Well, hey there and welcome back to Himler's History. If you're just now joining me, we've been going through unit one of the AP US history curriculum. And in the last video, we looked at Spanish colonial dominance in the Americas and how that dominance fundamentally shaped the culture there. And in this video, we're going to go deeper into how that shaping of culture took place between the Europeans, the natives of America, and the Africans. And we'll look at the resistance to these new realities as well. And unless my instincts do deceive me, your brain cow is ready to get milked. So, let's get to it. So, as I said, we discussed in the last video how a new societal reality was imposed in the Americas by Spanish hegemony. Spanish hedge what many? Hegemany. And it just means the domination of one nation or group by another nation or group. So, if Spain was doing the hegemonizing, it just means that they were the ones in charge. And I only mentioned the word because you may come across it in a textbook or a document. And now you know what it means. Look at that. We're learning stuff already. Love it. Okay. Okay. So, as the Spanish continued to expand their empire northward after 1573, the manner of their expansion changed. Instead of sending soldiers to conquer the people with guns, they decided to send missionaries to convert the natives to Christianity. And this new form of directing the establishment of settlements was known as the mission system. And when these Franciscan priests encountered various groups of Native Americans, they found themselves confronting people with fundamentally different worldviews regarding things like religion and land use and family. And it might be helpful if we compare their different ideas. With respect to religion, the natives were largely pantheists and animists who believed in a natural world that was filled with spirits. But the Spanish on the other hand came from a hierarchical Catholic system of Christianity which taught belief in a single deity. With respect to land use, the Native Americans believed in the spiritual nature of the land which in their view meant that the land was not a commodity to be carved up and subsequently bought and sold. But the Spanish of course believed the opposite. Land existed for the sake of private ownership. With respect to family, native society was held together by kinship networks of extended families that can number from 50 to 70 members. The Spanish certainly respected kinship, but they centered their life around the nuclear family, which is to say a set of parents and their children. But I should mention that despite this misunderstanding, both groups adopted part of the others culture that they found useful. And this was true of other European and native groups that interacted as well. Native Americans, for example, were eager to get their hands on the metal tools being traded by the Europeans, which they use for farming and hunting. And they also wanted horses and guns which they used for warfare. Europeans, on the other hand, wanted access to the lucrative North American fur trade. And therefore, they arranged marriages with Native American women in order to secure trading rights with different peoples. And I don't care who you are, that's just flatout romantic. But despite this mutual adoption of culture, it was the differences between these two people that held pride of place. And as you can imagine, these divergent worldviews led to misunderstandings between the two groups. And this is going to be a theme of other Europeans encountering the natives later on. Now in some cases the efforts of the Spanish priests to convert the natives actually worked. They became Christians. An example of this was with the Pueblo people. But what the priests meant by conversion and what the Pueblo meant by conversion again were conflicting. Christianity by definition is an exclusive religion that requires the converts total devotion and therefore requires the converts rejection of all other gods. But the Pueblo with their expansive spiritual vision of the world and his deities had no problem bringing Christ into their pantheon of gods and worshiping him right along with their other gods. And so in becoming Christians, the Pueblo retained some of their native religious practices. And this was the case with other native groups as well. And when the priests tried to put an end to this and force singular devotion to Christ, some native groups resisted keeping their religious practices a secret. And then others like the Pueblo actually resisted with violence. And here's where we talk about the Pueeblo revolt. So in 1610, Spanish concisadors had already established rule in present day New Mexico. And through the mission system had forced the conversion of many of the Pueblo. And after having sustained drought and attacked by other native groups, the Pueblo decided that the cause of all their trouble was the Spanish invaders and their Christ. And so under the leadership of one of their leading men by the name of Poe, the Pueblo rose up together, killed something like 400 Spanish colonizers and burned all the churches to the ground. The remainder of the Spanish fled and this was a victory for the Pueblo. And that's true even though about 12 years later, the Spanish returned and got their concistador on yet again and reconquered the land and the people. Now, with this kind of brutality going on, news reached all the way back to Spain of everything that was happening. And King Charles convened a group of priests, philosophers, and jurists who discussed the moral and legal fallout of Spanish conquest in the Americas. Many of these men argued for the inferiority and the backward nature of the Indians and that to conquer them was to bring them the riches of Western civilization and that was actually good for them. However, there were also voices that defended the dignity of the Indians and the chief voice arguing on their behalf was a priest by the name of Bartome de Lasass. He himself had spent many years preaching among the Indians and he argued that if Spain kept on this trajectory of brutalizing and killing them, their souls would be lost to God. Not to mention that those who did survive would hate Christianity as a result of Spanish colonial policies. Now, in the last video, we talked about the forced labor system put in place by the Spanish, which was known as the Encomienda system. Deascus, having seen firsthand the injustice and brutality of the system, argued powerfully that for the sake of their souls, natives ought not be put under such a heavy yoke. But apparently he wasn't that concerned about the souls of Africans because what he suggested was that Africans replace the natives in the forced labor system. And for reasons that I mentioned in the last video, this is exactly what the Spanish did. And so it was Africans who were to bear the weight of the heavy yoke of enslaved labor in the Americas and much of the Western Hemisphere from here on out. And we're going to revisit that in detail in unit 2. All right, that's what you need to know about unit one, topic six of AP US history. And I can see in your eyes that you're the kind of person who wants to get an A in their class and a five on their exam in May. And if I'm right, then why don't you go ahead and click here and grab a view packet. I think you're going to love it. And if you watch this and were helped by it and you want me to keep making these videos for you, then go ahead and subscribe because that's how I know that you want me to keep making them. I'm Laura.