Spanish Colonies Vs New England Colonies

The Spanish and New England Colonies The Spanish and New England colonies were both only slightly similar and significantly different in terms of religion because of the varying beliefs on the numerous visions of salvations and the massive weight of control by the European church leaders. Along with the religious beliefs of both colonies, the colonists both had fairly different views and precedents on the native people and their homelands, the interactions between the Natives and the colonists was a key concept in the colonies during this era. For the colonies to gain prosperity and provide the basic necessities for their citizens, each colony was dependent on economic systems to earn money and provide for the constant growth within the …show more content…
The Spanish came to the New World with the goals to prosper in wealth and to serve for God, and this newly founded New World gave the Spanish Colonies the chance to regain it's religious followers after the followers were lost to the colonies Protestant “heresy” that it once had; the Spanish colony became ‘fully catholic’ by 1492 by expelling the Muslims and Jews after 1492. The Spanish firmly believed that colony had rights to conquer and colonize the New World to spread Christianity to the Natives inhabiting the land. In the minds of the Spanish Colonists, they were saving the souls of the Native peoples even if it meant destroying their bodies. The colonists used this to justify for practically every one of the actions that they did in the New World along with the act of forced conversion on the Natives, sending out priests to aid in the conversion. The Spanish, in order to aid conversion, created the Mission System; a religious mission to convert Native peoples throughout the American Southwest and into California. The Mission Systems were run by Friars who would force conversion onto the natives and bring them missions to live, in exchange for food and shelter the natives were to work on construction and in the fields as virtual slaves to the friars. These missions became foundations for many cities in …show more content…
In the Spanish colonies, the settlers formed large-scale farms called plantations in the 1600’s that skyrocketed their economy and the demand in Europe. From the advancement of the plantations and the product of sugar, the industry proved highly successful considering the intensive work labor that was needed to run the plantations. The Spanish had to rely on the enslavement of indigenous people, they soon had to rely on African enslavement due to the decline of natives due to the hard labor in the plantations, to keep their business prosperous and maintained to aid the rising success of the Spanish economy. Unlike the Spanish, the Massachusetts Bay had fertile soil and prospered from the land. Considering the vast farmable land in the south that could be used for tobacco and other cash crops, the economy began to depend on subsistence farming where the people only grow enough for their own families which led to a tighter knit community in the New England towns. Unlike the plantations that spread across Virginia, the Puritans settled in towns with surrounding fields in order to share resources with other settlers. With the use of commercial trade, the colony began a diverse economy that gained wealth through numerous resources. Many English settlers relied on fishing and fur trade to gain prosperity and established the navigation acts to help colonial