter into a
church covenant, a voluntary union for the common worship of God. Hence it was only a short step to the idea of a voluntary union for the purpose of government (e.g., the Mayflower Compact, the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, and the informal Rhode Island arrangement prior to securing a charter in 1663).
To question state authority, however, was to question belief in the Bible and as such was not be tolerated (e.g., Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams/Rhode Island, Thomas Hooker/Connecticut, John Mason/New Hampshire). Growth strains led to the Halfway Covenant in 1662. In 1691 Massachusetts became a royal colony, which required religious toleration of dissenters and made the right to vote based on property rather than on church membership.
The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 highlighted the transition from a Puritan-based society to a royal crown colony. The trials have also been seen as an attack on women who did not accept their place in society.
-Edwards, Jonathan (“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” 1741)
-Eliot, John (the “Indian apostle”); American Indian praying towns
-Good, Sarah
-Great Awakening (1734)
-Halfway Covenant (1662)
-Hutchinson, Anne (exiled with followers, 1637)
-Massachusetts Bay Colony (1629)
-Massachusetts establishes system of public education (1647); “ye olde deluder Satan” act
-Massachusetts and New Hampshire made royal colonies (1692)
-Mather, Cotton
-New Haven (1638)
-Osborne, Sarah
-Parris, Samuel
-Pilgrims found Plymouth Colony (1620); first Thanksgiving
-Plymouth Colony absorbed into Massachusetts (1691)
-Rhode Island Charter (1644)
-Salem Witch Trials (1692)
-Tituba
-Whitfield, George (first sermon in America — Philadelphia, 1739)
-Williams, Roger (exiled from Massachusetts, 1636)
-Winthrop, John (“city upon a hill”)
