Spanish Invasion of the New World: Effects on Oceania, Americas and Beyond - Essay Sample

Introduction

Spain colonized most of the New World, which refers to the majority of the Earth's Western Hemisphere, that is Oceania, Americas and the neighbouring islands. The coming of the Spaniards to the area brought some changes. As a result, the Spanish affected the Americas in many ways. The new world accepted some of the techniques while they rejected others. Languages, writing ways, religion, social and cultural practices were some of the ways Spanish influenced the New World. In this paper, we will look at the extent to which natives of the New World accepted Spanish domination.

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The Nahua world had its own religious beliefs before the arrival of the Spaniards. Many had their gods, and others were Indians. Some religions, such as the Mesoamerican religion had an excellent establishment in the region. Human beings do not believe in change and they resist change. As a result, Spaniards experienced some challenges to convert the people of Mexico. The existence of a traditional culture made it easier for the natives to convert to Christianity, "one can hardly speak of an indigenous inclination to disbelief in Christianity" pg.203. Nahua expected a new god to replace their other gods, but this did not happen, and instead, just instructions to follow Christianity. Franciscans, established their roots by arguing the gods of the natives were false and did not exist. All In all, they accepted to be Christians, and some dropped their religious beliefs.

The arrival of the Spaniard also influenced the language. Change in linguistic here happens in stages. In the first phase, the were no changes even though Spaniards were in the region, "between 1540 and 1550, was characterized by virtually no change in Nahuatl" pg. 261. Another stage involved stealing of some nouns from Spanish, but the language did not change. A theory that linguistic transformation largely depended with contacts between the two groups existed. Most areas of contact included Spanish cities such as Coyoacan and Tetzcoco. This means that where the Spaniards were more, the conversion would be reliable. The indigenous speakers started speaking Spanish amongst themselves. It continued changing step by step and Spanish became the verbal which most people use, although Nahuarl is evident. This marked another borrowed aspect from the colonizers.

Writing existed in the two cultures involved. Spaniards used in and paper while Nahuarl used their own to put things on paper where they called paper (amatl) and ink (tlili). As a result, the natives were not surprised by the writing. As usual adoption of the Spanish-style of writing faced resistance from the natives did not see any sense in it. Through attaching Roman letters to documents including cabildo and church. This integrated the locals into new writing and recordkeeping. Some change also occurred in ways of expression. These ways comprise of crafts, journalism, philosophy, arts and scholarship. Every utterance from the natives involved several metaphors in the context. It took no time for the Nahuas to turn into the new ways of writing.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the New World accepted several ways of life from the colonizers. As discussed above, we have seen the conversion of some things. For example, they moved from their traditional languages to Spanish. In another situation, the natives leave their way of worshipping and becomes Christians which they accepted from the Spaniards. It is clear that, although the new world resisted some of the behaviors, they end up being assimilated by their new rulers. The natives, to some extent, some of the new traditions were accepted, and others not completely acknowledged. The language indicates some of the things which did not change totally because Nahuatl still exist.