Conquistadores: Villains or Heroes?

In the late 1400s, conquistadores first started expeditions to the new continents of the Americas. These Spanish conquistadores came in search of gold and riches, along with the service of God in mind. For the Spanish, the conquerors may be seen as great heroes for bringing stolen goods from the New World, finding new resources, and being able to spread their religious thoughts and views; however, from the Native Americans point of view conquistadores are the contrary. The attitude of the Spanish conquistadors towards the natives was that they were savage. Spanish conquerors tortured and murdered a numerous amount of Native Americans in the name of religion, stole their land, and spread fatal diseases among their populations.

In Central America, the conquistadors sought to enslave, torture, and proceed onto destroying the Native Americans. Along with systematically destroying this group of people, conquistadores also shattered their culture, rights, and religions. In doing so, Spanish conquerors founded missions in present day California in devotion to the teachings of Christianity. On these mission grounds, they gathered Indians to not only educate them religiously, but also to teach in basic work such as horticulture. Since Native Americans were adopting the ways of the conquistadores in missions, the Native Americans lost touch with their native cultural concepts resulting with the end of their customs. The living conditions in these missions established by the Spanish were very horrific. Native Americans were treated as slaves and forced to harsh labor.

Spaniards that came into the New World also stole land that belonged to the Native Americans living in American continents. Conquistadores stole land masses from the Native Americans to gain territory themselves. Taking and gaining land from the Indians was a fairly easy task for the conquistadors due to their much advanced technology and weaponry opposed to what the