Americans who lacked immunity to them.
War, forced labor, and the brutality of
their European conquerors killed off
more. In the Spanish colonies, Native
Americans were forced to work for
Spanish masters under extreme condi-
tions, while their indigenous cultures were
suppressed and destroyed.
The Africans who were forcibly
brought to the New World suffered their
own torments, beginning with a miser-
able and often fatal passage across the
Atlantic, chained in the holds of slave
ships, where they fell victim to disease,
malnutrition, and overcrowding. Once
in Spanish America, their condition
varied, depending on the amount of labor
they were given. Plantation and mill
workers suffered the worst, while domes-
tic servants and artisans fared somewhat
better. Physical punishments, including
whipping, branding, and death by hang-
ing, were bestowed for a variety of trans-
gressions.
While some have argued that despite
the hardships placed upon them, Native
Americans and enslaved Africans in
Spanish colonies fared better, in some
ways, than their counterparts in English
colonies, the evidence for this view is
mixed at best. While Catholic missionar-
ies such as Bartolomé de Las Casas were
moved by the plight of Native Americans
and successfully pushed for laws that
somewhat improved their treatment, tens
of millions of Native Americans died of
overwork and European disease. While
the English avoided contact with Native
Americans, regarding them as barely
human, the Spanish only regarded them
as human if they converted to
Christianity. Those who did not convert
were often tortured to death. In regard to
Spanish treatment of Africans, Spaniards
again distinguished between those who
had been Christianized in Europe before
arriving in the Americas and those who
arrived directly from Africa. For theseTHE ROOTS OF A PEOPLE 19European Claims in North America,1700
By the start of the 18th century, Spain, France, and England had carved up most of
North America into colonies. England competed for control of the Atlantic seaboard
with France, while France and Spain battled over control of the Gulf Coast. Although the
Spanish held most of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo (present-day Haiti and the
Dominican Republic), by 1700 English, French, and Dutch forces had begun challenge
them for control of the Caribbean as a whole.