New World Meets the Old World-Spanish Settlement in Texas - Essay Example

The various changes forced the two cultures to adapt due to changes brought by conflicting cultures but the Native American culture was the most affected. This, the paper focuses on the impacts that arose from the conquest of Texas by the Spaniards and the degree to which the locals suffered from cultural deterioration and imposing of new culture (Bolton, 2011). The Mayans, Aztecs, and the Toltecs occupied the western hemisphere, which formed major societies in Texas before invasion of the Spaniards.

The Native Americans were initially hunters and fruit gatherers. With the invasion of the Spaniards, it brought three different worlds of Africa, Europe, and America into contact. In 1492, there were tribal extermination and individuals due to clashes in culture between the Native Americans and the Spaniards. This caused many deaths due to deadly diseases, which were brought in by the European newcomers. If disease and deaths moved haphazardly, from one Spaniard to another, Christianity was not an exception as it went through the same direction.

In America, early encounters involved early missionaries, which included both the Protestants and Catholics who worked towards converting the natives to the new Christian faith. Reverend John Elliot who worked as the bible translator in 1663 translated the bible into Massachusetts’s language. . One native by the name Pueblo made efforts to fight back by forming revolts in 1680. The Indian rebels made efforts to expel the Spanish colonizers. During the revolt, Pueblo attacked many missionaries, punished the Christians converts, and burned numerous churches.

While these effects affected the Spaniards, education and trade were moving in two directions. Europeans were highly educated in the society. In America, the Spaniard elites were in a position to read and write. Thus, they started to spread their culture this through schools. In this regard, the Harvard College was built up in the 17th century. This was followed by the Dartmouth College, which was built in the 18th century. This college was meant to serve just a few individuals in society. The Indians who taught the natives on geography, climate, and food facilitated education.

This enabled the natives to plan on planting and harvesting crops and other economic activities for their sustenance. Trading became an economic activity but it was carried in two different ways. At first, the Europeans were using American land to cultivate it and ship the harvest back home while making huge profits. Though precious metals were the most profitable, there was no sign of any in Texas. The Europeans found fur, which was in plenty as the raw materials they could ship home. In South East, they found the soft hides from the whitetail deer which could be scraped, packed and later shipped back to Europe to make gloves and aprons.

According to Kessell (2003), it was common for the natives to hunt animals, process their pelts and later ship to Europe. The barter trade had numerous anomalies as the Native Americans were unfamiliar to the products that came from Europe but European countries