How Spanish People got Power
The Spanish conquerors explored North America and found purpose for government, how it should be organized and what rights and responsibilities should be put on citizens and rulers of the New World. Many scholars from Spain explored the origins of the start of government. They came up with many ideas. One being how God must have created the already existing structure of government. Another idea was natural law. These Spanish scholars believed that Native Americans already lived through freedom, equality, and independence. A community started and people created a new kind of power. This new power gave the Spanish power to manage justice and the right to create new laws. This forced the Native Americans to transfer power to the Spanish Rulers. They no longer had freedom like before. Ultimately, this was the goal of the Spanish people. They wanted to take control and prove that their monarch was the absolute power (Cooke).
What Happened to the Native Americans?
Even though the Native Americans lost their power, the Spanish authorities did not know how to treat them. There were two men who thought differently about this. One was Bartolome de Las Casas. He believed that Spain should not have the right to take power over the Indian lands. He thought they deserved "the power of reason" (Cooke). However, Juan Gines de Sepulveda disagreed with him. He believed that the Native Americans should only be considered as slaves. This new power of government completely wiped out the Native Americans and ultimately, the Native American political power was no longer (Cooke).
What The Spanish did With Their New Land
Since their power wiped out most Native Americans from their land, the Spanish conquerors had many options on what to do with the land. They decided to govern their new land with a concept called stratification. It means that they divided the society into social classes. One class was the Spaniards who were men mostly who ran mines, were lawyers, soldiers, and artisans. The other class was made up of the remanding Indians who labored and were servants to the Spanish (Carson).