Conquistadors: Hereos or Villians

Everybody has his or her own opinion about the Spanish conquistadores being villains or heroes, and most classify them as being villains, but if we don’t only look at the immoral side we would see that they also brought some important goods for the growth of the Native Americans civilization. They did do a humongous damage to the Native Americans` population, culture and religious beliefs, but they also brought animals they had never seen, new plant life, and even some new food that the Native Americans hadn’t see or eaten. In a way Spanish conquistadores are both villains and heroes to the Native Americans in both of the Americas.
The most usual way that conquistadores are look as are villains thanks to the ¨Black Legend¨ tortured and of course the Native Americans saying the conquistadors provoke the genocide known as the American Indian Holocaust. The conquistadors didn’t intend to find the Americas they didn’t even think they existed; the only thing they wanted was new trade routes. But either way it doesn’t excuse what they did to the Native Americans using the Encomienda System as an excuse. As soon as the Spanish conquistadores discovered the Americas, thanks to Columbus, and realized the riches it contained they started major voyages which cause them to discover a different race who were naïve and not civilized. This New World that was populated by Native Americans was mostly wilderness since most natives were nomadic tribes not many empires were solid, giving the conquistadors an idea that they would gain riches by taking advantages of the noble natives, such as Hernàn Cortés did with the Aztecs. The conquistadors with their hunger for gold, silver and precious metals killed plenty of the natives and without noticing they killed millions more with diseases such as smallpox, measles, malaria, and chicken pox that they brought with them. Conquistadors saw the natives as ignorant, savage fouls that needed to be civilized and for the conquistadors was an enormous opportunity to spread Christianity. But the ways they intended to complete their objective was cruel and not forget vicious for they only wanted to get rich. They enslaved the natives creating the Encomienda System which was all but just a way to enslave them as well to convey and convert natives to Christianity. Natives had to pay the conquistadors so they would protect them as well for their religious teachings which made the natives lose everything of their culture, language, freedom and beliefs because they thought the only way to escape for the abuse of the conquistadors was to accept Christianity. With the spread of Christianity the conquistadors began creating missions on which they used natives to build the missions. The conquistadors continuous expeditions, discovering new lands with more natives which they proceeded to tame led to the Native Americans to revolt as they did at Pope`s Rebellions, which destroyed many churches and killed plenty of Spaniards. The hatred the natives felt towards the Spanish conquistadores was huge and as the conquistadors continued their cruel visions and attitude there wouldn’t be any peace for the natives and until now the conquistadors’ actions mark them as villains.
As much as the conquistadors are hated and described as villains, for in a way they are, they still brought some goods to the natives which could consider them as heroes and let’s not forget who they were working for because they technically became heroes to Spain. As much harm that they inflicted to the natives those strong enough that survived were part of a new era even if they liked it or not. The Spanish beside all the diseases, maltreatment, and destruction they brought also brought positive ideas such as their culture which got mix with the natives`, new laws with different government that would civilized the natives, new animals and crops, and a new language that would expand the natives` knowledge. In some way the conquistadors did look at the natives as a low class race but not so low as to not marry their women. Since the lower rank conquistadors` crew didn’t actually gain any riches for their services they married Native Americans women creating a new race called mestizos. Though there are only some small virtuous effects they created on the natives for good they impacted their life creating a strong, intelligent new race.
Now if we change the point of view from the Native Americans to the king and queen of Spain and to the people of Spain they would categorize the conquistadors` actions in the Americas as heroic. The conquistadors discover a totally unexplored by Europeans territory which would benefit them economically since prizes where going up in so many exotic spices, food and materials. Also, their inflow of gold and silver made their economy grow and gave them a head start in colonization of the Americas. The Christian church would also consider the conquistadors as heroes for spreading Christianity to the Americas. Of course, people only see the good effect of how the conquistadors affected the natives but to them that’s all that matters.
In a nutshell, Spanish conquistadores are both to be considered villains as well as heroes. Villains for the atrocities they did to the Native Americans but heroes on discovering the Americas, discovering a new race and creating a new race. As time continues to pass by everyone will have their own opinion about the conquistadors` actions in the Americas but in the end they are only an opinion and not a fact that could possibly categorize the Spanish conquistadores as either villains or heroes.