Question

How did Spanish missionaries serve as conquerors for the Spanish empire?

Answer 1

Answer.

The Catholic Church was an essential part of the Spanish Empires and when the empire spread to new lands in South America extending from Mexico to as far as Chile and Argentina, the Spanish monarchy also commissioned overseas missionary activities to ensure that Christianity would spread into the New World.

The Catholic missions spread the doctrine of Christian faith and values as practiced in Europe among the indigenous people through formal schooling, by denouncing local rites and rituals such as animal sacrifices in public which were deemed as ‘heathen’ and ‘barbaric’. Catholic missions were installed throughout the Americas in the European pursuit of gold, silver, and other resources. The missionaries' goal to convert natives to Christianity was in a way instrumental to ease the transition into a colonial system and minimize the resistance against European domination.

Thus, the missionary activities such as the practice of constructing churches and cathedrals, like Santa Domingo and Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of the Assumption, on top of demolished native temples were a means to gradually eradicate the indigenous culture and create a new culture of servitude in the Spanish colonies. A second more powerful way of achieving the conquest of the new lands was by the implementation of Encomienda systems, wherein the indigenous people were forced to work as labour on the land granted to Europeans by the Spanish Crown and this further led to their systematic oppression.