Jason's+page

The group of Spaniards that first came to the New World consisted of conquistadors, administrators, and Roman Catholic clergy. The adventurous conquistadors were risk-taking entrepreneurs, financing their own expeditions in the expectation of being able to get rich quick. The administrators were appointed by and represented the crown in the colonies and sought to maintain the New World colonies as a source of wealth and prestige for the Spanish Empire. The clergy sought to save the souls of the native Indians, and in the process they acquired land and wealth for the church. The conquistadors, who felt they owed nothing to the crown, often came into conflict with the latter's attempts to centralize and strengthen its authority over the colonies http://atheism.about.com/library/world/AJ/bl_ColumbiaConquest.ht  **__Websites that could be used for your research:__** @http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/spanish-conquistadors.htm

@http://www.pbs.org/opb/conquistadors/mexico/adventure2/a1.htm

@http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/theconquest/a/09armsconquest.htm

@http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/latinamerica/topics/spanish_conquest.html

@http://kids.britannica.com/

@http://encarta.msn.com/

@http://everything2.com/title/Peninsulares

@http://www.answers.com/ 

@http://www.about.com/ 

**Included below is an example of researching, cut and pasting important information, paraphrasing the information, citing the website, and posting on your wiki for your group presentation.

Mr. Martin-section 5: pp. 78-80, "Harsh Life for Native Americans." A key point that I found interesting is found on page 79 and how the priest Bartolome de Las Casas tried to intercede on behalf of the Native Americans for better conditions. I used the website:** ****http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/theconquest/a/09armsconquest.htm****

** In the search box at the top of the page, I typed in "Bartolome de Las Casas," and was given different options of researching this individual and I chose the first option. **


 * I found something very interesting in that it showed that Las Casas did more than petition the government for better conditions for the Native Americans, he actually tried to do something about. It also showed me that throughout history, there were always people who were involved with social justice even with the chance of placing themselves in great harm.

(From the website) First Experiments: Las Casas convinced Spanish authorities to allow him to try and save the few remaining Caribbean natives by taking them out of slavery and placing them in free towns, but the death of King Ferdinand in 1516 and the resulting chaos over his successor caused these reforms to be delayed. Las Casas also asked for and received a section of the Venezuelan mainland for an experiment: he believed that he could pacify the natives with religion, not weapons. Unfortunately, the region that was selected had been heavily raided by slavers, and the natives’ hostility to the Europeans was too intense to overcome.

The Verapaz Experiment:  In 1537, Las Casas wanted to try again to show that natives could be controlled peacefully and that violence and conquest were unnecessary. He was able to convince the crown to let him send missionaries to a region in north-central Guatemala where the natives had proved particularly fierce. His experiment worked, and the natives were brought under Spanish control peacefully. The experiment was called Verapaz, or “true peace,” and the region still bears the name. Unfortunately, once the region was brought under control, greedy colonists took the lands and enslaved the natives, undoing almost all of Las Casas’ work.  This is an example of my paraphrasing the above section from the website, citing my source, and how it would look on your expert group wiki:  **

 ** Mr. Martin-section 5: pp. 78-80, "Harsh Life for Native Americans." ** A key point that I found interesting is found on page 79 and how the priest Bartolome de Las Casas tried to intercede on behalf of the Native Americans for better conditions. I found something that I found very interesting section very interesting because it showed that Bartolome did more than petition the government for better conditions for the Native Americans, he actually tried to do something about. It also showed me that throughout history, there were always people who were involved with social justice even with the chance of placing themselves in great harm.

Las Casas found that even with his interventions on behalf of the Native Americans, he needed to show the government that more needed to be done. He was allowed to take the remaining Caribbean natives to Venezuela to start a free town, but his first attempt failed due to slave traders and hostility from the local natives. His second attempt found him using missionaries in Guatemala to subdue the natives using peaceful means and was successful. That area of Guatemala is still called "true peace." Unfortunately, the greed of the colonists undid Las Casas work as they took native's land and enslaved many of the residents. (Retrieved on November 1, 2009 from [] )