Hi Chris, At least in the case of the Spanish, evangelization was an important part of the process of New World conquest. According to Tom Berger, whom I quoted before, the ..."conquistadores came to the New World in the name of the King but also in the name of Jesus. The Church was often their willing instrument in the pillaging of the new lands. Priests accompanying the soldiers, coming upon Indian villages, would read the Requerimiento to the Indians, a formal demand, in Spanish, that they adopt the Christian faith. The Requerimiento recited the king's title to the New World, a title granted by the Church. It declared that Jesus was lord of the universe, that he had appointed Saint Peter as Bishop of Rome, and that the pope had bestowed America on the King of Spain.
According to the Requerimiento the Indians were obliged to enter the faith and to acknowledge the king's sovereignty. The Indians did not speak Spanish, so they understood not a word. In any event, they had never heard of Jesus nor the king nor the pope. No time was given for consideration: there had to be immediate compliance. If the Indians refused to acknowledge the authority of the king and the pope, the soldiers would kill them, and as the Requerimiento advised the Indians, 'And we protest that the deaths and losses which shall result from this are your fault.... ' 'The Indians who were not killed were compelled to leave their homes to become labourers in the mines, field hands and beasts of burden." But of course, as well as bringing the Requerimiento and their swords with them, the conquistadores brought diseases to which they and their African slaves were immune, and as they interacted with the Indians, they spread the diseases among them. There were times when the Spaniards recognized the diseases as allies. When the conquistadores were in battle for Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City) things were going badly for them, but then, according to a soldier who later became a Dominican Friar: "When the Christians were exhausted from war, God saw fit to send the Indians smallpox, and there was a great pestilence in the city. . . ." (Patricia de Fuentes, ed. and trans., The Conquistadors. FirstPerson Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico) Ed P.S.: In case you don't know, Tom Berger is a lawyer who, back in the 1960s and 1970s, played a major role in establishing Aboriginal rights to land and self-governance in Canada. He was chair of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry which lasted some four years in the 1970s and which firmly established that a pipeline could not be built in the Mackenzie Valley until rights to land had been established there. I had the privelege of working with him as his socio-economic advisor. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christoph Reuss" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, May 25, 2007 3:04 PM Subject: Re: [Futurework] Good thing he's infallible? >> the evangelization process was accompanied by "shadows". > ... >> "With the arrival of the conquistadores came diseases that devastated >> whole Indian populations. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > > What do these diseases have to do with the evangelization process in > particular? The conquistadores arrived to steal land and gold (a task > *helped* by the mass killing) -- the evangelization was a side effect > (if evangelization would have been the main purpose, i.e. to maximize > the number of Christians in the world, the mass killing would have been > *counter-productive*). > > Chris > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword > "igve". > > > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > Futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca > http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
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