When Worlds CollideAssignment 5,PowerPoint 2By Emily Ortega

Isabella and Ferdinand The Catholic Kings• During Isabella and Ferdinand’s time of ruling the wars on

religion came to a climax with the Catholics dominating.• Around 1502 the Catholics forced people to covert or leave

their country. Doubt of unauthentic conversion lead to torture.• Christians with Muslim or Jewish ancestry were treated as

inferior. This created the birth of a caste system that ranked people by their ancestry. • Extremely expensive to fund their religious crusade and Spain

soon became dependent on the New World for money.• Europeans were entering the new world with the intent to

convert or get rich. Ethnocide was practiced in the new world and a caste systems was put into place as racial mixing came to awareness.

King Charles The 5th of Spain• 1517 the grandson of Isabella and Ferdinand, Charles The 5th

became King• Spain was now the world’s superpower and was in charge of

world politics and policies.• Charles soon went into debt with war costs and created the

first bond like document. This also spurred a rise in capitalism for Europe.

• Bartolome de las Casas was from Spain and got rich in the Caribbean. In 1512 he became a priest and traveled all around the new world to find that the people were being treated horribly in the name of God.

• de las Casas traveled back to Spain to inform the King and his court of these intolerable accounts.

• In response Charles V made “The New Laws” which ordered Europeans in the new world to treat Americans as subjects of Spain

King Philip the 2nd of Spain• Although “The New Laws” from Charles V was put into place

these laws were largely ignored.• In 1551 de las Casas returned to Spain to attend a five day

debate on the issue. De las Casas arguing that the conversion of Americans should be principle and to not do so through terror. There was no definitive winner.

• Charles V left the issue up to his son, Philip II who assumed that throne in 1556.

• Philip II’s main concern was converting people of the new world. However, the Holy Wars in Europe were costly and he depended on money from America therefore not doing much to enforce cruel treatment except offer Americans employment of jobs of the most dangerous nature.

• A good example is of Bolivians mining silver in the Andes. This left 350,000 tons of silver mined but also eight million men dead due to harsh and dangerous conditions.

The Decline of The Spanish Empire and Other Failures• In 1584 Philip II planned a naval campaign to win war on religions

by bringing down the Protestants in England and stopping their support for the Protestants in the Netherlands.

• Although smaller in number, the English managed to out maneuver Spain and set many ships on fire. England ultimately won the battle.

• The many deaths lead the Spanish into despair and the enormous amount of money accumulated from America was lost in the battle.

• This marked the end of Spain’s role as world superpower and a decline in their economy form many years.

• Garcilaso de la Vega, left his homeland in 1560 and while studying the Spanish lifestyle. He argued that the amount of riches taken from America had done Spain more harm than good. Useful things like food and clothes had actually become more scarce and only businessmen and bankers grew wealthy.

• To this day, the debate de las Casas held in Spain 400 years ago is still being wrestled with. Indigenous people of America are just now starting to tell their story.