Colonization of America

Religious zeal played a large role in Spanish and Portuguese overseas activities. The Roman Catholic Church was a great political power. The pope declared that he had authority to decide which King had permission to colonize which continent. While they were involved with ethnic cleansing through out Europe during the Inquisition they took much property and land.

The fear they spread and the financial power they gained through their raids during the shameful period of the Roman Catholic Church, they also were active in colonizing the Americas. They sent missionaries to convert everyone to the Catholic faith. They considered the native population as "savages".

In 1455 Papal Bull Romanus Pontifex granted the Portuguese all lands behind Cape Bojador and he decreed that is was allows desirable to either kill pagans and any enemy of the Roman Catholic Church. He also encouraged his colonizing partners to engage in perpetual slavery.

In 1481 Papal Bull Aeterni regis granted all lands south of the Canary Islands to Portugal. In 1493 the Spanish-born Pope Alexander VI decreed that all lands west of a meridian including the Cape Verde Islands should belong to Spain while new lands discovered east of that line would belong to Portugal.

The Dominicans and Jesuits, notably Francis Xavier in Asia, were particularly active in this endeavour. Many buildings erected by the Jesuits still stand, such as the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Macau and the Santisima Trinidad de Paran in Paraguay, an example of a Jesuit Reduction.

Spanish treatment of the indigenous populations provoked a fierce debate at home in 1550-51, dubbed the Valladolid Controversy, over whether Indians possessed souls and if so, whether they were entitled to the basic rights of mankind.

Bartolomé de Las Casas, author of A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, championed the cause of the natives. He was supported by the School of Salamanca, which preferred to give some rights to the indigenous people.

Sepulveda however claimed that Native Americans were "natural slaves". They challenged Charles V's assertion that he had power over the indigenous people and that they were under his rule. And, they thought it was permissible for local people to reject conversion to the Roman Catholic Church. However they decided and agreed it was alright to enslave them.

Since Native Americans were not able to fight against the health issues foreign on their soil millions died and millions more were killed for a number of reasons. Next