Question 2. Didn't Spain send expeditions to the New World primarily to gain wealth through more trading, and to seek gold, riches, and to increase its political power?
Answer to Q. 2. No, this is simply anti-Catholic Spanish propoganda. Though gold was needed to finance expeditions (and to pay back those who invested in each expedition), Catholic Spain came primarily to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and increase His kingdom on earth.
The official policy of Catholic Spain made this noble goal clear in its royal charters, legislation, and ordinances. Columbus stated why his sovereigns sent him: "Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians and Princes, loving the holy Christian Faith and the spreading of it, decided to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the said regions of Hindustan (India) to see the said princes and the peoples and lands, and learn of their dispositions and the measures which could be taken for their conversion to our Holy Faith."
Queen Isabella of Spain declared in a letter to Pope Alexander VI that: "Columbus has set sail to bear the light of Christ west to heathen undiscovered lands." In regards to his second voyage, the good Catholic queen wrote, charging that, "since the natives have neither dogma nor doctrine," Columbus must "strive and endeavor to win over the inhabitants of the said islands and Mainland to be converted to our Holy Catholic Faith." In her last Testament, she wrote that the primary intention of sending expeditions and governing the New World was:
"To try to draw these peoples and convert them to our Holy Catholic Faith, and to send to said lands prelates, religious, clerics and others to instruct the inhabitants in the Catholic Faith, to teach and endow them with good morals."
In 1514, King Ferdinand of Spain sent a royal charter to Ponce de Leon for him to once again attempt to settle Florida. De Leon was commissioned to "treat the Indians as best you can," the King admonished, "seeking in every permissable way to convert them to our Holy Catholic Faith."
In 1526, King Charles I of Spain made clear the continuation of this same policy when he declared:
"The principal reason behind the discovery of these new lands is so that the natives there, who are without the light and knowledge of the Faith, may be drawn to the truths of our holy Catholic Faith, so they may believe and understand them, become Christians and be saved. This is the main reason you must keep in mind and hold onto in these expeditions."
This was the official policy and law of Catholic Spain in coming to the New World and in its continued expeditions. Those who write or say otherwise are slanderers. But, as they say, actions speak louder than words, so consider the following facts:
+ missionary priests were sent on nearly every Spanish expedition to today's U.S. This would not have been the case if Spain was primarily seeking to gain material wealth or political power;
+Between the time of the first established mission (1526- South Carolina)) and the last (1828-New Mexico), in the US alone, Spain established 200 missions (many of which grew into current U.S. towns and cities);
+ Since the very first expedition (Ponce de Leon in 1513) until the last established mission in the 1820s, Catholic Spain sent approximately 16,000(!) missionaries to this land (this does not include lay missionaries, a few who where martyred for the Faith).
+ By the time the Pilgrims landed in 1620, Spanish Catholic missionaries had converted and baptized more than 50,000 American Indians! (This is only in the US boundaries.)
Texts on U.S. history (as well as the media, such as the "History" Channel) must stop their distortions and misrepresentations concerning Catholic Spain and her glorious role in the founding and establishing of a Christian civilization upon this land we call America.
Return to the TODM Index
Marcadores